Home Assistant Google Drive Backup is an add-on that creates Home Assistant backups on a schedule and uploads them to Google Drive. Early on, while setting up a smart home, it saved me more than once: YAML experiments, updates, broken integrations — a working restore point still sits in the cloud even if the local disk or SD card is gone.
What it is and why you need it
Home Assistant can create backups by itself, but by default they live only on the same device that runs HA. If the SSD dies, the card fails, or you break the config so badly the system will not boot, the local backup may be unreachable with it.
The add-on by sabeechen closes that gap:
- creates backups on a schedule;
- uploads them to Google Drive (including ones you made manually or via HA);
- cleans old copies locally and in Drive so you do not run out of space;
- notifies you if backups fall behind schedule;
- provides a simple Web UI — almost no YAML required.
It is especially useful early on: while you change automations, add-ons and networking a lot, keep a fresh copy off the home machine. Later it just keeps running in the background.
Installation
You need Home Assistant OS / Supervised with the add-on store.
- Open Settings → Add-ons → Add-on store.
- Menu (three dots) → Repositories.
- Add:
https://github.com/sabeechen/hassio-google-drive-backup - Refresh the page (Ctrl+F5 if needed). At the bottom you should see Home Assistant Google Drive Backup.
- Click Install and wait.
- Start the add-on and open Open Web UI.
First setup and Google Drive
- On the Getting Started screen, review how many backups you already have and what the add-on will do with them.
- Optionally open Settings in the Web UI — easier than editing add-on YAML.
- Click Authenticate with Drive and sign in to the Google account you want.
- You land on the status page: upload progress, backup list, manual backup button.
Enable Start on boot so backups resume after HA restarts.
Settings worth checking first
- Days between backups — how often to create a copy (default is often 3 days; during heavy setup you may want daily).
- Max backups in Home Assistant / in Google Drive — how many to keep locally and in the cloud (watch the free Drive limit ≈ 15 GB).
- Delete after upload — remove the local copy right after upload (helpful on small disks).
- Backup password — archive password (needed on restore; can use
!secret …fromsecrets.yaml). - Backup time of day — e.g.
03:00to avoid peak load.
Full option list: DOCS.md.
How to know backups are healthy
If the add-on falls more than ~12 hours behind schedule, it can:
- show a notification in the Home Assistant UI;
- set
binary_sensor.backups_staletoon— useful for Telegram/phone automations.
Every couple of weeks, glance at the Web UI or the Google Drive folder to confirm fresh files appear.
How to restore
These are normal Home Assistant backups.
- If HA still runs — in the add-on Web UI select a backup → Load into Home Assistant, then restore as usual.
- If the system is down — download the file from Google Drive, install HA fresh, and on the setup screen choose restore from a previous backup.
- On an already running install without this add-on, copy the file into
/backup(e.g. via Samba) and restore from the Backups UI.
Limitations
The add-on prioritizes simplicity. You cannot back up more than once per day, upload somewhere other than Google Drive, or build exotic “only when config changes” logic. For most home setups that is enough — and it takes only a few clicks to set up.
Summary
Add the repository → install Home Assistant Google Drive Backup → authenticate with Drive → set schedule and limits → enable Start on boot. Early in a smart-home build this is one of those add-ons that stay out of the way but lower the cost of mistakes: break the config or lose the disk, and you restore from the cloud instead of starting from zero.
Repository: sabeechen/hassio-google-drive-backup.
No email, no trackers — just the update feed.
