Home Assistant 2026.5 Pilight Integration Disabled — 433 MHz RF Devices Stopped Working
- Pilight library depends on setuptools.pkg_resources which was removed in setuptools 82.0.0
- Home Assistant 2026.5 ships with setuptools 82+ which drops pkg_resources
- The pilight Python library has not been updated to remove the deprecated dependency
Problem Description
After updating to Home Assistant 2026.5, your pilight integration no longer loads. All 433 MHz RF devices controlled through pilight — wireless switches, blinds, weather stations, and cheap outlet plugs — are completely unresponsive. The integration page shows pilight as disabled with a notice about setuptools.pkg_resources incompatibility. Your RF devices still work with their physical remotes but Home Assistant cannot see or control them at all.
Why This Happens in Real Homes
This one blindsided a lot of people. Pilight has been quietly running 433 MHz RF devices in Home Assistant for years — cheap wireless outlets, blinds controllers, weather stations — and in 2026.5 it just stopped loading. The root cause is that the pilight Python library uses setuptools.pkg_resources which got removed in setuptools 82. Home Assistant ships with the latest setuptools so the import fails and the integration is disabled at startup. The irony is that 2026.5 actually added native sub-GHz radio support which is a better replacement, but you need an ESP32 with a CC1101 module. For receive-only devices like weather stations, an RTL-SDR dongle with the rtl_433 integration is cheaper and easier.
Symptoms
- Pilight integration shows as disabled in Home Assistant 2026.5
- All 433 MHz RF devices are unresponsive from Home Assistant
- Automations using pilight entities fail with entity unavailable errors
- Integration page shows setuptools.pkg_resources incompatibility notice
- Physical RF remotes still control devices but HA cannot
- Pilight entities disappeared from dashboards and automations
Recognize these? Here's what usually causes it.
Common Causes
- Pilight library depends on setuptools.pkg_resources which was removed in setuptools 82.0.0
- Home Assistant 2026.5 ships with setuptools 82+ which drops pkg_resources
- The pilight Python library has not been updated to remove the deprecated dependency
- Integration is disabled at startup because the import fails
- No official maintainer has submitted a fix to the pilight library
- Community PR exists but has not been merged into the official pilight package
Most fixes happen in the first 3 steps.
Downgrading Home Assistant versions can break other integrations that depend on newer features. Take a full backup before downgrading and test all your critical automations afterward.
Tools & Requirements
Step-by-Step Solution
Confirm pilight is the broken integration
Go to Settings > Devices & Services and look for pilight. If it shows a red disabled badge with a message about setuptools.pkg_resources, you are hitting this exact issue. Check your Home Assistant version under Settings > About — this only affects 2026.5 and later. If you are on 2026.4 or earlier and pilight stopped working, you have a different problem. Also check your Home Assistant logs at Settings > System > Logs and search for pilight. You should see an ImportError mentioning pkg_resources.
Decide whether to downgrade or migrate
You have two paths. Path one is downgrading Home Assistant back to 2026.4 to get pilight working again immediately. This buys you time but you will miss security patches and new features. Path two is migrating your 433 MHz devices to a different integration. If you only need to receive signals from weather stations or motion sensors, rtl_433 with an RTL-SDR USB dongle is a drop-in replacement. If you need to send commands to RF outlets and switches, you need an ESPHome device with a CC1101 transceiver.
Set up rtl_433 as a receive-only replacement
Buy an RTL-SDR USB dongle for about 25 dollars and plug it into your Home Assistant server. Install the rtl_433 add-on from the add-on store. It decodes signals from hundreds of 433 MHz devices — weather stations, soil sensors, tire pressure monitors, motion detectors, and door sensors. Configure it to publish to MQTT and the hubs will appear as MQTT sensors in Home Assistant. This replaces the receive side of pilight completely and works with more devices.
Set up ESPHome with CC1101 for send and receive
For full two-way control of 433 MHz switches and outlets, flash an ESP32 with ESPHome and connect a CC1101 transceiver module. Home Assistant 2026.5 actually added native sub-GHz radio support which makes this easier than before. Define your RF codes in the ESPHome YAML config and they appear as switches in Home Assistant. You can capture the RF codes from your existing remotes using the CC1101 in receive mode. This is the long-term replacement for pilight.
Update automations to use new entities
Whether you went with rtl_433 or ESPHome, your old pilight entity IDs are gone. Open Settings > Automations and find every automation that references a pilight entity. Update the entity IDs to point to your new MQTT sensors or ESPHome switches. If you had a lot of pilight entities, use the Developer Tools > States page to find the new entity IDs. Search for the device name rather than the old pilight prefix.
Quick Solutions
Still having issues? This is usually the deeper cause below.
If flickering only happens on dimming, the issue is almost always the dimmer's minimum-load setting, not the bulb — it's drawing less current than the dimmer expects.
Home Assistant 2026.5 added native sub-GHz radio support which is actually a better long-term path than pilight ever was. Consider this forced migration an upgrade opportunity.
Home Assistant issues that only appear after restart are a well-known quirk — triggers that require prior state history simply can't fire until that history rebuilds.
- Pilight library depends on setuptools.pkg_resources
- Home Assistant 2026.5 ships with setuptools 82+
- The pilight Python library has not been updated to
- Integration is disabled at startup because the import fails
- No official maintainer has submitted a fix to the
Before you go — try one of these (they fix most cases).
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