Home Assistant restore from backup step by step

Restoring a Home Assistant backup is a critical skill for anyone managing a local-first smart home. Whether you are setting up a new instance, replacing hardware, or recovering from a system failure, knowing how to restore your configuration keeps your automations, integrations, and device setup intact. This guide walks through the process step by step, mainly for Home Assistant OS, where the Supervisor-backed backup system lives. Since Home Assistant 2025.1, restoring works on every install type, so the UI steps below apply to Home Assistant Container and Core as well.

A quick note up front: there is no homeassistant --restore command. Restores happen either through the web UI or, on systems that run the Supervisor, through the ha backups restore command. If you see an article telling you to run homeassistant --config ... --restore ..., that command does not exist.

One more thing before you plan a rebuild: Home Assistant deprecated the Supervised and Core installation methods on May 22, 2025, and both became unsupported from release 2025.12 onwards. The supported install types today are Home Assistant OS and Home Assistant Container. If you already run Supervised, the Supervisor is still there and everything below still applies to you. But if you are standing up a fresh system to restore into, restore onto Home Assistant OS (or Container) rather than building a new Supervised install.

Step 1: Prepare Your Environment

Before you start, make sure you actually have the backup file and know where it is. On Home Assistant OS, backups live in the /backup directory and are .tar archives; on Container and Core installs they land in a backups folder inside your config directory. If you are moving to new hardware, copy that .tar file somewhere you can reach it from the new machine, such as a USB drive or your computer.

If you’re restoring during a fresh install, you can restore directly from the onboarding screen. When you first boot a new Home Assistant OS install and reach the onboarding page, there’s an option to upload a backup instead of creating a new account. This is the cleanest way to migrate to new hardware.

One sensible precaution: note the Home Assistant version the backup was created on. Restoring into a much newer version usually works because Home Assistant runs migrations, but restoring a newer backup into an older version can fail. If you can, restore onto the same or a newer version.

Backups are encrypted by default. Since Home Assistant 2025.1 the old backup password has been replaced by an encryption key that Home Assistant generates for you and stores in the backup emergency kit. You can switch encryption off for a given backup location if you have a reason to (backups uploaded to Home Assistant Cloud are always encrypted either way), but the default is on, and that means you need the key to restore. Keep it somewhere safe and separate from the backup itself, or the archive is useless to you.

Step 2: Restore the Backup

There are three common ways to restore, depending on your situation.

From the UI (most common). Go to Settings > System > Backups. If the backup is already on the device, click it and choose Restore. You can do a full restore (everything, including add-ons and Supervisor settings) or a partial restore (pick just Home Assistant Core, specific add-ons, or folders). If the backup is on your computer, use the upload option to send it to the instance first, then restore it.

During onboarding. On a brand-new install, the onboarding wizard offers an “Upload backup” path. Point it at your .tar file, supply the encryption key if prompted, and it rebuilds the system from the archive.

From the command line (Supervisor only). If the UI is unreachable but the system still boots, you can use the Supervisor CLI over SSH or the console. List your backups, then restore by slug:

ha backups list
ha backups restore <backup-slug>

Add --password <your-key> if the backup is encrypted. Note this only works on Home Assistant OS and Supervised installations, because the ha command comes from the Supervisor. Home Assistant Container (Docker) and Core (venv) installs have no Supervisor and therefore no ha command at all. That does not leave them stranded: since Home Assistant 2025.1 they can create and restore backups from the same Backups page in the UI. Their backups simply cover Home Assistant itself rather than add-ons and Supervisor settings, because those installs have neither.

After a restore, some integrations that rely on local pairing may need attention. HomeKit-exposed devices and any integration tied to a specific host or token can need re-authentication once the system comes back up. If you’re also swapping the Zigbee or Z-Wave USB coordinator — say, moving to a Home Assistant Connect ZBT-2 for Zigbee or a Home Assistant Connect ZWA-2 for Z-Wave — remember that each radio’s network is stored on the stick itself, not only in the Home Assistant backup. See how to back up and restore your Zigbee network and how to back up and restore your Z-Wave network before you move radios.

Step 3: Verify and Test Your Setup

After restoring, give the system a few minutes to start all services, then check the dashboard. Confirm your devices show up and report sensible states rather than “unavailable.”

Open Settings > System > Logs and look for errors. A handful of warnings on first boot are normal as integrations reconnect; persistent errors pointing at a specific integration are worth investigating.

Run a couple of your most important automations manually to confirm they fire. If you use YAML configuration, you can validate it from Developer Tools > YAML > Check Configuration before reloading, which catches syntax problems without a full restart.

Step 4: Keep Backups Safe and Off-Device

A backup that only lives on the same SD card or SSD as your install will not help you when that drive dies. (If you have not set up a solid backup routine yet, start with how to back up Home Assistant properly.) Move copies off the device, and let Home Assistant do it for you: the built-in backup runs on a schedule, keeps the number of backups you choose, and can write to network storage (SMB/CIFS or NFS). A Home Assistant Cloud subscription adds 5 GB of encrypted off-site storage that holds your most recent backup. The built-in encryption protects the archive contents, so store the file wherever is convenient and keep the encryption key somewhere separate.

A good rhythm is automatic scheduled backups plus at least one copy somewhere other than the running device.

Quick Verdict

Restoring Home Assistant is straightforward once you know the real paths: the Backups page in the UI, the onboarding upload during a fresh install, or ha backups restore on systems with the Supervisor. Keep encrypted copies off-device, note your version and encryption key, and verify the dashboard and logs after the restore. Do that and recovering from a dead drive or a botched upgrade is a calm, ten-minute job rather than a crisis.