I've had a Sonoff Mini switch installed on my C8 hub for a couple years, but lately it does not respond to commands though it still works manually. I have a replacement, but I'm not sure what steps to take to swap it in as a replacement for the bad one or if there's any way to get it going again. Any recommendations?
I'm not clear what you are asking. It seems the obvious answer is to turn off the power, and remove each wire one by one from the old one, over to the same spot on the new one.
Did I miss what you are asking?
I really can't imagine that just physically replacing the unit would be enough. The hub would still be looking for that old device to control.
I'm sure that I'd have to at least ADD the new device to the hub. The issue is that if I delete the old device first, then add the new one, I'd have to go into all the rules and apps that the old one belonged to and redefine them.
Yes, you would have to pair the new one first, but you can leave the old one paired as well. Then you can do a Swap Device found in settings. It will swap the new one into all your automations automatically. Then just remove the old device.
Since it may not be feasible to have both powered at once, you could just create a corresponding virtual device and use that for both swaps (then delete the virtual device when all done).
That's what I usually end up doing, since I'm typically too lazy to rig a bench setup for the second device.
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That's what I suspected would be the case. Wasn't sure if the swap would work once I pulled the old one out of circuit. Thanks for the idea about the virtual device.
I don't see any reason why swapping a powered down device would be any different, honesty. as I doubt the hub is trying to reinitialize that actual device, or even talk to it at all during the swap. This is more of a database thing.
I have done swaps when battery sensors have died on me. I get a new one and swap out the dead device, so I don't see why a switch would be any different.
That's probably true -- it's never occured to me to try. I admit I'm gunshy about ending up with a ghost device (or some other manner of undesirable device remnant) when doing swaps, so I take a cautious belt-&-suspenders approach.
Create new virtual device and swap new it in for old device. Remove (and confirm completely gone) old device, then factory reset it. Add new device. Swap new device in for virtual device, confirm swap successful for each "in use by" thing, then finally remove virtual device.
Perhaps that's all overkill, but it's never burned me.
Yeah, go with what works, it doesn't really matter how you get there 
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Go to settings and click on swap device. I was in settings last night and discovered it.
If the device you are removing is Z-wave I would go with the virtual device method and remove the switch first. Z-wave devices are can be a pain to remove if they are not present to be excluded. I think, however, all the sonoff stuff is zigbee, at least all the stuff I have is. If that is the case it doesn't really matter.
When you add the new device there will be an option to replace a device. You can use that and it will replace the old device with the new one you add, swapping it in all your rules just as the swap device option does in settings.
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