home assistant backup

How to Set Up a Home Assistant Backup (Automatic and Off-Site)

ByTuch

A Home Assistant backup is the thing you’ll wish you’d set up the day your SD card dies, your SSD fails or an update goes sideways. Months of automations, dashboards, device pairings and integration settings live in one small installation, and rebuilding all of it from memory is a miserable weekend. The good news is that a solid Home Assistant backup routine takes about twenty minutes to configure and then runs on its own.

This guide shows you how to create manual and automatic backups, send them somewhere other than the machine they came from, test a restore so you know it works, and handle the pieces that backups don’t cover. It applies to the common installation types, though menus differ slightly between versions, so follow the labels you see on your own screen.

What a Home Assistant Backup Actually Contains

Before you set anything up, it helps to know what you’re protecting. A full backup bundles your configuration files, your database of history, your add-ons and their data, and your installed integrations’ settings into a single archive. Restoring that archive onto fresh hardware brings the whole system back, including your dashboards and automations.

Full Backups vs Partial Backups

A full backup captures everything, which is what you want for disaster recovery. A partial backup lets you pick specific add-ons or folders, which is useful when you’re about to experiment with one piece of the system and want a quick rollback. For routine protection, stick to full backups. Partial backups are best treated as a short-term safety net before a risky change.

What Isn’t Included

Backups don’t replace your radios or paired devices. A Zigbee or Z-Wave coordinator stores its own network keys, and if the stick itself dies you may need to re-pair devices unless you’ve also exported the coordinator’s data. If you run a Zigbee network, our guide on building a reliable Zigbee network with Home Assistant explains how to keep that side healthy. Large history databases are also sometimes excluded or trimmed to keep archives manageable, so check your backup settings.

How to Create a Home Assistant Backup Manually

Start with a manual backup so you can confirm the process works before you automate it.

  1. Open Home Assistant and go to Settings, then System, then Backups.
  2. Select Create backup.
  3. Choose a full backup, give it a clear name such as the date and version, and decide which storage locations should receive it.
  4. If your version offers encryption, turn it on and save the encryption key somewhere safe, such as a password manager. Without that key, an encrypted backup can’t be restored.
  5. Wait for the process to finish, then confirm the new archive appears in the list.

The first backup can take a few minutes depending on how much history and how many add-ons you have. Later ones are faster. If you want the official reference, the Home Assistant project documents the process in its common tasks guide.

Setting Up Automatic Backups

Manual backups are good for one-off safety, but the backups that save you are the ones that ran last night without you thinking about it. Recent releases include a built-in scheduler in the same Backups screen, and the backup integration is part of the core system.

Pick a Schedule and Retention

Choose a daily or weekly schedule depending on how often your setup changes. If you tweak automations daily, back up daily. If your home runs unchanged for weeks, weekly is enough. Then set a retention limit so old archives don’t fill your disk. Keeping a handful of recent backups, plus one or two older ones, gives you room to roll back past a bad update without hoarding gigabytes.

Back Up Before Every Update

Many people only discover the value of a backup right after an update breaks something. Make it a habit to run a fresh backup before applying any core, supervisor or add-on update. Some update dialogs offer a backup option you can tick, and it’s worth leaving on.

Where to Store Your Backups

A backup stored only on the machine it protects is not much of a backup. If the drive fails, both die together. The long-standing rule of thumb is the 3-2-1 backup strategy: three copies, on two kinds of media, with one off-site. You don’t need to follow it to the letter, but you should always keep at least one copy somewhere other than the Home Assistant device.

Network Storage on a NAS

A NAS is the natural home for backups. Home Assistant can mount an SMB or NFS share as a storage location, so every backup is copied to a separate machine on your network automatically. A small 2-bay unit is plenty, since backup archives are modest in size.

Synology DS223j 2-Bay NAS

The Synology DS223j is an entry-level 2-bay NAS that handles backup duty well. It supports SMB shares, offers redundancy if you mirror two drives, and its software makes it easy to create a dedicated folder with its own user account for Home Assistant. It’s modest on speed, but backup archives don’t need much.

💰 Buy on Amazon → Synology DS223j 2-Bay NAS

If you’d rather build your own box, our DIY NAS guide covers hardware and software choices. Remember that drives need to be purchased separately for a diskless unit.

