Just experienced two issue which I think might be helpful to someone, at some point, if I can help them avoid these.
I've read many posts here about the hub becoming unresponsive or throwing an Error 500.
There are two things that I've found definitely cause both of these issue. One is simple, the other can be tricky to remedy.
- When I create virtual switches, I start at 001 and the just add A-Z. When I'm at the end, I move to 002 and start over at A. Occasionally I forget where I'm at, get lazy and don't check first and that's where I hit the error 500, becuase a device ID exists already. This one is simple. Click the back arrow and change the devices ID to the next higher letter, then click save. Fixes it every time.
2.. Sometimes I'm just messing around to see what different virtual devices can be used for in HE apps and drivers, how they react differently, or maybe I'm just looking for creative ways to use them in rules. I have found that if you have a virtual driver publishing via an app such as the Homebridge (Hubitat) app, and you suddenly change it's device type, it can cause everything to slow down immensely. I did this tonight when I was messing with a virtual presence sensor in Homebridge, but then decided to try something else, and without first removing the virtual presence device from the Homebridge (Hubitat) app, I changed the type to virtual switch. Well, that was a mistake! Everything immediately became unresponsive.
To fix it, I first navigated right to the IP of the hub in a new tab. Fortunately this was allowing me to see the main page, and I could select settings and reboot the hub. After reboot, I tried to go to the devices page, but that would cause the page to freeze again. I then navigated to the hub's root page once more and clicked on Apps. After a long delay, I was able to see the list of apps. I click on Homebridge (Hubitat), and after another long delay, I was able to deselect the problem virtual device and click save. Then I was able to remove the virtual device and recreate it with the intended type. Everything was now running smoothly again. So be sure you don't go changing device types on virtual switches without first de-selecting them from certain apps they are in use by. I have not run into this often, but this is not the first time I've made this mistake with the Homebridge (Hubitat) app and a virtual device.
