I cannot wait to try out the new Backup features and the new ONVIF improvement for detections. 
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Happy New Year! 
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You should mention that NAS backup storage is already possible as of today, just define a NAS folder as external back-up location under SYSTEM> STORAGE and you are able to use it with the new backup tool. Completely forget about this feature, beta discussion reminded me. Great to drop again one external (back-up) addon
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Happy new year 2025 to all HA enthusiast (and to new ones coming in the future).
I have to emphasize that encrypted backups are NOT something we wish to have when talking local & privacy-first setup. We need an option to not have backups encrypted ASAP.
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Good point about the NAS folder backup storage location… used this successfully for the past 2 years - daily overnight backup. But just put this in an automation with action:
Home Assistant Supervisor: Create a full backup
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I am conflicted on this. My local backups using the Samba Backup add-on are unencrypted. I have had, in the past, a need to look at a file in an old .tar backup.
Anyone who has followed my posts (big mistake), I think that Home Assistant takes security a bit too far. But I have to agree that cloud storage should be encrypted. If someone gains access to your unencrypted Home Assistant, your secrets.yaml file is open to view. How many API keywords do you have in secrets.yaml?
Also, I am thinking that Nabu Casa would never offer an unencrypted option simply because of the potential liability exposure.
But
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One may want to have an option for a fully local backup (local NAS server as I do it). Encrypted backup is simply inconvenient.
One shall have an option to disable encryption in my view. But then no NabuCasa upload capability to avoid liability.
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I was thinking the same, but I would be fine if there was a simple command line way to unencrypt a backup file. I have often goofed up an automation and gone back to a backup from the day before to copy/paste the yaml for one automation from the backup. Is there a one liner Python way?
Edit. No I would hate that - I want unencrypted backups when they are local
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I agree here, my biggest concern is that people are losing the password. I am a KeePass enthusiast, but not sure about other if I look at my friends/ family. If you lose the password, or most likely just do not note it anywhere, the best backup is useless. Unencrypted option for local storage sounds like a good compromise.
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OK, maybe I misread the release notes. If I use the new backup to local, I definitely want it unencrypted. If we don’t have that option, I will likely keep using Samba Backup.
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Making the default encrypted is fine but I really take issue with the idea that HA knows my setup better than I do. I do all local backup that includes a second NAS 1000 miles away from the first one and I encrypt NAS backup when they leave my network. Forcing encryption in my case is pointless and annoying.
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Hi with new release 2025 stopped to work smarthings integrations that I used for Samsung conditioner, I made a restore of last release and all started to work.
I’m another person who hates the enforced encryption on a local backup. Totally get it for cloud but on my local system I would like an option to not require a key. My local system is more at risk of me having a loss of the key issue when I need if as I’m awful at storing keys. I’ll now need a backup of my systems and then a backup of my key. Extra unnecessary steps and points of potential errors. I love HA and all the awesome work that so many devs put into it so I should t complain really but I absolutely HATE this!
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“Home Assistant website” entity of “Version” integration still shows a prev version:
Update: False alarm, right now changed to “2025.1.0”.
Update: Again changed to “2024.12.5”.
Being able to restore backups across installation methods is a really underrated part of the release. I’ve been running a HAOS VM instead of a container for a while because I started Home assistant on a raspberry pi, and restoring to HAOS was the easiest way to move it to my upgraded system, even if it was a little bit inefficient. Now it’ll be trivial to move Home Assistant anywhere I want! Good work!
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Same here. All the services I use are self-hosted and are only accessible via my already encrypted vpn network. If anyone gets into it, I’ll have a much bigger problem than them accessing my secrets.yaml… Security concerns in all honor, but please consider removing the enforced encryption or hide the option in an "advanced’ menu.
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Love to see all of the improvements to the backup system. 
I’m looking forward for more target locations to be supported by that list. 
Just an FYI: After setting up automatic backups (only local for now) I got an error saying it couldn’t be uploaded to the cloud. I have not turned in that option, so it shouldn’t even try that. Local backup seems to have worked fine. Maybe it is confused because I once tried the Nabu Casa subscription, but stopped using it ever since?
I saw this also during beta testing, never switched it on but very first backup was uploaded also to nabu casa cloud. Did not have time to investigate further during beta testing…
The other WTH is why it’s so hard to add groups of entities to expose. Now the only way to add multiple entities is to check them one by one. I had to mass un-expose my entities (over 2,000) and now I’m forced to manually check them one by one via lower-right-hand-corner “expose entities” menu. PLEASE allow mass search and mass check-box selection!
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