Updates and support
Updating the app
The app updates itself from the Homer server. When it comes to the screen, at most once every three hours it asks for the version, downloads the new build with resume, verifies it and installs it. Installation starts only while the app is on the screen, and the app opens again afterwards. The update status is shown by the version in the settings header; tapping it checks right away.
- Beta builds are received by access with the “App beta builds” permission, see Access.
- Beta for the whole home is turned on by the owner with the Beta updates for the whole home switch on the “Remote support” card.
Updating Homer
The Homer server, the web version, the go2rtc video server and Homer Node nodes update from homer.varyen.net. In the web version: Settings → Home → Homer updates, next to “HA updates”. Owner only.
You can see the installed version without this panel too: in the menu under your name and in the header of the Settings window.
- By itself, at night. The Update automatically at night checkbox is on by default. At 4 am the server checks for a new version, downloads the archive, verifies the release signature and hands it to the updater next to the home. The updater verifies the signature again, installs the new images, refreshes the install files and restarts the home. If the server does not answer within two minutes, the updater restores the previous images and files. Nodes update the same night.
- Now. The panel lists your Homer Node nodes with versions — “up to date”, “update available”, “offline” — and one Update everything button: the nodes and the server with the web download the update from the site and verify the signature. The server installs through the updater with rollback; a node with a window installs the signed installer from the site and restarts. The home can't be controlled for a minute or two. You can see how much has downloaded and what is being installed; the result is the “Last” line: succeeded, failed or rolled back.
- Not installed without a signature. An archive whose signature does not match the Homer release key is not installed at all.
- Server built on site. A home whose server is built from source does not update this way. There, new versions come with a deploy.
- An old node. A node older than 0.190.1 doesn't know the server's “update” command: update it once from the Homer Node window — the panel says so. After that it updates with everyone else.
Homer Node also updates itself. A node without a window checks homer.varyen.net every 6 hours and replaces itself. The Homer Node window does the same: the Updates section, the Update automatically checkbox. With it off, the new version is installed there with the Update button.
Updating Home Assistant
In the app: Settings → Home → HA updates. In the web version: Settings → Home → HA updates. Owner only.
The card shows which version is installed, which one is out, and how the last update ended. Update to … files a request, and homer-updater next to the home carries it out:
- Downloads the new image while the old Home Assistant keeps running.
- Stops Home Assistant and saves a copy of the config together with the history database.
- Starts the new version and waits up to ten minutes for it to answer.
- If it doesn't come up — restores the previous version together with the config from the copy.
During this time the home can't be controlled: usually a minute or two, longer after a big update.
| Button | What it does |
|---|---|
| Update to … | Update Home Assistant itself |
| Update integrations | Install HACS integration updates. Home Assistant restarts after installing |
| Update automatically at night | Integrations — right away, Home Assistant itself — once the new version is three days old. Runs at 4 a.m. |
Three days — because regressions in the first version of a new release are usually fixed by patches within a couple of days.
The updater doesn't answer
If homer-updater isn't running, the card says so. Then the update button only files a request, and HACS integrations update as usual.
Home status
In the web version: menu under your name → Home status and event feed. In the app: Settings → Access → Homer server → Access, the Home status card. For the owner and a support technician during a session.
| Tab | What's there |
|---|---|
| Summary | At a glance: Zigbee, unavailable devices, batteries, disk, app crashes in the last day, Homer server. And snapshots for the support technician |
| Device reports | Crashes and logs sent by apps and browsers |
| Event feed | Everything that happened in the home and who did it: a person, a switch or which automation exactly |
| Journal | Who turned what on and what was refused. Owner only |
| Zigbee | The Zigbee network: devices, connection, maintenance. See Zigbee |
Send to support
When something is wrong, anyone in the home can collect a snapshot with their own note. In the web version: menu under your name → Something wrong? Send to support technician… In the app: Settings → Access → Homer server → Send to support.
The snapshot includes device states, connection and the log for the last day. Passwords and keys are scrubbed. The snapshot stays in the home: the owner and the support technician see it in “Home status” and in the home chat. You can collect one at most once every half a minute.
Home passport
A list of devices by room: model, firmware, Zigbee address, power supply, installation and warranty dates, a note, a photo of where it's installed. An installer needs it on site, and so does a new owner when the home is handed over.
- In the web version: menu under your name → Home passport, or Settings → Files → Home as a file → Home passport. Print → “Save as PDF” in the browser.
- In the app: Settings → Files → Home configuration → Home passport, with Share.
Dates, photo and note are filled in on the device card. The owner and the support technician can see the passport.
Remote support
Experimental
Remote support is experimental in 1.0: there is only one support hub so far, a shared one.
An integrator's support technician can fix the home without coming over. The connection goes through the support hub: the Homer server opens an outgoing connection to it by itself, no router port forwarding needed.
In the app: Settings → Access → Homer server → Access, the Remote support card. In the web version: the Access page. Owner only.
Hub connection
The Support hub connection switch. It's off by default, and then the Homer server doesn't even connect to the hub. Below the switch — whether the Homer server is connected.
Letting a support technician in
- Let a technician in.
- Read the Access terms and check I agree.
- Choose the duration: 1, 4 or 24 hours.
- Optionally write who the technician is. If there are several homes, mark which ones to open.
- Let in. A one-time code appears. If the hub is connected, the code has already gone to the technician; if not, pass it on yourself.
What's next:
- The technician has “Edits home” rights, but without the right to give out access.
- While the technician is in the home, all residents see a “Support technician connected” bar above the plan with a Disconnect button.
- The technician doesn't apply plan edits directly but proposes them as a draft. The owner looks at the changes and accepts them — right away or for trial with rollback in 10 minutes. See Edit rollback.
- Everything the technician does is written to the log. The Support log shows only their actions.
- When the time is up, the technician is disconnected automatically. Disconnect and Disconnect all kick them out at once.
While the tunnel is on, the hub watches the home and sends the technician alarms in Telegram: the home has been gone for over 10 minutes, Home Assistant or zigbee2mqtt is down, a new app crash, a battery below 10 %, less than 1 GB on disk. About one problem — at most once every 6 hours. A tunnel turned off by the owner doesn't count as an alarm.
Cutting ties with the integrator
Cut ties with the integrator disconnects all support technicians, revokes their access, turns off the hub connection, and the hub forgets the home. The home keeps working: the owner key and Home Assistant stay with you.
This can't be undone
To call a support technician again, the hub connection will have to be set up from scratch. Before cutting ties, download a backup of the home — the link is right on the card.