Common tasks - Supervised

Configuring access to files

Your Home Assistant Operating server includes two repositories by default: The official core add-on repository, and the community add-on repository. All of the add-ons mentioned here can be installed by navigating to the add-on store using Settings > Add-ons > Add-on Store in the UI.

One of the first things to take care of after installing Home Assistant OS is to provide yourself access to files. There are several add-ons commonly used for this, and most users employ a mix of various add-ons. Default directories on the host are mapped to the add-ons so that they can be accessed by the services any particular add-on might provide. On the host system these directories exist on the /data partition at /mnt/data/supervisor/.

Using any of the add-ons listed below, the following directories are made available for access:

• addons
• backup
• config
• media
• share
• ssl

Installing and using the Samba add-on

The Samba add-on allows you to share the directories on Home Assistant with other systems on your network. After installing the add-on, you can then also edit files using the editor of your preference from your client computer. This add-on can be installed from the add-on store’s official repository.

To install the add-on, follow these steps:

1. Go to Settings > Add-ons > Samba share and select Install.
2. On the Configuration tab, define Username and Password, store them in a safe place, and save your changes.
   • You can specify any username and password.
   • They are not related to the login credentials you use to log in to Home Assistant or to log in to the computer from which you are accessing the files.
   • The add-on won’t start if username and password are not defined.
3. For further configuration information, refer to the Documentation tab.
4. To start the add-on, on the Information tab, select Start.

To access the Home Assistant directories from the other device, follow these steps:

1. Go to Settings > System > Network and take note of the Host name.

   • Alternatively, you can look up the host name or IP address of your Home Assistant on your router.

2. How you connect from another device to Home Assistant depends on your system. Use one of the following options:

   • On Windows: Open File Explorer and in the address bar, enter the IP address or hostname with two backslashes as \\your.ha.ip.address or \\hostname.

     Screenshot of File Explorer displaying the navigation to a file share using an IP address

   • On OS X: Open Finder and select Go > Connect to Server… and enter the IP address or hostname as smb://your.ha.ip.address or smb://hostname.

   • On Ubuntu: Open Files and in the address bar, enter the IP address or hostname as smb://your.ha.ip.address or smb://hostname.

3. Enter the credentials you entered in the Samba add-on configuration.

   • You also have the option of having the credentials stored so that you do not need to enter them again.

4. Done! You now have access to the directories which you can then mount as a drive or pin to Quick Access.

Installing and using the Visual Studio Code (VSC) add-on

The Studio Code Server add-on provides access through a feature-packed web-based version of the Visual Studio Code editor. It currently only supports AMD64 and aarch64/ARM64 machines. The add-on also provides access to the Home Assistant Command Line Interface (CLI) using VSC’s built-in terminal, which allows for checking logs, stopping, and starting Home Assistant and add-ons, creating/restoring backups, and more. (See Home Assistant via Command Line for further info).

Example of a configuration.yaml file, accessed using the Studio Code Server add-on on a Home Assistant Operating System installation.

To install and use the Studio Code Server in Home Assistant, follow these steps:

1. To install the add-on, go to Settings > Add-ons > Studio Code Server and install the add-on.
2. Once you have the add-on installed, if you want, select the Show in sidebar option. Then, select Start.
3. For information on configuration settings, open the Documentation tab.
4. To start browsing, on the Info tab, select Open Web UI.

Installing and using the File Editor add-on

The File Editor add-on is a web-based file system browser and text editor. It is a more basic and light weight alternative to Visual Studio Code. YAML files are automatically checked for syntax errors while editing.

Example of a configuration.yaml file, accessed using the File editor add-on on a Home Assistant Operating System installation.

