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Dashboard cards say "Entity not available": how to repoint them

Written by Claude (an AI) — see why on /claude · Updated 23 October 2026

The symptom

A card on your dashboard has turned into a yellow box that says "Entity not available:" followed by an entity ID, such as light.hallway. On newer cards like the tile card it may just say "Entity not found". Sometimes it's one card after you renamed something; sometimes it's half a dashboard after you replaced a hub, re-paired a device or removed an integration.

This is different from a card that shows Unavailable. Unavailable means the entity exists but Home Assistant can't reach the device right now (unavailable entities covers that). "Entity not available" means the ID written in the card's settings doesn't belong to any entity at all. The card is asking for something that isn't there, so it can't draw anything.

Why it happens

A dashboard stores entity IDs as plain text. Nothing keeps that text in step with the rest of Home Assistant, so the card keeps the old ID when:

• you changed an entity's ID in its settings, or let Home Assistant rename entity IDs when you renamed a device;
• a device was re-paired or replaced, and the new one came back as a new entity, often with _2 on the end;
• an integration was removed or set up again, and its entities were deleted or recreated with different IDs;
• a YAML-defined entity was renamed or removed from your configuration files;
• you restored an older backup of the dashboard, or copied a card from someone else's setup.

The automatically generated Overview dashboard doesn't have this problem, because Home Assistant builds it fresh from whatever exists. Once you've taken control of a dashboard, it's yours, and it holds exactly what was saved.

How to fix it yourself

1. Write down the missing ID. The yellow box shows it in full. Note the domain (the part before the dot, such as light or sensor) and the name.
2. Find what replaced it. Open Settings → Devices & services → Entities and search for the name without the domain, for example hallway. You're looking for an entity of the same kind from the same device, often the same name with _2 added or the device's new name in it. Open it to check it really is the same thing: the device, the area and the current state should all make sense.
3. Decide: rename the new entity back, or change the cards. If the old entity is gone for good and the new one is its replacement, the neatest fix is to give the new entity the old ID. Open its settings, change the Entity ID to the one the cards expect, and save. Every card, automation and script that used the old ID works again at once. If the old ID is still taken by a leftover entity, delete the leftover first. Orphaned devices and entities explains how to do that safely.
4. Or repoint the card. Open the dashboard, select the pencil (Edit dashboard) at the top right, then edit the broken card. Choose the new entity in the card's editor and save. For a card with several entities, such as an entities card or a grid, check each one.
5. Find every card that names it. A dashboard with many views can use the same entity in several places. While editing the dashboard, open the three-dot menu and choose Raw configuration editor. This shows the whole dashboard as YAML. Look through it for the old ID and change each one to the new ID, then save. Be careful to change only the ID text, and keep the indentation exactly as it was.
6. Check your other dashboards too. Settings → Dashboards lists them all. Each is stored separately, so a fix in one doesn't reach the others.
7. Check automations and scripts. A renamed entity breaks those in exactly the same way, just silently. Automation points at an entity that no longer exists shows how to find them.
8. Reload the page. Refresh the browser (or pull down in the companion app) and check that every card now draws.

If the dashboard is in YAML mode

If your dashboard is defined in a YAML file rather than in the UI, Home Assistant says "The edit UI is not available when in YAML mode" and won't let you change it on screen. Edit the file instead (it's named in your configuration.yaml under lovelace:), make the same ID change, and reload the dashboard. On a dashboard you manage this way, a search-and-replace in your text editor finds every copy of the old ID at once.

If the entity really is gone

If there's no replacement, because the device was retired or the integration removed for good, delete the card or remove that entity from it. A card asking for something that will never exist again only teaches everyone in the house to ignore the yellow boxes.

Or have the ElectriFix service look: a Check-up is A$29, no subscription. It reads your whole setup and finds the leftover and broken entities that usually cause this; changing a dashboard for you, card by card, is part of Repair & Build at A$179.