Dead C-4 to C-8 Migration

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.

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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. :slight_smile:

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. :slight_smile:

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

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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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