Troubleshooting

Troubleshooting

Work down the list — the first two fix most things.

---

The card does not appear at all

"Custom element doesn't exist: decluttering-card-plus"

1. Hard refresh. Ctrl+Shift+R, or Cmd+Shift+R on a Mac. Browsers cache dashboard resources aggressively and this is the single most common cause.
2. Check the resource is registered. Settings → Dashboards → ⋮ → Resources. There should be an entry for decluttering-card-plus.js with type JavaScript module.
3. Check the file is actually served. Open the resource URL directly — e.g. http://homeassistant.local:8123/local/decluttering-card-plus.js. You should get JavaScript, not a 404.
   • A 404 for a /local/ URL usually means config/www did not exist when Home Assistant started. Restart Home Assistant.
4. Check the console (F12). The card announces itself on load:

    DECLUTTERING-CARD-PLUS
      Version …
   

   If that line is missing, the file is not being loaded at all.

The general Lovelace plugin guide is also worth a read: Troubleshooting Lovelace plugins.

---

[[something]] appears on the card

A placeholder with no value is left in place, so you see the literal text — or Home Assistant complains about an unknown entity called [[light]].

Causes, in order of likelihood:

1. Typo. The name in the template and the name in variables must match exactly, and they are case sensitive. [[Light]] ≠ [[light]].
2. No default and nothing passed. Add it to the template's default.
3. A transform that is not one of the four. [[room|slug]], |upper, |lower and |title are transforms; anything else after the bar is not recognised and nothing is substituted. See Variables.

Let the editor tell you. If the template describes its variables, the card editor names the ones with no value and no default, and the ones you have set that the template never reads — which catches both the typo and the missing value before you go looking.

Seeing [[light]] with "Unknown entity selected" inside the template editor is expected — that editor is looking at the raw template. See Visual Editors.

---

"The template … doesn't exist"

The name could not be found on this dashboard.

• Check the spelling against the template's name.
• Check where you defined it. decluttering_templates must be at the root of the dashboard config, level with views: — not inside a view.
• Check which dashboard. Templates are per dashboard. A template on your main dashboard is invisible to your tablet dashboard unless you borrow it.
• If the message mentions decluttering_templates_from, the borrowed dashboards were read and did not contain it either. Check the console for could not read the dashboard "…", and check the URL path against Settings → Dashboards — it is the path in the address bar, not the title.

---

"You must define one card, badge, element, or row in the template"

A template must contain exactly one of card, badge, row, element.

# ❌ two content keys
my_template:
  card:
    type: tile
  row:
    entity: sensor.x

# ❌ none - the content is at the wrong level
my_template:
  type: tile
  entity: sensor.x

# ✅
my_template:
  card:
    type: tile
    entity: sensor.x

---

"The list of variables must be an array of key and value pairs"

variables (and default) must be a list. Every entry needs a leading -.

variables:
  - light: light.kitchen
  - room: Kitchen

---

Invalid YAML around a variable

entity: [[light]]      # ❌
entity: '[[light]]'    # ✅

A [ at the start of a value begins a YAML list, so an unquoted placeholder that is the whole value is a syntax error. Inside a longer string it is fine unquoted.

---

A number is being treated as text

Make sure the placeholder is the entire value:

grid_options:
  columns: '[[cols]]'          # ✅ whole value - stays a number

grid_options:
  columns: 'col-[[cols]]'      # ❌ part of a string - becomes text

See Variables.

---

My CSS does nothing

Almost always because the selector cannot cross a shadow boundary.

style: |
  ha-card { border: 2px solid red; }       # ❌ never matches

style: |
  :host {
    --ha-card-border-color: red;
    --ha-card-border-width: 2px;
  }                                        # ✅

Style Home Assistant cards through CSS custom properties. Full explanation and a table of what does and does not reach the card: Styling.

---

Changes to a borrowed template are not showing

Borrowed dashboards are read once per page load and cached. After editing a template on the source dashboard, refresh the browser on the dashboards that borrow it.

See Sharing Templates Between Dashboards.

---

"gave up substituting variables after 10 passes"

A variable refers to itself, directly or through a chain:

default:
  - name: [[name]] light'     # ❌ refers to itself

default:
  - a: '[[b]]'
  - b: '[[a]]'                 # ❌ cycle

Break the loop by introducing a separate name:

default:
  - label: [[name]] light'    # ✅
  - name: Kitchen

---

"… is already registered by something else, skipping it"

Another card owns that type — normally the original decluttering-card running alongside this one. Everything still works, but you are getting the other card's behaviour for custom:decluttering-card. Remove the original: see Migrating from decluttering-card.

---

"Could not retrieve the lovelace configuration."

The card could not find the dashboard configuration to read templates from. This happens where there is no normal Lovelace dashboard around the card — some kiosk and embedding setups, for example. Casting is handled.

---

A templated card is the wrong size in a sections view

Set grid_options inside the template's card, not on the custom:decluttering-card-plus instance. The card reports the wrapped card's options to the layout, so they belong with the card they describe. See Cards.

---

A picture-elements marker is in the wrong place

Positioning (top, left) goes on the instance, in the elements: list. Appearance goes in the template. Both are called style, which is confusing — Elements has a table.

Remember that Picture Elements positions by the top-left corner. Add transform: translate(-50%, -50%) to centre on the point.

---

for_each renders nothing, or refuses

Symptom	Cause
Nothing renders, no error	The list is empty. That is deliberate — an empty for_each renders nothing rather than failing
for_each needs a template that defines a card	The template defines a row, badge or element. Only cards can be stacked
Every copy looks the same	The items are not overriding what you think. A value in the card's own variables: is shared; an item's own value wins over it
The copies are stacked, not side by side	columns is absent or 1

See Repeating a Template.

---

A variable is set but nothing uses it

The card editor says "This variable is set here but never used by the template".

The template does not contain [[that_name]] anywhere that gets substituted. Usually a typo, or a leftover from an older version of the template. It is a warning, not an error — an unused value does no harm beyond the confusion.

The mirror image, "This variable is declared but never used in the template", appears in the template editor for a declaration with no matching placeholder.

Note that a placeholder sitting inside the value of a variable nothing refers to is never substituted, so it does not count as used. See Describing Variables.

---

Still stuck

Open an issue at tempus2016/decluttering-card-plus/issues with:

• your template definition and the card that uses it,
• what you expected and what you got,
• anything from the browser console (F12),
• your Home Assistant version and how you installed the card.