Delete Persist and Accessories results in "No response"

Pre Steps

Expected Behavior

I have some old accessorise that have been removed from config.json but still appear as not responding on Home app. Usually to fix this I delete the persist folder with 10 files and accessories folders with one file, restart Homebridge and everything works fine.

Current Behavior

I delete the folders and after this homebridge start fine but shows for everything in Home app “No response”. But it is running nicely. And creates new files int the persist folder. This time only 8 files instead of 10. Accessorise folder looks the same

Steps to Reproduce (for bugs)

Delete persist and accessories folder, restart homebridge, “No response” in home app. But the deleted folders back, everything works again.

Versions

• Homebridge: 0.4.38
• Node: v8.9.4
• OS: Raspbian GNU/Linux 9 (stretch)

Configuration

Homebridge Log / Command Output

The only difference that comes into my mind about why it worked before is and not now is that I have since started using homebridge as a systemctl service. But eventhought when I stop the service and try it as usual with homebridge command the same thing happens.

[ebaauw]

This is by design: the persist directory contains the pairing info. Deleting it is like factory resetting homebridge - you need to delete it from HomeKit and pair it again. To cleanup old accessories, only delete the accessories directory.

[ebaauw]

See #2428