@Dex Totally relate to this—“update-everything-now” is basically a Home Assistant rite of passage.
Your workflow advice (backup first, update one thing at a time, stop when it’s stable) is spot on. On the Aqara side, I’d add one practical habit: when you do update hub/device firmware, make sure the basics are rock solid—stable power and a stable network—so the upgrade doesn’t get interrupted mid-flight. Under normal circumstances, firmware updates shouldn’t brick a hub, but it’s still smart to ensure the hub is properly powered, your phone + hub are on the same stable 2.4GHz Wi‑Fi, and nothing is likely to power off during the upgrade. This information comes from community discussions and user experience summaries and may vary by environment. Please verify carefully. (original post link)
Curious—when things broke for you, was it usually after a HA Core update, an integration update, or device firmware? That pattern often helps decide what to “freeze” and what to keep current.
Been using for over 2 years now, might just have gotten lucky but I update everything before I restart as more of a reason to do so when I need to and i’ve never had problems with it!
Thought I’d share my update routine to keep things stable.
The golden rule is always: Backup first, update later! Definitely enable automatic backups, but make sure to run a manual one right before you do any of these:
Major HA updates
Big config changes (adding new integrations, apps, hardware, or devices)
Messing around with the SQL database
Migrating to new hardware
My personal recommendation for the update order:
Update the Operating System (HAOS) first
HACS / Custom Integrations - Get the custom stuff up to date. (Restart HA after this step to make sure no HACS update broke anything!)
Apps: 3rd party apps first, then the official ones
HA Core last
Try to avoid installing the YYYY.M.0 core releases right when they drop. Waiting a week or two for the YYYY.M.1 or YYYY.M.2 patch usually saves you from early bugs.
It’s also a good idea to check YouTube to see what major changes the update actually brings. Ask yourself if an early update is really worth it for you, for example if it delivers new features that you want to use right away.
And now, here’s a little funny decision tree I created using AI:
I use a virtual machine to run Openhab. I create a clone as a backup and the update. That is a fast roll-back in case the configuration fails.
And I agree on checking I am alone at home before doing it…
I kinda disagree. Eventually you’ll want to update. Best to update regularly piece by piece. It’s much easier to understand what caused the issue then and resolve it. If you wait and then update everything in one go, it’s very difficult to root cause issues