To install and use the File Editor in Home Assistant, follow these steps:

1. To install the add-on, go to Settings > Add-ons > File editor.
   • Once you have the add-on installed, you can edit files within your /config directory.
2. If you want to be able to access directories outside the /config directory, in the add-on, open the Configuration tab and disable the Enforce basepath option.
   • Note: The Enforce basepath option is intended to protect you from inadvertently making changes to settings files.
3. For information on other configuration settings, open the Documentation tab.
4. To confirm your changes, select Save.
5. To start browsing, on the Info tab, select Open Web UI.

Installing and using the SSH add-on

If you want to use the Home Assistant command line or an SSH client, you can do this through the Terminal & SSH add-on.

The Terminal & SSH add-on provides the following functionalities:

• It provides a web terminal that you can access from the Home Assistant user interface.
• It allows you to use the Home Assistant Command Line Interface (CLI) which provides custom commands for checking logs, stopping and starting Home Assistant and add-ons, creating/restoring backups, and more.
  • For a list of command line commands, refer to Home Assistant via Command Line.
• It allows connecting to your system using an SSH client.
• It also includes common tools like nano and vi editors.
• The Terminal & SSH add-on does not provide access to the underlying host file system.

To get started with the Terminal & SSH add-on, follow these steps:

1. In the bottom left, select your user to open the Profile page. Make sure Advanced Mode is enabled.
2. To install the add-on, go to the add-on store under Settings > Add-ons and install the Terminal & SSH add-on.
3. To use the web terminal, start the add-on, then select Open Web UI.
   • You can now start typing your commands.
4. If you want to access from an ssh client, you need to enter credentials:
   • Open the Configuration page.
   • Enter a password or authorized Keys.
   • Then save and start the add-on.

Backups

Backup of your Home Assistant, add-on data, and configuration. Backups are used to restore a system or parts of it if a rollback is needed or to migrate your Home Assistant to new hardware. It is good practice to create a backup before updating.

Backups are made from the backups panel under Settings > System > Backups. There is also an action available that allows you to trigger the creation of a backup from an automation. Backups are stored in a compressed archive file (.tar) and by default, stored locally in the /backup directory.

A full backup includes the following directories:

• config
• share
• addons (only manually installed or created add-ons, not those installed from the store)
• ssl
• media

A partial backup consists of any number of the above default directories and installed add-ons.

Preparing for a backup

1. Before creating a backup, check if you can reduce the size of the backup.
   • Check if your configuration directory contains a large database file. Go to Settings > System > Repairs. From the three dot menu, select System information and under the Recorder section, look for the Estimated Database Size (MiB).
   • By default, the data is kept for 10 days. If you have modified that to a longer period, check the recorder integration page for options to keep your database data down to a size that won’t cause issues.
   • Note the keep days, purge interval, and include/exclude options.
   • If you have add-ons installed that you no longer use, uninstall those add-ons. Some add-ons require quite a bit of space.
2. Old backups are not included in the backup. However, while you are here, you could delete all old and unneeded backups.

Making a backup from the UI

1. Go to Settings > System > Backups in the UI.
2. Select the Create backup button in the lower right.
3. Provide a name for the backup.
4. Choose Full backup or Partial backup.
   • If you choose Partial backup, make sure to select Home Assistant and all the folders and add-ons you want to backup or migrate.
   • Note that the number of add-ons increases the size of the backup as well as the time it takes to restore from that backup.
5. Optionally, enable password protection.
6. Select Create to begin the backup.

Alternative: Creating a backup using the Home Assistant Command Line Interface

1. ha backups list - lists backups and their slugnames
2. ha backups restore slugname - restores a specific backup
3. ha backups new --name nameofbackup - create a backup

For additional information about command line usage, use the ha help command or refer to the Home Assistant Command Line documentation.

Copying your backups to another location

You might need a backup in case your system has crashed. If you only store them on the device itself, you won’t be able to access them easily. We recommend that you copy them from /backup to another machine on occasion.

There are multiple ways to store the backup on another device:

• Option 1: Under Settings > System > Backups, on the list, single-click or tap the backup of interest.

