home-assistant.io/source/common-tasks/general.markdown

title, description, installation_name

title	description	installation_name
Common tasks - installation independent	Common tasks	Installation independent

This section provides tasks that do not depend on a specific Home Assistant installation type or a specific integration. They may be referenced in other procedures.

{% include common-tasks/enable_entities.md %}

Defining a custom polling interval

If you want to define a specific interval at which your device is being polled for data, you can disable the default polling interval and create your own polling automation.

What is data polling?

Data polling is the process of querying a device or service at regular intervals to check for updates or retrieve data. By defining a custom polling interval, you can control how frequently your system checks for new data, which can help optimize performance and reduce unnecessary network traffic.

Why use an automation instead of changing the integration's polling configuration?

Creating an automation for polling gives you more flexibility on when to poll:

1. Not all integrations have a configurable polling interval. The homeassistant.update_entity service, on the other hand, works with most of the integrations; no code changes are required.
2. An automation allows you to poll whenever you want. For example, if you have a rate-limited solar panel provider with a maximum number of requests per day, you may want to lower/stop the polling at night but poll more frequently during the day.

{% include common-tasks/define_custom_polling.md %}

Removing an integration instance

If you no longer want to use a device or service in Home Assistant, you can remove the integration instance including the device or service with all its entities.

The following steps describe the general steps needed to remove an integration instance. Depending on the integration, additional steps can be needed, such as resetting the device or to delete credentials. Refer to the integration documentation to see if additional steps are needed.

{% include integrations/remove_device_service.md %}