Cannot change status. Disabled by Device.

[Trebor87]

Hello

I've been using Tado Smart AC controllers V3 for years

Recently changed to Tado CE control in HA version 4. Which works fine with two controllers, but one , that I added back after having some E04 errors is playing up. All three controllers have the same firmware

I've added the third controller back, it works fine in the Tado Android app, and also tried the 'old' Tado device on HA , again fine.

But in the CE version, it shows binary_sensor.salon_bay_window_connection 'Cannot change status. Disabled by Device.' in the Diagnostic, l the other two are showing Connection Connected and are running perfectly

So I'm stuck here as this controls all the HVAC modes and completely lost to why this device isn't connecting properly, while the other two are.

Any ideas would be more than welcome

Thanks

Installation method Home Assistant Container
Core 2026.5.4
Frontend 20260429.4

[hiall-fyi]

Hi @Trebor87, your hardware is fine and so is your config. What you're seeing is a Home Assistant UI quirk rather than anything tado_ce is doing.

"Cannot change status. Disabled by Device" is HA's way of saying "this entity is disabled because its parent device is disabled, so you can't toggle the entity directly, you have to enable the device". Devices in HA only get disabled when someone (you, or rarely the integration) explicitly disables them in Settings → Devices & Services. Most likely path here: while you were chasing the E04 errors and removing/re-adding this controller, the device entry got toggled off in HA at some point, and re-adding the controller in the Tado app didn't re-enable the HA-side device entry.

To fix it:

1. Go to Settings → Devices & Services → Tado CE → devices
2. Find the device for the Salon Bay Window controller (the one whose entities all show as disabled)
3. Open the device page and there should be an "Enable" toggle at the top right, or a menu where you can enable it
4. Once the device is enabled, the connection sensor (and the rest of its entities) will come back automatically without you needing to touch them individually

If for some reason you don't see the device at all in that list, let me know and I'll look into the device-registry side. But based on what you described (other two controllers working, hardware fine in the Tado app, fine on the old HA integration), I'm confident this is just an HA-side toggle that needs flipping back.

[Trebor87]

Hi

Thanks for the feedback.

I checked the toggle enable was already 'on' i switched it off and back to no avail. So then switched it off, rebooted HA, then switched it back to on, and again rebooted HA.
Now this worked and I'm seeing correctly that it's connected

Through i still have no HVAC modes available for this device, only off

I'll probably delete it and add it back, maybe that will pull the HVAC modes while adding

[hiall-fyi]

Hi @Trebor87, glad the toggle dance worked for the connection state.

The HVAC-modes-only-OFF symptom on the same zone is a separate but related thing, and it lines up with what likely happened during the E04 rebuild. Here's the mechanism: Tado CE caches your AC unit's reported capabilities (which HVAC modes it supports, fan levels, swing axes, target-temperature ranges) once per install, in a file called ac_capabilities_<home_id>.json inside HA's .storage/tado_ce/ directory. The cache is keyed by Tado's zone ID, and the integration only refetches when the cache file is missing. The reasoning was that AC unit capabilities don't change over the lifetime of the device, so there's no value in burning API quota re-fetching every restart.

What that assumption misses is the "I removed and re-added a controller" scenario. When you re-paired the Salon Bay Window unit through the Tado app, Tado's servers may have issued a new zone ID for it. Your cache still has the entry under the old zone ID, but the new ID has no cached capabilities, so the climate entity falls through to a defaults-only path. The defaults are deliberately conservative ([OFF]-only HVAC modes) rather than guessing what the unit supports, so what you're seeing is exactly that fallback.

Quickest fix is to clear the cache so it refetches on the next sync:

1. Settings → Tado CE → ⋮ → Reload is not enough on its own (cache is read-through, reload doesn't invalidate it)
2. SSH or use the File Editor add-on to delete /config/.storage/tado_ce/ac_capabilities_<home_id>.json. The file is named with your home ID, but if you've only got one Tado home it's the only AC capabilities file in that directory.
3. Reload Tado CE from Settings → Devices & Services (the ⋮ menu) or restart Home Assistant. The next full sync will refetch capabilities for all AC zones, write the file fresh, and the climate entity will rebuild its HVAC modes list from the actual capabilities.

