Migration from C4 to C7 - Success & Tips

I recently migrated from C4 to C7 and wanted to share my experience and tips. It should work on any Hubitat device assuming the firmware supports the Swap Apps Device function in Settings. This would not be possible without this feature and it would take hours/days/weeks for me to do this swap without it. I'm glad I waited for it to exist rather than jumping on the C7 bandwagon early on. Truthfully, my C4 is really a C5 running a C4 external radio stick. The C4 overheated and rebooted too often, and moving the stick saved me the trouble of a complete migration.

To start this off, I used a USB battery pack (10,000mAh) with 2 USB plugs, used this router (configured as a wireless bridge) and C7 plugged into the USB battery pack. This way, I could move around my house and take the C7 with me.

Take Backups & Make Notes

  1. Get both devices on the same software and make backups of each. On C7, just set it up as a new device with nothing on it to get the software updated as well as Z-wave firmware updated. No need to register device yet.
  2. Copy Z-wave/Zigbee details pages from C4 and save these (I kept them in Apple Notes).
  3. Research your devices and make sure you know how to exclude/include them (I also put this info in Apple Notes for the next time I do this).
  4. If you're planning on re-using the same IP (I was), you can change the IP on the C4 to be another IP. In my case, I adjusted the DHCP reservation so my old device got a new IP if/when I needed to bring it back up for some reason.
  5. Shut down your C4.

Restore backup to new Device

  1. Restore your backup from C4 to C7.

  2. Make sure the C7 has the correct IP from the old device.

Create virtual Z-wave devices on new Device & Swap them (Original -> Virtual)

  1. On C7, create a Virtual Device for each Z-wave device you will be moving and make the device type as close as possible to the device you're copying. I named them Virtual - original device name. These devices will be the place holders for all of your automations tied to your original devices.
    Note: I didn't do this off the bat. My plan was to use another Hubitat or minimote to "exclude" each device to get it ready to include on the C7, but at the end of the day, I needed to use the C7 to exclude some finicky devices because they would not exclude with other methods. Because of this, some of my original devices disappeared or got assigned to new Z-wave devices. The other thing that happened was that one time I added a new device that used the same device ID as a different, older device. That got things screwy, so I cut my losses and restored the backup again to the C7.

  2. Once all Virtual devices have been created on your C7, you can now do app-swapping.
    Go to Settings -> Swap Apps Device and do this for each of your devices you will be moving over to the C7. Select Original device name (for Old) and Virtual - Original device name (for new). Click finish. Once you've done one of these, go back and validate with Virtual - Original device name has all your old integrations listed at the bottom of the device details page. If not, see if they are still tied to the original device. And if not, I don't know where they would be.

Exclude & Add Z-wave devices to new Device

  1. Go to each Z-wave device starting with mains-powered devices (plug in repeaters, switches) and exclude them, then re-add them - I did this one by one vs. excluding them all at once. I don't think it matters. When adding them back, name them New - original device name. Work your way to battery-powered devices as well. If you have problems with the instructions you found, you may have to check the community for help. When you figure out what works, document it. When in doubt drag your now wireless Hub/Router with you to be closer to the device.
    Note: When asked to name the new device, make sure it has not assumed a name of an old device of yours. If so, you'll need to write down that name so you can ensure you swap it later as it will be different from "New - Original device name" scheme.

Do final device swap (Virtual -> New)

  1. Once all Z-wave devices have been added to your C7, you can now do app-swapping. You can take another backup now if you want. You can never have too many backups.
    Go to Settings -> Swap Apps Device and do this for each of your devices you've added. Here is the order I did this in:

    1. Swap Apps Device for a single device.

    2. Confirm that single device swap was successful by reviewing device details for New - Original device name and looking for the integrations at the bottom. If not, see if they are still tied to the Virtual device. And if not there, check the original. If they aren't in either, you may have messed something up.

    3. Once confirmed, remove Virtual - Original Device Name and Original Device Name. You can take a backup beforehand if you wish.

  2. Check Z-wave devices and integrations to ensure they all work. Move your device to it's final home. Check your Z-wave mesh, topology, and ensure all your devices still work. Do a mesh repair if needed.

Tackle Zigbee Devices
This doesn't require any tricks with copying devices around to save the integrations as Zigbee devices will fall right back into the proper devices. The hardest part of this is figuring out how to reset the devices. Again, document this process for each device type so it's easier next time.

Don’t forget your cloud URL’s have changed!
When you restore to a new hub, your Hubitat cloud GUID changes, thus most cloud integrations need to be set back up. If your integrations only use the local IP and not the cloud one, these will not change assuming you keep the same IP. Here are the integrations I use that I had to reconfigure:

  1. Amazon Echo Skill - had to reconnect it within Alexa app.
  2. Geofency - since these use cloud URL’s I had to go adjust the GUID in all my Geofency integrations.

You're done. Good luck :slight_smile: Feel free to submit any feedback/fixes to the above, or if someone already has a topic that covers this, happy to merge/combine.

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Nice write up! Nicely laid out steps. Thanks for documenting, it will most definitely save someone time (if not Grey hair) in the future.

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