Moving House With Your Smart Home: What to Take, Unpair, Reset

Answer up front — Move in this order: take an inventory and photograph every device, remove each device from the app as you take it down, remove the hub from your account and power it down last, then set the hub up fresh at the new house and re-pair. If you are selling, leasing out or handing the unit back, factory-reset every device and unpair the hub first, so the next owner does not inherit your notifications and your door code history. What survives a move is the hardware. What has to be redone is everything you configured.

Do this before the van comes

Most move-day chaos is self-inflicted. The work that prevents it takes an hour and a phone.

1. Open the app and list everything. Every device, every room, every automation and every scene. The app is your wiring diagram. Screenshot it or export a list — do not rely on memory.
2. Photograph every installed device before you touch it. Open back boxes, photograph the wiring, photograph anything hard-wired. This is the difference between reinstalling in an afternoon and reinstalling over a weekend.
3. Photograph the device's position in the app, or note which room and which wall. "Door sensor, main door" is a note. A photograph of the wall is a note you can act on.
4. Write down your automations in plain words. "If the hallway motion sensor is triggered after sunset, turn on the hallway and staircase lights" — that sentence takes two minutes to write and saves two hours of rebuilding. Scenes do not travel. Write them down.

Do not skip step 4. It is the single most common regret people report after a move.

The order of operations

This is the part people get wrong, and getting it wrong causes one of two problems: either you lose the pairing and have to re-pair everything, or — the worse one — your old home keeps reporting to you from a house you no longer live in.

At the old house:

1. Remove the devices you are taking from the app, one at a time, as you physically detach them. Do the battery ones first and any mains devices last.
2. Remove and factory-reset any device you are leaving behind, selling or returning. Every Aqara device has a reset function, and the exact procedure is model-specific — check the current instructions for your model rather than guessing at a button combination.
3. Photograph the empty wall for the next occupant, and photograph any back box you have opened.
4. Remove the hub from your Aqara account from the app while it is still online. Removing it first, while devices are still attached, or unplugging it without removing it, can leave the account thinking devices are still there.
5. Unplug the hub last.

At the new house:

1. Set the hub up first, on its own, and get it connected to your network. Aqara is Zigbee-first, so everything else pairs through it.
2. Re-pair devices from the hub inward — mains devices and repeaters first, because they are the ones that extend the mesh for everything else. Pair the rest as you place them in their final positions, not in a pile on the floor. A sensor paired in the wrong room is a sensor reporting from the wrong room.
3. Rebuild your automations from the plain-word notes you wrote. Re-check the times, because the sunrise and sunset times your old house used are not the new house's.
4. Walk every room and test. Open a door, trigger a motion, run each scene.

What comes with you, and what stays

Read that table once more: the hardware moves, the configuration does not. People assume their whole system will come back with the boxes in the van. It will not, and the rebuild is the boring part that takes a weekend.

Selling, leasing out, or handing back a rental

This is the part with a real consequence, so it is worth being blunt about it.

If the next owner inherits your hub, they inherit your account, your automations, and your notifications. They get a house that is texting somebody else. Depending on the devices involved, that can also mean a door they cannot open, a lock code that is still yours, and a camera still pointed at a street you have moved away from.

Before you hand over the keys:

• Unpair the hub from your account.
• Factory-reset every device left in the house. Each Aqara device has a reset function; follow the current instructions for your specific model.
• Remove your account access, if you shared access with anyone who should not keep it.
• Wipe the smart lock's codes. This one matters most.
• Take the hub with you, unless it was part of what you installed for the new owner.
• Take photographs of any wall you opened, for the incoming tenant and for yourself.

If you are renting rather than owning, the problem often arrives from the other direction — you are the incoming tenant who has to deal with whatever the last tenant left. The steps are identical: remove, reset, re-pair. And if you are adding your own devices, the deposit angle below applies to you.

The deposit and inspection angle

If you are in a rented unit, this is the part to be careful with, and it is worth putting in writing at the start rather than arguing at the end.

• Drilling is the risk, not the device. A smart system installed with adhesive and clips leaves almost nothing. A system installed with drilled holes, wall anchors and chased cable leaves a lot. If the landlord or agent has said no holes, take that literally.
• Adhesive mounting is the default for renters. Door and window sensors, motion sensors and most small sensors can be mounted on removable adhesive. Buy the right tape for the surface — glass and tile need different adhesive from painted plaster — and test one on a hidden spot for a week before you commit the whole system.
• Fresh paint needs more care. Adhesive on paint that has not fully cured can lift it when you pull the sensor off. Wait for the paint to cure before sticking anything to it, and when you remove a sensor, peel slowly, at a low angle.
• Anything on the window or the door frame is a common removal point. Check whether the frame is common property in your building before you stick anything to it.
• Mains work is not a renter's job. A smart switch, a 20A module or a relay at the light is fixed electrical work. It must be done by a wireman registered with Suruhanjaya Tenaga. Unauthorised mains work can void your home insurance and leave you liable for anything it causes. It also gives the landlord a reason to withhold your deposit.
• At handback, remove everything. Adhesive marks, filled holes, residue, and a list of what you added, with photographs. An honest handback sheet prevents most deposit disputes.

The rule of thumb: if it went on with adhesive or into a socket, it comes off cleanly. If it needed a drill, ask first. If it needed a wireman, you need permission in writing.

The rental case, at a smaller scale

If you are renting and you want a smart home, the order is the same and the scope is smaller.

What usually works in a rental:

• A hub, and everything that talks to it.
• Battery sensors, on adhesive, on your own doors and windows.
• Smart bulbs and LED strips — drop-in, no wiring, remove at the end.
• Smart plugs on existing sockets.
• A video doorbell or camera inside your own front door, subject to the building's rules on where cameras may point.
• A smart lock on your own front door, only if your tenancy or the building's rules allow it. Get it in writing. This is the same common-property question that comes up on the main door, covered in condo rules and management permissions — worth reading before you buy.

What usually does not work in a rental: anything hard-wired, anything drilled into a common wall, anything on the main door or the car park gate, and anything that a new tenant will inherit if you do not reset it.

The upside of renting is that you can move everything without touching a wall. The downside is that nothing that requires a wireman is available to you.