Everything works perfectly on your home Wi-Fi, then you leave the house and the app spins forever or shows your dashboard as unreachable. Home Assistant remote access breaking usually traces to one of three specific things rather than a vague network gremlin, and each has a clean fix.
Quick Answer
Remote access failures almost always come down to an expired Nabu Casa subscription, a stopped Tailscale add-on, or a mismatched internal_url and external_url in your network settings. Check the subscription status first, confirm the VPN add-on is running, then verify your URLs are set correctly. One of those three resolves most cases.
Cause 1: Nabu Casa has lapsed
If you use Home Assistant Cloud (Nabu Casa) for remote access, an expired or failed subscription quietly kills the remote UI while local access keeps working perfectly. That mismatch is exactly why it is confusing: you assume the system is fine because it works at home.
Open Settings and check the Home Assistant Cloud status. If the subscription has lapsed or a payment failed, the remote connection drops. Renew it, then confirm the remote control toggle is switched on again. A common trap here is also pasting the Nabu Casa remote URL into your URL fields, which you should not do; the cloud handles that address itself.
Cause 2: The Tailscale add-on has stopped
Many people use Tailscale instead of Nabu Casa for free, secure remote access over a private network. If that add-on stops, perhaps after a restart, an update, or a crash, remote access vanishes while local stays up.
Go to Settings, then Add-ons, and check that the Tailscale add-on is running. Restart it if it has stopped, and confirm it shows as connected to your tailnet. Once the add-on is back up and your phone is on the same Tailscale network, the connection should restore without any further changes.
Cause 3: Mismatched internal and external URLs
Home Assistant uses two address settings: internal_url for when you are on the home network and external_url for when you are away. If these are wrong or swapped, redirects get confused and the app fails to reach you remotely.
The clean rule is to set the internal URL to your local address (the local IP) and leave the external handling to your remote-access method. If you are on Nabu Casa, do not put the cloud URL into the external field at all; the remote UI manages that automatically. Setting only the internal URL correctly and letting the cloud do the rest avoids the most frequent misconfiguration. Check the system logs in Settings if you are unsure which address is being used.
Working through it in order
Start with whichever method you use. Nabu Casa users check the subscription and the remote toggle, and make sure no field contains the cloud URL by hand. Tailscale users confirm the add-on is running and the phone is on the tailnet. Then review the URL settings as a final pass. Most failures clear at one of these steps. If you are building out your wider setup, the smart home and appliances range at Evetech covers compatible hardware, and useful extras turn up in the accessories best sellers.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why does Home Assistant work at home but not away?
Local access does not depend on your remote-access layer, so a lapsed Nabu Casa subscription or a stopped Tailscale add-on breaks the away-from-home path while home access stays fine. Check those two first.
Should I put my Nabu Casa URL in the external_url field?
No. The Nabu Casa remote UI manages its own address automatically. Adding it manually causes redirect confusion, so set only your internal URL and let the cloud handle external access.
How do I check if Tailscale is the problem?
Open Settings, then Add-ons, and confirm the Tailscale add-on is running and connected. If it has stopped after an update or restart, restart it and make sure your phone is on the same tailnet.
What is the difference between internal and external URL?
Internal URL is the address used on your home network, typically a local IP. External URL is for access from outside. Setting these incorrectly, or swapping them, breaks the redirect logic that routes remote connections.
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