How to move from one smart home hub platform to another

On our most recent IoT Podcast, Brian called into the podcast hotline with a rather timely question. Like me, Brian is switching from a Wink hub to the Samsung SmartThings hub. I’m doing the same thing and I’ve previously outlined steps you should take before removing a hub from your smarthome. I’ll share them again, along with a few additional ideas.

First things first: If possible, unlink each device from your current hub. This is especially important with Z-Wave devices because it makes things easier when connecting them to a new hub. I’d also remove any linked accounts that are tied to the current hub. In other words, making a clean transition away from a hub will make it a cleaner device setup for the new hub.

Once everything is removed from the current hub, you can start adding your devices to the new one. Note that since the smart home industry is fairly siloed, there aren’t methods to backup and restore your device settings, automations, and other linkages during this process.

However, to help with the setup process, consider creating a spreadsheet listing all of your current devices, what third-party services are linked and perhaps even rooms and scenes if you have them. An alternative method would be to take screenshots in any smart home apps you use for your system.

Again, there’s no standard-based migration path here so plan to spend some time during the move from one hub ecosystem to another. Patience is the key!

To hear Brian’s question in full, as well as our discussion on the topic, tune in to the IoT Podcast below: