[Yale YDM4109A ZB3] Lock stops communicating every few days until batteries are pulled; shows as "Automatically generated definition"

What happened?

Every few days my Yale YDM4109A digital lock (Zigbee module) stops sending anything to Zigbee2MQTT, while every other device on the same network keeps reporting normally. It only recovers after I remove and reinsert the lock batteries. Restarting the coordinator does not bring it back.

The lock is also not matched to the existing YMF40/YDM4109+/YDF40 definition: it shows as "Automatically generated definition (YDM4109A ZB3)", and auto_relock_time / sound_volume always stay unknown. Lock state, battery, action_user and action_source_name do work.

Timeline of the latest occurrence (UTC), from Home Assistant history of the lock's last_seen / linkquality:

• Sep 13–14: lock reports roughly once per minute (~3,000 messages in 48 h), LQI ~216, no gaps longer than 10 min.
• Sep 14 23:47 → Sep 15 01:28: first silent gap of 1 h 41 min.
• Sep 15 01:28:53–01:29:09: burst of ~16 messages, one per second, with no lock/unlock activity.
• After 01:29:09: complete silence from the lock. Other devices keep reporting normally in the minutes after.
• Sep 16 02:29: Zigbee2MQTT marks the lock unavailable (passive availability timeout).
• Sep 16 02:31: coordinator restarted; lock stays offline.
• Sep 17 02:07: batteries removed and reinserted → lock immediately reports again (LQI 216–232).

Earlier short drops (Sep 10, 12, 14) affected all devices at the same moment and recovered within ~40 s; those look like coordinator/network blips and are a different problem.

What did you expect to happen?

The lock keeps communicating (or recovers on its own), and is recognised as YMF40/YDM4109+/YDF40 so that all its features work.

How to reproduce it (minimal and precise)

Not reproducible on demand. Pair a Yale YDM4109A with the Yale Zigbee module ("YDM4109A ZB3") and leave it running; in my case the lock goes silent every few days.

Zigbee2MQTT version

1.41.0

Adapter firmware version

7.4.5 [GA]

Adapter

ZB-GW03 (EFR32, EmberZNet 7.4.5, network-attached)

Setup

Zigbee2MQTT in Docker on a separate machine; Home Assistant 2026.3.2 connects via MQTT (Zigbee2MQTT Proxy add-on for the frontend). Coordinator is a network-attached ZB-GW03 (ESPHome, EFR32) reached over TCP.

Device database.db entry

No response

Debug log

No response

Notes

• Lock battery: 69% at the time.
• The once-per-minute reporting seems high for a battery-powered lock — is that expected for this model, or a side effect of the auto-generated definition?
• Has anyone seen this lock (or the YMF40/YDM4109+ family) go completely silent until a battery pull?
• I plan to upgrade to Zigbee2MQTT 2.x and will report back whether it changes anything. I can add the database.db entry and a debug log if needed.

Start by reproducing the device behavior on Zigbee2MQTT 2.x and collect the device's database.db entry and a debug log, which are currently missing. Compare the YDM4109A ZB3 identification with the existing YMF40/YDM4109+/YDF40 definition. Done means the failure is explained or fixed and the supported features and reporting behavior are verified.