  • Result: The backup dialog opens.
  • In the dialog, select the three dots menu and select Download backup.
  • Result: The selected backup is stored in the Downloads folder of your computer.

• Option 2: If you haven’t already done so, configure access to files on Home Assistant, using one of the methods listed there.

  • For example, use the samba add-on.
  • In your file explorer, access Home Assistant, open the backup folder and copy the file to your computer.

• Option 3: You can also change the default location for backups:

  • Add a network storage location for backups.
  • Change the default location for backups.

• Option 4: Or even better, create an automation to handle that, using one of the backup actions.

• Option 5: Make use of a third-party add-on:

  • Google Drive Backup
  • OneDrive Backup
  • Nextcloud Backup
  • Remote Backup (scp/rsync/rclone)
  • Samba backup
  • Syncthing

Restoring a backup

There are two ways to use a backup:

• On your current system to recover your settings.
• During onboarding, to migrate your setup to a new device or a to device on which you performed a factory reset and a new installation.

Estimated duration

The time it takes to restore a backup depends on your installation. Home Assistant Core and all add-ons are being reinstalled. For a larger installation, this process can take about 45 minutes.

Restoring a backup during onboarding

You can use a backup during the onboarding process to restore your configuration.

Migration: This procedure also works if you want to migrate from one device to another. In that case, use the backup of the old device on the new device. The target device can be a different device type. For example, you can migrate from a Raspberry Pi to another device.

Prerequisites

• This procedure assumes you have already completed the installation procedure on your target device and are now viewing the welcome screen as part of the onboarding.
• The login credentials of the device from which you made the backup.
• Required storage capacity: If you migrate the installation to a new device, make sure the new device has more storage capacity than the existing device.
  • Before migrating, on the old system, check how much storage you used.
    • Go to Settings > System > Repairs -> … -> System Information, and under Home Assistant Supervisor, look at the Disk used value.
    • The target device must have more free space than the source device.
      • If your target device is a Home Assistant Yellow, note that it is the size of the eMMC that is relevant.
      • The restore process mainly uses the eMMC, not the NVMe.
      • The size of the backup file is no indication of the size of your installation. To know the size of your installation, you need to check the Disk used value mentioned above.
• If you are migrating to a new device:
  • You do not need to transfer the backup to a USB or SD card to bring it to your device.
  • You will be able to upload the backup file from the device you are accessing the onboarding from.

To restore a backup during onboarding

1. If you are migrating to a new device and you had controllers or radios connected (such as a Z-Wave stick or Connect ZBT-1):
   • make sure to plug them into the new device.
2. After Home Assistant has been installed, on the welcome screen, select Restore from backup.
   • Then, select Upload backup.
   • The file explorer opens on the device on which you are viewing the Home Assistant User interface.
   • You can access any connected network drive from there.
3. Select the backup file, then, in the dialog, select Full backup and Restore.
   • The restore may take a while, depending on the amount of data.
   • To see if the restore is complete, reload the page from time to time.
   • If your previous installation had certificates enabled directly for the http integration, when the restore is complete, it will no longer respond to http:// requests. In this case, use https:// (added s) instead.
4. On the login screen, enter the credentials of the system from which you took the backup.
   • Your dashboard should show all the elements as they were when you created the backup.
   • If some devices are shown as unavailable, you may need to wake the battery powered devices.
5. If you had network storage connected on the previous system, you may need to reconnect those.
6. If you had Zigbee devices, and you migrated to a new device with its own Zigbee radio built-in:
   • Because this is now a different Zigbee radio, you need to migrate Zigbee.

To restore a backup on your current system

1. Go to Settings > System > Backups.
2. From the list of backups, select the backup from which you want to restore.
3. If you want to restore the complete configuration with all directories and add-ons, select Full backup.
4. If you only want to restore specific elements, select Partial backup.
   • From the list, select the installation, folders, and add-ons you want to restore.
5. Select Restore.
   • This may take a while, depending on how much you have to compress or decompress.
6. Once the restore is complete, Home Assistant restarts to apply the new settings.
   • You will lose the connection to the UI and it will return once the restart is completed.

