How to Back Up Home Assistant and Restore It Safely

Months of automations, dashboards and finicky integration tweaks all live on one SD card or one mini PC, and when that storage dies it takes everything with it. A Home Assistant backup is the difference between a five-minute restore and rebuilding your entire smart home from memory. The built-in backup tool makes full and partial snapshots you can drop onto the same machine or brand-new hardware, so this is one job genuinely worth doing today rather than after the failure.

Quick Answer

Use Home Assistant's built-in backup under Settings, System, Backups to create a full snapshot that captures your configuration, add-ons and history in a single .tar archive. To restore, upload that backup on the same machine, or flash a fresh Home Assistant install on new hardware and choose Restore from backup during setup. Set automatic backups and keep a copy off the device so a dead drive cannot take the backup with it.

What A Backup Actually Captures

A full backup is a complete image of your Home Assistant: the core, your configuration, every installed add-on, and your history, all rolled into one compressed .tar file. Restore it and the system returns to exactly the state it was in when the snapshot was taken. A partial backup, by contrast, captures only chosen elements, which is handy when you want to keep some current settings and only roll back part of the system.

The archives are encrypted and, by default, stored locally in the backup directory on the device. That local default is the one weakness to plan around, which we will get to.

Step One: Create A Manual Backup Now

1. Open Home Assistant and go to Settings, then System, then Backups.
2. Click Create backup.
3. Choose a full backup to capture everything, or a partial backup to select specific add-ons and folders.
4. Name it clearly, with a date, and let it complete.

Doing one manual backup right now means you have a safety net before you change anything else. It takes a minute and immediately reduces your risk.

Step Two: Turn On Automatic Backups

Manual backups are easy to forget, so automate them.

1. In Settings, System, Backups, open the automatic backups option.
2. Set a schedule, a weekly backup suits most homes, more often if you tinker daily.
3. Choose how many backups to keep so old ones are pruned and storage does not fill.

The built-in scheduler handles this for you, so once configured you have recent snapshots without thinking about it.

Step Three: Get The Backup Off The Device

This is the step most people skip and later regret. By default backups sit on the same storage as Home Assistant itself, so if that SD card or drive dies, the backup dies with it.

1. Download your latest backup to a computer, or
2. Configure a backup location on a network share or cloud storage so copies land somewhere separate.

A backup that only exists on the failed device is no backup at all. Keep at least one copy somewhere else.

Step Four: Restore On The Same Hardware

If you need to roll back after a bad update or a broken change:

1. Go to Settings, System, Backups.
2. Select the backup you want and choose Restore.
3. Pick a full restore, or a partial restore to bring back only certain parts and keep the rest of your current setup.
4. Let Home Assistant restart into the restored state.

Step Five: Restore Onto New Hardware

When the old device dies, a full backup brings your whole system to a new one.

1. Flash Home Assistant OS onto the new device and boot it.
2. Wait for the initial setup screen.
3. Instead of creating a new setup, choose Restore from backup (often behind the three-dot menu).
4. Upload your latest full .tar backup and let it restore.

In a few minutes the new hardware comes up as a clone of the old one, automations and all. If you are moving to a fresh host, you can pick a reliable mini PC or single-board machine from the smart home and appliances range at Evetech to run Home Assistant on more dependable storage than a basic SD card. A spare drive or accessory from the Evetech accessories best sellers also makes a handy off-device backup target.

Frequently Asked Questions

Where does Home Assistant store backups by default?

In the local backup directory on the same device that runs Home Assistant, as encrypted .tar archives. Because that is the same storage that can fail, always download a copy or send backups to a network share or cloud location as well.

What is the difference between a full and partial backup?

A full backup captures everything, the core, configuration, add-ons and history, for a complete restore. A partial backup captures only selected elements, letting you restore certain parts while keeping your current settings for the rest.

Can I restore a backup onto different hardware?

Yes. Flash Home Assistant OS on the new device, and at the initial setup screen choose Restore from backup instead of starting fresh, then upload your full .tar file. The new machine comes up as a clone of the old one within minutes.

How often should I back up?

A weekly automatic backup suits most homes, with more frequent backups if you change automations or add-ons often. The key is to schedule it so you are never relying on remembering, and to keep a few recent copies.

Are Home Assistant backups encrypted?

Yes, backups are encrypted and compressed into a .tar archive. Keep the encryption details safe, since you will need them to restore, and remember that an encrypted backup is still useless if it only exists on a drive that has failed.