All my devices and events are gone!

[nyc2pit]

Thanks zwolf.

So I'm gonna install a clean copy of HS4, reinstall the Z-wave plugin, reinstall the Z-wave stick, and then just run rescan again, and that should get my devices back up and running at least, and I can restart building from there ..... correct?

After a backup, that is .... and another .... and another .....

[jmaddox]

the default location for backups is ../homeseer hs4/html/backups

[jhowe]

By happenstance I just ran into almost the same problem on my system. I think my computer is having a problem and required a restart. When I started Homeseer, all my plugins were disabled and some of the configuration was missing (no com ports for a couple of the plugins). I re-enabled things and ended up restarting the computer and Homeseer again. Things sort of worked, but some of my z-wave devices weren't responding correctly. This morning I was going to spend some time trying to fix things. I had to restart the computer and Homeseer again. Now I'm getting a 'devices.json' error and the system is only showing 37 devices when I have many more. None of the z-wave devices are showing and all of my events are gone. I'll admit I've been bad about making regular backups, my most recent was probably a month or so ago when I did a backup before moving from HS3 to HS4.

The specific error I'm seeing is this:

1/7/2021 10:11:25 AM HomeSeer~!~Error~!~Error while reading devices.json : Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
1/7/2021 10:11:25 AM HomeSeer~!~Warning~!~Unable to load devices config file, trying backup
1/7/2021 10:11:25 AM HomeSeer~!~Error~!~Error while reading devices.json : Object reference not set to an instance of an object.
1/7/2021 10:11:25 AM HomeSeer~!~Warning~!~Unable to load event groups config file, trying backup
1/7/2021 10:11:25 AM HomeSeer~!~Info~!~Loaded 0 Events.

When I looked at the devices.json file it looked like it should be fine. The events.json file was all binary 0's. I looked at the events.json.bkp and it was readable, so I made a copy of that and also copied it into events.json and restarted Homeseer. My events seem to be back, but not my devices.

Any suggestions on the simplest approach to getting my system back up again? Note that I have nothing in the html/backups folder.

I must say that as a long time user of Homeseer, I've been very disappointed in HS4, the interface is actually harder to use in many cases and it doesn't seem like there was any attempt to really improve the underlying product.

Thanks

[nyc2pit]

JHowe -

Good luck. I think you're just as screwed as I was.

I spent the last week restoring my system. I **DID** have most of the devices still available via the z-wave, so I was able to "rediscover" the devices and at least I didn't have to go back into the walls, exclude/include everything, etc. But that said I'd estimate about 10 of my devices required exclusion and re-inclusion.

Then spent the last week setting up very painful scene controllers, sensors, and automation events that I had already spent a lot of time figuring out.

I turned on backups as soon as I had the system up and running. Not gonna have this happen again. I have a twice daily backup now.

Also - I think someone recommended actually backing up these files OUTSIDE of the Homeseer backup? Can anyone expand on the best way to have a fool-proof backup such that when this happens again I don't want to jump off the nearest bridge?

[George]

I use Acronis True Image backup. It can do Full backups followed by x amount of incremental or differential backups, based of the current Full to keep the backup time down. I back it all up to my Synology NAS and rotate through three sets of Full/Differential sets. This way I can go back over a month. I also have a 'snapshot' which is a manual system recovery backup that does a clone to a connected USB3 drive. In a pinch, I can just boot off of the emergency snapshot drive, bring up Acronis and then use it to access the NAS to recover the C drive or specific directories.

I like Acronis because it preserves all the attributes and if you just want a specific file, it's backup file structure is just like directories. You can just open any backup with File Explorer and drag and drop a file from the backup to your main drive. It also allows you to create a generic recovery CD/DVD that boots into either Linux or Windows/PE with just the Acronis components and all the drivers and network attributes you need to boot and go.

[ScottRennie]

Also check out Horizon RollbackPro - I take a snapshot before any change as well as scheduled snaps. Worth every penny!

[mulu]

You shouldn't need to restore the Z-Wave controller data. That restores the contents of the Z-Wave controller device, which isn't affected by the corruption of HS4's ridiculous excuse for a database.

You should probably start by running 'Scan Devices' from the Actions menu on the Z-Wave Controller page. You may first need to add back the controller if it's been lost.

https://help.homeseer.com/help/Z-Wav...#.scan_devices

I had the same issue that you experienced. All events and all z-wave devices gone. Only virtual devices created by plugins were still there. Using the .json_bak (or whatever they are called) didn't help. I ended up doing a "Scan Devices" or a similar called function (there are two). It did bring back my z-wave devices but all room and floor information was lost. I have a lot of the same devices like light switches so it's impossible to find out which one is which without a long trial and error. Customer service didn't respond for some 10 days, maybe more and when they did the help was useless. I ended up going back to a really old backup that is missing a lot of devices and events I added. So half of my stuff is not working anymore. Very frustrating. I am waiting until they come out with the new z-wave module (and then wait a bit longer) because I lost all trust in HS. Once that new plugin is out I will start from scratch. Fortunately, I have pretty much everything documented but it will still be a lot of work. Probably less work then trying to fix things which is why I start anew.