Changing default dashboard hides original default dashboard

[jamesmyatt]

Checklist

• [X] I have updated to the latest available Home Assistant version.
• [X] I have cleared the cache of my browser.
• [X] I have tried a different browser to see if it is related to my browser.

Describe the issue you are experiencing

When I change the default dashboard configuration, the original default dashboard ("overview" or whatever) is not accessible in the sidebar.

I first noticed this in the Android companion app, but have reproduced it on Chrome for Windows and Firefox for Windows.

Describe the behavior you expected

Default dashboard should remain in sidebar when not set as default.

Steps to reproduce the issue

1. Change "default dashboard"
2. Observe that "Overview" is missing from sidebar

What version of Home Assistant Core has the issue?

core-2021.12.7

What was the last working version of Home Assistant Core?

No response

In which browser are you experiencing the issue with?

Firefox 95.0.2 (64-bit)

Which operating system are you using to run this browser?

Windows 10 Pro

State of relevant entities

No response

Problem-relevant frontend configuration

No response

Javascript errors shown in your browser console/inspector

No response

Additional information

Originally raised on android repo: https://github.com/home-assistant/android/issues/2082

[stephenhouser]

+1

[github-actions[bot]]

There hasn't been any activity on this issue recently. Due to the high number of incoming GitHub notifications, we have to clean some of the old issues, as many of them have already been resolved with the latest updates. Please make sure to update to the latest Home Assistant version and check if that solves the issue. Let us know if that works for you by adding a comment 👍 This issue has now been marked as stale and will be closed if no further activity occurs. Thank you for your contributions.

[Salamandar]

Can confirm. This is an anti-feature.

There are 2 use cases here :

• Always hide "Overview" on every device (you should select another as the default on every device) -> This could be the case because you don't like the "Overview" name or icon.

• Never hide "Overview", even if you selected a default one, because you still want access to see it sometimes, even if you selected another one as the default on the device -> This can be the case on phones (if you built a phone-friendly UI).

[zachberger]

+1 to this. On my phone I always want a custom built dashboard to appear by default, but when I want to do something more advanced I want the autogenerated "Overview" dashboard.

[github-actions[bot]]

There hasn't been any activity on this issue recently. Due to the high number of incoming GitHub notifications, we have to clean some of the old issues, as many of them have already been resolved with the latest updates. Please make sure to update to the latest Home Assistant version and check if that solves the issue. Let us know if that works for you by adding a comment 👍 This issue has now been marked as stale and will be closed if no further activity occurs. Thank you for your contributions.

[Salamandar]

This is still relevant.

[stephenhouser]

+1

[hugalafutro]

I'm also running into this issue, although only on Android app. I originally reported it at https://community.home-assistant.io/t/overview-tab-disappears-when-default-dashboard-is-selected/506543/7 where I was told android app does not control the behaviour and to report it here which is how I found this issue.

Unlike the OP I retain access to Overview tab on PC even with custom default dashboard, however the behaviour is reversed on Android.

[pklijzing]

Same here on Android, iOS and iPadOS.

[Znegl]

The worlds easiest fix: Just add a new dashboard. Any new dashboard will function like the original default dashboard until changed — it's just not documented anywhere (at least not anywhere I could find).

[hugalafutro]

The worlds easiest fix: Just add a new dashboard. Any new dashboard will function like the original default dashboard until changed — it's just not documented anywhere (at least not anywhere I could find).

I'm sorry but I don't understand. The whole issue is about when you add a new dashboard the Overview disappears. How is adding another dashboard supposed to fix it?

[Znegl]

@hugalafutro Any new dashboard will automatically be filled with the same content as the original default dashboard and will update automatically.

[hugalafutro]

@Znegl Sorry for being thick before I got it now, this should really be better documented, You were right I just added blank dashboard, didn't put anything in it and it autofilled with everything the Overview tab normally has.

[Znegl]

@hugalafutro I felt the same way when I discovered the workaround 😅

[marcelodavanzo]

While the workaround helps it's not a long term fix for the bug.

With this workaround you end up with the original Overview tab + the empty dashboard (that replicates the contents of the Overview tab) on every device where the bug that hides the Overview tab is present.

[hugalafutro]

While the workaround helps it's not a long term fix for the bug.

With this workaround you end up with the original Overview tab + the empty dashboard (that replicates the contents of the Overview tab) on every device where the bug that hides the Overview tab is present.

You can hide the default dashboard by clicking your user picture then selecting "Change the order and hide items from the sidebar" You can also press and hold the header of the sidebar to activate edit mode.

Then even though the Settings / Dashboard you will see 2 Overviews, on the sidebar you only will see the one you want.

[marcelodavanzo]

You can hide the default dashboard by clicking your user picture then selecting "Change the order and hide items from the sidebar" You can also press and hold the header of the sidebar to activate edit mode.

Sure, that works for one device but needs to be done for every other device you use and will reset if the frontend cache is ever reset as well. HA is now supported on lots of devices like cars, phones, via both web and companion apps, so safe to assume most users are using it across at least 2 devices, and perhaps more. I understand the suggestion is just a short term fix - and it does work - but it's still a lot of steps just to get around a bug.