Cloud Backup

For an off-site copy, cloud storage is the simplest option. Nabu Casa, the company behind Home Assistant, offers an encrypted backup feature as part of its Home Assistant Cloud subscription, which also supports the project’s development. You can also send archives to a cloud drive you already pay for using community add-ons, though those depend on their maintainers.

USB Drives and Local Folders

A USB SSD plugged into the host is better than leaving archives on the boot drive, though it’s still in the same room as the machine. Treat it as the second copy, not the only one.

Choosing Reliable Hardware to Reduce Your Risk

Many backup disasters begin with flaky hardware. SD cards are the usual culprit on Raspberry Pi installs, since constant writes wear them out. An SSD-based machine is far more dependable.

Home Assistant Green

Home Assistant Green is the project’s official plug-and-play box. It ships ready to run, uses onboard storage instead of an SD card, and is designed so that setup and restores are painless. If you’re starting fresh and want fewer failure points, it’s a tidy answer.

💰 Buy on Amazon → Home Assistant Green

It’s also the easiest platform to restore onto, since a backup from another installation can usually be uploaded during the first-run setup.

Beelink EQ12 Mini PC

For people who want more power, a mini PC running Home Assistant OS gives you faster history queries and space for Frigate or other add-ons. The Beelink EQ12 is a popular low-power option with an NVMe SSD, and our mini PC roundup compares similar machines.

💰 Buy on Amazon → Beelink EQ12

How to Restore a Home Assistant Backup

A backup you’ve never tested is a hope, not a plan. Run through a restore at least once, ideally on a spare device or a virtual machine, so you aren’t learning the process during an emergency.

  1. Install a fresh copy of Home Assistant on the new hardware, following the official installation guide for your platform.
  2. During the onboarding screen, choose the option to restore from a backup instead of creating a new user.
  3. Upload your archive, or point the system at your network storage if it’s reachable.
  4. Enter your encryption key if the backup was encrypted.
  5. Wait for the restore to complete. It restarts services, so allow several minutes.
  6. Check your dashboards, automations, integrations and add-ons once you’re back in.

If a restore fails, the cause is usually an incompatible version or a missing encryption key. Keep that key stored away from the Home Assistant machine itself.

Common Backup Mistakes to Avoid

Most failed recoveries trace back to a short list of avoidable errors. The first is keeping every archive on the same drive as the live system, which means a single hardware failure wipes out both. The second is losing the encryption key, which turns a perfectly good archive into an unreadable file. The third is never checking that scheduled jobs are still running; a full disk or an unplugged NAS can quietly stop backups for months. Glance at the Backups screen once a month and confirm the newest archive is recent. Finally, don’t forget the configuration you keep outside the main install, such as separate containers, camera recorders or a standalone Zigbee bridge, since those need their own protection.

A Simple Backup Checklist

  • Schedule backups to run automatically, daily or weekly.
  • Keep at least two copies in separate places, one off-site if possible.
  • Encrypt archives and store the key in a password manager.
  • Back up before updates every single time.
  • Test a restore once a quarter so you know it works.
  • Protect the host with a small UPS so a power cut can’t corrupt the database mid-write.

Frequently Asked Questions

How often should I run a Home Assistant backup?

Daily is the safest choice if you change settings often, while weekly suits a stable setup. Whatever the schedule, always create a fresh backup before installing an update.

Where does Home Assistant store backups by default?

On the same device that runs the system, in its local backup folder. That’s convenient but risky, so add a second location such as a NAS share or cloud storage.

Can I restore a backup on different hardware?

Yes. Backups are portable between installations of the same type, which makes migrating from a Raspberry Pi to a mini PC painless. Use the restore option on the onboarding screen of the new device.

Do backups include my Zigbee or Z-Wave devices?

They include the integration settings, but the coordinator stores its own network data. Export that data separately, or you may have to re-pair devices if the stick is replaced.

Are backups encrypted?

Newer versions encrypt archives, and you’ll be given a key. Save it somewhere safe, because a backup can’t be restored without it.

How big is a typical backup?

It varies with your history database and add-ons. Many homes see archives from a few hundred megabytes to a couple of gigabytes, so keep an eye on storage when you set retention.

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