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Home Assistant help — what to try first, and when to get someone else to do it
Updated 25 September 2026
If your Home Assistant has stopped doing what it used to, you're in good company, and most of what goes wrong is one of a small number of faults. This page lists what to try first, the faults behind most problems, and then, honestly, what our service does and when it's worth paying someone rather than spending another weekend on it.
What to try first
Do these in order. They're all free, and none of them changes your configuration.
- Take a backup before you change anything. Settings → System → Backups → Backup now. If you don't have backups set up at all, fix that first; it's ten minutes.
- Read Repairs. Settings → System → Repairs is Home Assistant telling you, in its own words, what it thinks is wrong. Many problems after an update are listed there with the fix.
- Look at your integrations. Settings → Devices & services. A red or orange card that says Failed to set up or Retrying setup takes every device from that integration down with it. That's usually why "everything in the lounge" stopped at once.
- Read the log from the top. Settings → System → Logs. The first errors after a restart are usually the cause; the hundred that follow are consequences.
- For one automation, read its trace. Open the automation, three-dot menu, Traces. It shows whether it triggered and exactly where it stopped.
- Restart once, on purpose. Settings → System, restart. Then stop restarting: restarting repeatedly hides faults that depend on timing, and resets any automation waiting on a
for: timer.
The faults behind most problems
Each of these has a complete guide that tells you how to fix it yourself, with nothing held back.
To give you a sense of how common these are: on one real install of about 950 entities, our check found 2 automations pointing at missing entities and 144 entities not responding. Faults like these build up quietly on any install that's been running for a while.
When to get someone else to do it
Do it yourself if you've got the time and you'd enjoy it. The guides above are complete for exactly that reason.
It's worth paying someone when:
- It has been broken for weeks and you've stopped using it, or the family has stopped trusting it.
- You've tried the obvious and the fault is still there, and you don't know where to look next.
- You're worried about making it worse. Deleting the wrong registry entry or restoring the wrong backup can't be undone, and that's a reasonable thing to be careful about.
- You don't want to learn it. That's fine too. It's your house, not your hobby.
What our service does
We look at your whole Home Assistant remotely, work out what's wrong, and fix what can be fixed safely. You get a written report of everything we found, including the things we didn't or couldn't fix and why.
- We read first. Before we propose anything, we read your whole setup: entities, integrations, automations, the log, the database and your backups. Reading changes nothing.
- You approve every change. Each proposed change is shown to you in plain English as a tick-list. Nothing is applied that you didn't tick, except one backup: it's offered first and starts ticked, and if you approve a change that can only be undone by restoring, that backup is taken first even if you unticked it. Changes that can't be undone are labelled and never pre-ticked.
- Every change is checked. Before each change we record how your system looks; after it we compare, and undo it automatically if something we didn't expect changed.
- Locks, alarms, cameras and gates are blocked by default, and the service never operates them at all. See what we won't touch.
- Access ends when the job does. See how it works for exactly how we connect and how it's removed.
There are three tiers. Every one is a single payment in Australian dollars, GST included for Australian customers, no subscription, and your job stays open for seven days:
- Check-up, A$29. We read everything and write you the report. The only changes we make are ones that can't lose you anything: a backup, reloading an integration that has fallen over, and switching off an automation whose every reference is gone. One round of follow-up after the report.
- Repair, A$89. Everything in the Check-up, plus repairing automations that point at things that no longer exist, removing leftover registry entries, and trimming an oversized history database. Three rounds of follow-up.
- Repair & Build, A$179. Everything in Repair, plus new automations and dashboard changes you ask for, and, only after we've checked who you are and you've signed a waiver, configuration involving locks, alarms and cameras. Ten rounds of follow-up.
You can start with the Check-up and move up mid-job if the report finds something bigger; you only pay the difference. See the tiers and start.
What we can't do
We work remotely and only on Home Assistant's configuration. We can't replace hardware, pair a new device (that needs someone standing next to it), enter your passwords into manufacturers' apps, or fix your Wi-Fi. If your problem needs any of those, the report says so plainly, and that's worth knowing too.
Questions
Do I have to give you my password?
No. We never ask for your Home Assistant password. Access is by a token that's specific to the job, and it's removed when the job ends. How it works explains both ways of connecting.
Can I just get the report and fix things myself?
Yes. That's what the Check-up is for. The report lists every finding in plain English, and the guides on this site explain how to fix each one yourself.
What if you can't fix it?
Then we tell you what we found and what it would take, in writing. An honest "this needs new hardware" is part of the job.
What if a change breaks something?
Each change is checked straight after it's applied and undone automatically if something unexpected changed. If an undo ever fails, the job stops there and nothing more is changed. A person will look at this within three business days.
Is there a subscription?
No. One payment for one job. Nothing recurring, nothing to cancel, and no card kept on file.