Update

Best practice for updating Home Assistant Core:

1. Backup your installation, using the backup functionality Home Assistant offers.

2. Check the release notes for backward-incompatible changes on Home Assistant release notes. Be sure to check all release notes between the version you are running and the one you are upgrading to. Use the search function in your browser (CTRL + f / CMD + f) and search for Backward-incompatible changes.

3. Select Create backup before updating in case you encounter an issue that requires a rollback.

4. Update Home Assistant.

5. Review persistent notifications and log to see if there are any issues with your configuration that need to be addressed.

To update Home Assistant Core when you run Home Assistant Supervised you have 2 options.

ha core update --backup

Network storage

You can configure both Network File System (NFS) and Samba/Windows (CIFS) targets to be used within Home Assistant and add-ons. To list all your currently connected network storages, go to Settings > System > Storage in the UI.

Screenshot of the list of network shares inside the storage panel.

Add a new network storage

1. Go to Settings > System > Storage in the UI.
2. Select Add network storage.
3. Fill out all the information for your network storage.
4. Select Connect.

Screenshot of connecting a new network storage.

Network storage configuration

¹ Options prefixed with [NFS] are only available for NFS targets.
² Options prefixed with [CIFS] are only available for CIFS targets.
³ For the CIFS option, only version 2.1+ is supported.

Usage types

Change default backup location

By default, the first network storage of type Backup that you add will be set as your default backup target.

If you want to change the default backup target, you can do the following:

1. Go to Settings > System > Backups in the UI.
2. Select the menu in the top right of the screen and select the Change default backup location option.
3. In the dialog, there is a single option to set the default backup target.
4. Choose the one you want from the list.
5. Select Save.

This list will contain all the network storage targets you have added of usage type Backup. It also contains another option to set it back to use /backup again.

Screenshot of changing the default backup target.

Lost Password and password reset

Please refer to the I’m locked out! documentation page.

Installing a third-party add-on repository

Home Assistant allows anyone to create an add-on repository to share their own add-ons with the community.

To add an add-on repository, follow these steps:

1. Copy the URL of the repository.

   • The URL is the git repository clone URL (on GitHub, use the Code button and copy the HTTPS URL).

   • This documentation uses an example add-on repository. It is not practically useful but follows the same steps.

   • If you are interested in add-on development, refer to our add-on development documentation.

     https://github.com/home-assistant/hassio-addons-example
     

2. Go to Settings > Add-ons and select Add-on store.
3. In the top-right corner, select the three dots menu, and select Repositories.
4. Add the URL of the repository and select Add.
   • Result: A new card for the repository will appear.

Troubleshooting: Repository is not showing up

If you have added an add-on repository, but it’s not showing up, make sure to refresh your browser. If it still doesn’t show up, the add-on repository may contain invalid configuration data.

1. Go to Settings > System > Logs and select Supervisor in the top right corner to get the Supervisor log.
   • It should tell you what went wrong.
2. Report this information to the add-on repository author.

Configuration check

After changing configuration or automation files, check if the configuration is valid before restarting Home Assistant Core.

Running a configuration check from the UI

1. Go to your user profile and enable Advanced Mode.
2. Go to Developer tools > YAML and in the Configuration validation section, select the Check configuration button.
   • This is to make sure there are no syntax errors before restarting Home Assistant.
   • It checks for valid YAMLYAML is a human-readable data serialization language. It is used to store and transmit data in a structured format. In Home Assistant, YAML is used for configuration, for example in the configuration.yaml or automations.yaml files. [Learn more] and valid config structures.
3. If you need to do a more comprehensive configuration check, run the check from the CLI.