You'll briefly use a few extra API calls (one per AC zone) but that's a one-off, not a per-poll cost.

Your "delete and re-add the integration" plan would also work, since it forces a rebuild from scratch, but it's overkill and you'd lose any zone-level config you've set in Tado CE itself (overlay modes per zone, Smart Comfort / Valve Control settings if used). The cache-file approach keeps everything else.

This is a real gap in the install-lifetime caching assumption and worth a follow-up on my side, probably as a "Refresh AC Capabilities" service or button so users don't need to touch storage files.

[Trebor87]

You are the man :)

That was perfect, many thanks for the help and suggestions

Effectively Refresh AC Capabilities might be a good idea if you have the time

I now have my three Tado devices working again just fine

My very best
Trevor

[hiall-fyi]

Hi @Trebor87, owe you a correction on my earlier reply. I said "this is a real gap in the install-lifetime caching assumption and worth a follow-up on my side, probably as a 'Refresh AC Capabilities' service or button so users don't need to touch storage files." That was wrong twice over: the button already exists, and I should have spotted it before writing the reply. Apologies for sending you down the cache-file delete path when there was a button two clicks away.

The button lives at Settings → Devices & Services → Tado CE → the Hub device → Refresh AC Capabilities. It does exactly what we did manually — drops the cached ac_capabilities_<home_id>.json file and re-fetches from Tado's cloud. Costs one cloud call per AC zone, only one button press. Next time an AC zone goes [OFF]-only after a re-pair, that's the recovery path.

The button shipped under the shorter name "Refresh AC" originally, which is part of why neither of us spotted it — it didn't read like "this is the thing for re-pair recovery". Two changes ship in v4.0.1 (out today via HACS auto-update on the stable channel) to close the discoverability gap:

1. The button name is now "Refresh AC Capabilities" — what it does is on the label.
2. FEATURES_GUIDE has a new "Hub Buttons" section in the Enhanced Controls chapter that documents this button alongside Resume All Schedules and Refresh Schedule, with entity_ids, when to press, and quota cost. Direct link after v4.0.1 ships: https://github.com/hiall-fyi/tado_ce/blob/main/FEATURES_GUIDE.md

Crediting you in the v4.0.1 CREDITS for surfacing the gap that drove the button rename + the docs section.

#Joe

[hiall-fyi]

Hi @Trebor87, quick update following on from the v4.0.1 closeout.

v4.1.0-beta.2 just shipped, and it adds the auto-detect mechanism that closes the actual gap your re-pair surfaced. From beta.2 onwards, when Tado reassigns a zone ID (re-pair, hardware swap, zone add or remove), the integration spots the change on the next quick poll and refetches the affected entries automatically. No manual button press needed.

Worth flagging: the Refresh AC Capabilities button itself was silently broken since v4.0.0. The storage migration moved the cache file away from where the button was looking, so pressing it cleared nothing and the cached value was reused on every refresh. Beta.2 fixes that too, so the button now properly invalidates the cache and forces a fetch. It stays as a manual escape hatch for cases where HA was offline during a swap or the cache is genuinely wrong; routine re-pair recovery is hands-off via the auto-detect path.

You're credited in the v4.1.0-beta.2 CREDITS, since the symptom on your unit was the concrete instance that justified an event-triggered cache invalidation rather than waiting on a periodic refresh.

If you're up for trying the beta: HACS → Tado CE → ⋮ → Redownload → tick "Need a different version?" → select v4.1.0-beta.2 → Restart HA. Next time you re-pair an AC controller (or know someone who's about to), the auto-detect path is the most useful smoke test.