That’s probably partly how you got in a mess earlier.
It’s fine to configure with xxx.things and xxx.items files - but you must be precise.
If you mess up and have to make minor edits, they do not always get taken into account immediately. Stuff has to be restarted to make sure your new settings are fully read.
openhab.log bears watching, it will tell you at least about syntax errors.
PaperUI does not play nicely with all this.
If you make changes with PaperUI they are never reflected back into xxx.things or xxx.items files.
If you mix and mismatch configuring methods you will get frustrated.
Some folk manage all their Things in PaperUI, and all Items in files.
Some manage one tech/bindings Things one way, another bindings another way.
It’s abour personal consistency.
