Remove Ghost Nodes

Anyone have success removing ghosts nodes from dead switches ?

Can you please provide some more information? What type of switches? Zigbee, Z-Wave, Other? How did they become ghosts? What issue are they causing?

Sure.. They are Zwave Switches (GE) Dimmers. 1 switch has completely stopped working about 3 months ago Wont power on. Second Zwave Dimmer (GE) completely stop working a few days ago and wont power on. Now i have these two switches with no status in HE..

Is there a way to remove the "ghost nodes"

For z wave there is no tool for this yet, you need to do it with external tools like zensys, for zigbee just delete them in the device list.

I had to delete 2 z wave ghost nodes today again with zensys.

Your devices can be removed from the device list but need the external tool to remove them from the stick DB

This doesn't work for the C-5 hub. Per HE team, the ghost nodes are removed after some time.

If the switches are truly dead, I think the only option is to force remove them. Then they will be removed from the stick after some amount of time being unresponsive. Delete them...the sooner the better IMO.

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How much time ?

I don't know.

So, those of us who are using the new C5 hub have no recourse?
No way to get rid of them?

At least not by the user, they should go away themself in some point not specified. But if more info needed, you can contact support@hubitat.com.

All of our hubs will remove any "ghost" nodes overnight automatically. You must remove the device from the UI, you will have to force remove it since it does not exist anymore and you cannot exclude it. The UI will automatically prompt you to force remove after a timeout period. If the device is still listed under Devices in the UI, the hub will not attempt to remove it. You do not need to use any external tools for C-4 or C-5 hubs. Occasionally the zwave radio likes to hold on to a ghost node, even when the hub tells the radio to remove it. However we've found that a reboot always clears this up. If you suspect you have ghost nodes, I would recommend you do a reboot and the following night it will be gone.

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Oh that's very interesting news. Thanks :slight_smile:

So i have rebooted and it still shows under devices. I will verify this tonight.

You missed a step.. has to be gone from the UI first, THEN tonight it will go away (from the ZWave 'stick')

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Go into the specific device details page, then scroll to the bottom and Click Remove Device. It will ask you to confirm you want to start the removal process - Click Remove. After about 30 seconds you will be given the option to Force Remove the device - Say YES. The device will be removed from the Hubitat database and will be removed from the Z-Wave Radio overnight (this will be transparent to the user.)

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Yes. Next evening after force removing and rebooting.