Can anyone point to best practices for migrating from a dead C-4 hub to a C-8 hub.
Looks like the migration tool only goes back to C-5. I do have backups. Thanks!!
The backups will restore to a C-8 but the radios (ZWave and Zigbee) won't know about any of your devices. All of those will need to be reset and reconnected to the C-8.
I recently got two C-8's to replace the C-4s I was using... and had to go through this process myself.
Zigbee is easiest.. one at a time, closest to the hub outwards, powered before battery, you reset them and then put them in pairing. Then put the C-8 into Zigbee pairing.. you should see a message like: "Found existing device.." and the device will drop right back into where it was.
ZWave is more difficult, but not daunting.. there's a fistful of steps to prepare the C-8 ahead to prevent DNI overlap.
Overall, the hardest step is finding the correct procedure to put the individual devices into pairing mode.. one click? three clicks? Click and hold? etc.
If you happen to have the Z-Wave.me stick (small, short black one), you still have hope of migrating Z-Wave. But if you are like most C-4 users in North America, you probably had the longer gray and white Nortek HUSBZB-1 stick, which isn't supported for Z-Wave backup/migration. And only internal radios are supported for Zigbee. This is normally why you'll see C-5 and later listed everywhere, though there are a couple exceptions. Unfortunately, probably not one here.
So, you have a couple options, but I think the easiest would be making a backup and restoring it to your new hub. Then Zigbee is relatively easy: reset/re-pair all your Zigbee devices, and the hub will recognize them as the same and slide everything back into place. Z-Wave is trickier. I think the easiest thing to do might be just re-pair everything, then use Settings > Swap Apps Device to swap the old and new devices. (You'll see some people recommending a "manual" DNI swap trick, which still works-- a bit differently--but shouldn't be necessary since this tool now exists. However, you will likely need to edit the DNIs on your existing Z-Wave devices first to prevent collisions with new ones the hub might try to add. Putting an "x" or any invalid Z-Wave node ID character at the beginning or end is easy enough.) Then, remove the "old" device.
Basically, what was suggested above while I was typing.
Beyond that, it would also be a good idea to follow the advice given for any hub migration: disable LAN and especially cloud integrations first: Alexa, Google Home, Ecobee, etc., then re-enable them one-by-one on your new hub. Some, like SharpTools, may require additional action. See here for more, though this is really intended for migrations where it's assumed you can get Z-Wave and Zigbee, so only the LAN/cloud notes really apply to you: How to Migrate to a New Hub | Hubitat Documentation
Thanks to @bertabcd1234 and @csteele for your guidance.
Did the restore and all devices and apps/rules loaded without issue.
Zigbee resets were relatively easy as you suggested.
Z-Wave reconnect was brutal...worst offenders were the GE/Jasco paddle switches....but after a about 4 days i've got 27 z-wave devices & 7 zigbee devices up and working great.
Thanks again for your help!
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