[bmcclure]

I think the underlying issue with how this works, which the workaround does not solve, is that there is no way to either always hide Overview or always show Overview, like you can do with other dashboards.

Yes, you can create a separate dashboard to replace Overview, but every device will then start off with duplicate Overview dashboards until they choose something else as a default.

I can't think of a great reason for Overview to have special handling like it does now--why would someone want it to become inaccessible just because they want the default dashboard to be a different one? Those are two separate concerns that should be separate options.

[ironbiff]

+1

just trying to push this. I do not understand why this bug (or maybe misunderstood feature) is over 1 year old

[Harmanii]

+1

I did find a cumbersome workaround: On any dashboard > Menu > Edit Dashboard > Menu > Manage Dashboards > Open the Overview dashboard by clicking the pop-out button.

[jasongabler]

+1 Still happening.

[fire-burner]

First of all, I would like to thank every developer for this great piece of software!

Until now, I was not aware, that the Overview Dashboard is any different than any other Dashboard. Probably because right at the beginning when I started with HA earlier this year, I had removed the default content and modified it to my standard Dashboard for the computer. Then recently I had created a separate one for my phone and made it default on the phone. Just I today I realized, the default Overview was missing and then I tried to figure out what was going on until I found this issue.

@hugalafutro Any new dashboard will automatically be filled with the same content as the original default dashboard and will update automatically. This workaround doesn't help in my case at all, because I have a modified Overview. So I probably will clone my overview and make it the default on the PC instead.

To solve this, I see two options, either document this feature the way that beginners will not run into the same mistake as I or one should be able to decide themselves if they want to hide Overview or not. The latter would be my preferred solution.

[pjdubya]

While I'm sure folks are trying to be helpful in suggesting other workarounds, I don't think they're appropriate at this point given that there's an actual bug here that needs attention, not more workarounds. Has anyone looked at the code yet to try to fix it? I can't imagine it's a complex problem to address correctly.

[bmcclure]

It's not totally clear to me that this is truly a bug. I want it changed too, but are you saying there's something indicating that this feature is supposed to work differently but is broken?

I'm more inclined to think it's just how the feature was developed, but that it's not very useful as-is and should be rethought to be more consistent and useful.

I'm grateful for people providing the workarounds, but I do agree that this should ultimately be addressed in the core code, whether it's truly a bug or not.

It would be a fundamental change in how the dashboards work, causing everyone who already has come to expect the current functionality to have to "fix" their dashboards if they don't want the overview to appear. Not a big deal IMO, but I still think it's worth considering that this "bug" might be used as a feature by some people currently. Again, I'm still for changing the behavior, I can't see any good reason for Overview to have special handling, it should be treated like any other dashboard, but I just think it extends a little beyond a bug fix.

[NuttCorp]

+1

[carefulcomputer]

+1

[carefulcomputer]

Current behavior basically takes away the overview dashboard as soon as you start using a new dashboard. I do not think that is very intuitive or user friendly. Several users use multiple dashboards. I created a new dashboard for my mobile (doesn't have all fancy charts and just quick control buttons) but I also want to be able to switch to full version when needed. However, the 'overview' dashboard disappeared as soon as I switch to my mobile dashboard.

For folks who end up searching for this issue and end up on this thread , here is what I did -

1. Create a new empty dashboard (to use instead of your 'overview' dashboard).
2. Go to current overview dashboard, copy raw config (use top right 3 dots)
3. Paste the raw config into new empty dashboard's raw config (using same top right 3 dots)
4. Modify 'Title' and 'path' to your new dashboard's name (e.g. 'Desktop')
5. Save
6. Go to settings->dashboard on each of your device and pick the appropriate dashboard.

Here are downsides of this approach Either you will have to select a dashboard on every new device you use or you need to make sure your 'overview' dashboard and your 'primary' dashboard are always in sync.

[github-actions[bot]]

There hasn't been any activity on this issue recently. Due to the high number of incoming GitHub notifications, we have to clean some of the old issues, as many of them have already been resolved with the latest updates. Please make sure to update to the latest Home Assistant version and check if that solves the issue. Let us know if that works for you by adding a comment 👍 This issue has now been marked as stale and will be closed if no further activity occurs. Thank you for your contributions.

[jamesmyatt]

This is definitely a bug since it's so unexpected and causes different behaviour on different devices. Even though it's not a showstopper, it really needs to be fixed. If it's a feature, then there needs to be a way of turning it off.

I doubt that anyone is relying on this "feature", since it only affects devices where the default dashboard has been changed. Working around it is a major pain, with broken urls etc and different behaviour on different devices. So I suspect that the vast majority of people have either accepted that they can't change the default dashboard (as I have) and are just shoving more cards on to the Overview page, or are using wall tablets, which are set to a single dashboard anyway.

[poohbah]

+1

My own path to find this bug - I built a simplified dashboard for my wife to use as the default on her android phone. This seems like a common thing to do. Once that new dashboard was set to the default on her phone the main "overview" (YAML) dashboard is gone and cannot be selected at all. I confirmed this on my own phone. Very weird behavior. Why would the main dashboard be unavailable just because I selected another dashboard as the default?