Backup

The Backup integrationIntegrations connect and integrate Home Assistant with your devices, services, and more. [Learn more] creates and restores backups across all installation types.

To learn how to create and restore a backup, refer to the backup section under common tasks.

You no longer need to create your own automation to make backups. You can set up an automatic backup from the UI instead. If you do want to trigger a backup yourself, the integration provides actions for it.

List of actions

The Backup integrationIntegrations connect and integrate Home Assistant with your devices, services, and more. [Learn more] provides the following actions. Each link below opens a dedicated page with examples, parameters, and a step-by-step UI walkthrough.

• Create backup (backup.create) Creates a basic local backup of your Home Assistant instance.

• Create automatic backup (backup.create_automatic) Creates a backup using your configured automatic backup settings.

For an overview of every action across all integrations, see the actions reference.

Restoring a backup

To restore a backup, follow the steps described in Restoring a backup.

Event entity

The Backup integrationIntegrations connect and integrate Home Assistant with your devices, services, and more. [Learn more] provides the Automatic backup Event entityAn event entity represents a momentary occurrence without a lasting state, for example, when you press a doorbell or a button on a remote control. Instead of a state such as on or off, the event entity keeps track of when the last event was detected and its event type, such as a single press or a long press. [Learn more] (event.backup_automatic_backup). It shows the state of the last backup that Home Assistant created. Despite its name, it also reports manual backups and the backups that Home Assistant creates before an update. You can use its attributes in automations, for example, to get notified when a backup fails. To react to the result of a backup, use the Event received trigger, and select the event type.

The event entity has the following attributes:

• Event type (event_type): The state of the last backup. The UI shows the following values:
  • Completed successfully (completed)
  • In progress (in_progress)
  • Failed (failed)
• Backup stage (backup_stage): The stage of a running backup, for example, home_assistant, addons, or upload_to_agents. It has no value when no backup is running.
• Failure reason (failed_reason): Why the last backup failed. It has no value when the backup didn’t fail. The UI shows the following values:
  • Backup agent error (backup_agent_error)
  • Backup agent unreachable (backup_agent_unreachable)
  • Backup manager error (backup_manager_error)
  • Backup not found (backup_not_found)
  • Backup reader/writer error (backup_reader_writer_error)
  • Decrypt on download not supported (decrypt_on_download_not_supported)
  • Invalid backup filename (invalid_backup_filename)
  • Multiple errors (multiple_errors)
  • Password incorrect (password_incorrect)
  • Unknown error (unknown_error)
  • Upload failed (upload_failed)

The Backup stage and Failure reason attributes are not saved in the history. You can only use their current values, for example, in an automation that reacts to a failed backup.

Sensors

The Backup integrationIntegrations connect and integrate Home Assistant with your devices, services, and more. [Learn more] provides the following sensors.

Backup Manager state

What the backup system is doing. The sensor has one of the following states:

• Idle: No backup is being created, received, or restored.
• Creating a backup
• Receiving a backup: A backup is being uploaded to Home Assistant.
• Restoring a backup
• Blocked: Home Assistant is still starting. Backups can’t start until it has started.

Next scheduled automatic backup

The date and time of the next scheduled automatic backup.

Last attempted automatic backup

The date and time of the last automatic backup that Home Assistant tried to create, even if it failed.

Last successful automatic backup

The date and time of the last automatic backup that Home Assistant created successfully.

Backup automation examples

Automation: Get notified when a backup fails

When a backup fails, send a notification to your phone with the reason.

• Trigger: Event received
  • Target: Automatic backup (event.backup_automatic_backup)
  • Event type: Failed
• Action: Send a notification message
  • Target: My Device (notify.my_device)
  • Message: The last backup failed: {{ state_attr('event.backup_automatic_backup', 'failed_reason') }}

alias: "Notify when a backup fails"
triggers:
  - trigger: event.received
    target:
      entity_id: event.backup_automatic_backup
    options:
      event_type:
        - failed
actions:
  - action: notify.send_message
    target:
      entity_id: notify.my_device
    data:
      title: "Backup failed"
      message: >-
        The last backup failed:
        {{ state_attr('event.backup_automatic_backup', 'failed_reason') }}

Automation: Shut down the NAS after a backup

If your backups are stored on a NAS that you only turn on for backups, shut it down when a backup is complete. This example uses the Shut down button that the Synology DSM integration provides. Other NAS integrations can provide a similar button.

• Trigger: Event received
  • Target: Automatic backup (event.backup_automatic_backup)
  • Event type: Completed successfully
• Action: Press button
  • Target: NAS Shut down (button.nas_shut_down)

alias: "Shut down the NAS after a backup"
triggers:
  - trigger: event.received
    target:
      entity_id: event.backup_automatic_backup
    options:
      event_type:
        - completed
actions:
  - action: button.press
    target:
      entity_id: button.nas_shut_down