Running a configuration check from the CLI

Use the following command to check if the configuration is valid. The command line configuration check validates the YAMLYAML is a human-readable data serialization language. It is used to store and transmit data in a structured format. In Home Assistant, YAML is used for configuration, for example in the configuration.yaml or automations.yaml files. [Learn more] files and checks for valid config structures, as well as some other elements.

ha core check

Home Assistant versions

To see which version your system is running, go to Settings > About.

Running a specific version

To upgrade to a specific version, you can use the CLI. The example below shows how to upgrade to 2024.11.2.

ha core update --version 2024.11.2 --backup

The --backup flag here ensures that you have a partial backup of your current setup in case you need to downgrade later.

To downgrade your installation, do a partial restore of a backup instead.

Running a beta version

If you would like to test next release before anyone else, you can install the beta version.

Running a development version

If you want to stay on the bleeding-edge Home Assistant Core development branch, you can upgrade to dev.

1. Join the dev channel.

   ha supervisor options --channel dev
   

2. Reload the Home Assistant SupervisorThe Home Assistant Supervisor is a program that manages a Home Assistant installation, taking care of installing and updating Home Assistant, add-ons, itself, and, if used, updating the Home Assistant Operating System. [Learn more].

   ha supervisor reload
   

3. Update Home Assistant CoreHome Assistant Core is the heart of Home Assistant itself. It is a Python program that powers every installation type, but can be installed standalone. [Learn more] to the latest dev version.

   ha core update --backup
   

   The --backup flag here ensures that you have a partial backup of your current setup incase you need to downgrade.

Home Assistant via the command line

On the SSH command line, you can use the ha command to retrieve logs, check the details of connected hardware, and more.

Home Assistant

ha core check
ha core info
ha core logs
ha core options
ha core rebuild
ha core restart
ha core restart --safe-mode
ha core start
ha core stats
ha core stop
ha core update

Supervisor

ha supervisor info
ha supervisor logs
ha supervisor reload
ha supervisor update

Host

ha host reboot
ha host shutdown
ha host update

Hardware

ha hardware info
ha hardware audio

Usage examples

To update Home Assistant to a specific version, use the command:

ha core update --version x.y.z

Replace x.y.z with the desired version like --version 2024.11.2

You can get a better description of the CLI capabilities by typing ha help:

The Home Assistant CLI is a small and simple command line utility that allows
you to control and configure different aspects of Home Assistant

Usage:
  ha [command]

Available Commands:
  addons         Install, update, remove and configure Home Assistant add-ons
  audio          Audio device handling.
  authentication Authentication for Home Assistant users.
  backups        Create, restore and remove backups
  banner         Prints the CLI Home Assistant banner along with some useful information
  cli            Get information, update or configure the Home Assistant cli backend
  core           Provides control of the Home Assistant Core
  dns            Get information, update or configure the Home Assistant DNS server
  docker         Docker backend specific for info and OCI configuration
  hardware       Provides hardware information about your system
  help           Help about any command
  host           Control the host/system that Home Assistant is running on
  info           Provides a general Home Assistant information overview
  jobs           Get information and manage running jobs
  multicast      Get information, update or configure the Home Assistant Multicast
  network        Network specific for updating, info and configuration imports
  observer       Get information, update or configure the Home Assistant observer
  os             Operating System specific for updating, info and configuration imports
  resolution     Resolution center of Supervisor, show issues and suggest solutions
  supervisor     Monitor, control and configure the Home Assistant Supervisor

Flags:
      --api-token string   Home Assistant Supervisor API token
      --config string      Optional config file (default is $HOME/.homeassistant.yaml)
      --endpoint string    Endpoint for Home Assistant Supervisor (default is 'supervisor')
  -h, --help               help for ha
      --log-level string   Log level (defaults to Warn)
      --no-progress        Disable the progress spinner
      --raw-json           Output raw JSON from the API

Use "ha [command] --help" for more information about a command.