I need to see some stability. Getting frustrated by the high frequency of updates that always seem to break or deprecate something. I am a user that expects things to work reliably, not wonder whats going to go wrong next. Why can't there be annual updates to allow more time for evaluation and production of documentation.
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Serious question: Who is forcing you to update? If your system/setup is working well for you, then why are you updating?
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I update very often but only after reading the release notes. I have found that everything has gotten much stabler. You should also consider a quick automated daily backup so that if anything goes wrong you can just do a quick restore for whatever integration/component it is that might have broken (or the whole thing if you like). (It could be that you are using a mix of hardware and network infrastructure as well as some integrations that do not play well together.)
This is the largest project on github with many thousands of contributors so it is much better if there are constant updates, if you prefer to do them only yearly then just do them only yearly! But, understand, in my opinion doing such a massive update is a huge change and you are much much more likely to run into issues. If you are doing an update for a small change and then rolling part or all of it back if there is an issue - is actually much safer in my opinion (with a massive update their may be many things that are broken at the same time, not just one).
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Serious answer, the most common phrases on these forms are "Who is forcing you to update?" and "read the release notes". Frustrated by weekly esphome updates I stopped updating many of my devices.Years later I had cause to change some code on one of the devices and nothing would compile or work. After scouring these forms for help I kept coming to dead ends with "read the release notes" I simply don't have the time or inclination to read 2 years of release notes to get things working again. Luckily Ai is less judgy than these forums.
It has been ingrained into people (who are constantly advised by it professionals) to keep their devices up to date to avoid security issues.
I'm not sure that avoiding updating is the best solution.
Depends how you view it - say you commit to updating once per year instead of monthly.
And that you have taken other precautions:
- Don't keep any important / sensitive info on HA.
- Have a good backup.
- Have HA Firewalled from the rest of your network.
There will always be a risk someone will hack any system, but is it significant enough to care about?
What would the damage be / cost to recover - is that more than the time you waste on monthly updates?
I update every now and then, but the reason is not security - its compatibility - updates break things and I don't want to have to fix a whole bunch of stuff, because I need to take an update to get a feature I want. Its just easier to do updates a couple of times a year and deal with any issues while I have time to do so.
Now you're mixing apples and oranges....
Security updates are not the same as product improvements or bug fixes.
4 decade IT executive (started in the trenches as an admin) and systems integrator here.
If your system is running fine and there are no security specific updates... leave it alone!
If there's a security update (which is rare with HA since you're running it locally and it should not be exposed directly to the Internet) then make a backup and patch it.
Next is bug fixes, because it is open source, libraries get deprecated, APIs change, yada yada yada... then sometimes you have no choice, again, make a backup (super simple to do in HA) and update.
Last category: gee whiz, new features! This is a personal choice and no one is forcing anyone to update to something that might break something else.
My personal philosophy with HA: Never update to the first major release of the month, ie, new features. Let someone else more adventurous and more time on their hands to find the breaking changes. I only update to the last minor version of the month, ie, 2026.5.4 for example.
For people that I've installed and maintained HA for: Unless absolute necessary, maybe update once a year. And that's after I've run the version myself for a few months.
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I trimmed my system down to only the things I really needed and got rid of a number of integrations and HACS installs. I even replaced a large integration with "native" automations and scripts. Fewer things to break during upgrades.
I typically wait for the second or third release of the month, but frankly they don't seem to have that many fixes.
If there's update pain every month I cannot imagine what it would be like to update once a year. "Honey, it's update week! See you in a few days..."
At one company I worked long ago at we pushed releases back to every six (well, more like 8) months. What a shit show that was. More stuff got packed into releases, and packed in late, QA got overwhelmed, CI missed UX stuff, Users when nuts with the bulk of changes, etc. That lasted two release cycles. On the plus side I got paid a lot working nights and over the weekend during the release.
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You are better off with the weekly updates, small steps continuously is easier to deal with than a whole year of changes. In my experience on my quite large instance the only thing I have had to change in the past year is my legacy template format to the new format.
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These are just my opinions 
Instead of complaining about all the updates and alike in a new thread, why not just read and join in with some of the threads that have already covered all this time and time again
If you do not like updates all the time with constant development allowing the system to keep up with a fast changing environment, many systems can be purchased that will not "force" you to update, every day.
But most of all a properly setup HA will cause very little issue with update. The few issues can be avoided by just reading the update docs.
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It's a shame really, I've a number of friends and family members who wanted me to help setup Home Assistant for them. I got as far as the install with one and then realised I simply didn't have the time to maintain it for them. There is no way they could cope with the update/break cycles.
I have probably spent 20 minutes in the last 6 months maintaining my HA. I have spent more time adding to it than maintaining it. As said above the only thing I can remember having to sort out was the few templates I have.
I update everything as soon as it shows up.
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I 
agree!
I was going to make the same statement, for over a year of running HA.
But I drew the opposite conclusion.
I have probably only taken 3 updates over that time and only had one issue - which was resolved by also updating a HACS dependency.
TL;DR - Updates aren't really an issue if stay to the well trodden path regardless of how often you take them **.
** - Repeating my previous point, take an update when you have time to fix it not when you NEED to take it get a feature.
The fact is that HA is live system. It requires constant maintenance. If you do it regularly not by much, say a few minutes per week, that's it. Why? Because things are constantly added, improved, corrected... It's live system.
If you want set-and-forget system then you made the wrong decision - HA is not for you (or anyone who wants such system). Get another closed-source system, which is payable (and usually darn expensive). Guys will come to you, install it according to your needs and that's it for years to come. But, you won't be able to connect anything else but things those guys sell - no shelly, bought later, no Tuya, no xyz climate.... nothing.
Yeah, i guess you could install HA and leave it as "set-and-forget" system - just disregard all update warnings (or perhaps even disconnect it from internet) and don't add anything and you're good.
However, i think that maintaining HA just once a year will result in 10 times more work as if you do it couple of minutes every week.
Windows is also constantly updating. Mac also. Android also. iPad/iPhone also. I don't see complains about that...
Remember: there's a good and a bad for each and every thing!
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Great advice! In my opinion, we are still at the forefront of Home Automation. Devices continue to improve at a rapid rate and the ability to consolidate those devices into a single user friendly program does not exist beyond HA.
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I run 2 instances of home assistant at 2 different locations. the larger one has 1332 entities 47 automations 23 esphome devices (mostly self made things) and 4 node red flows (like the one pictured)
It does amazing things and really runs the houses. It is security, convenience, and money saving.
Its mostly a hobby but sometimes a burden. But it has power. A lot of power. And a lot can go wrong, and it can cost me a lot of money when things go wrong. I backup a lot and I update only when I'm on site ( a lot is remotely operated). I try to read release notes and all that boring crap, and NEVER update to an .0 version, but things still go wrong. If there is a one in a hundred chance of a update fcuking something and then there are 24 updates in a year things get hairy.
What would be super nice would be long term stable releases as well as the current cycle for those who want to tinker. Let people choose. Why this hasn't already been implemented I don't know
This is the norm for most home automation integrations and not simply isolated to HA. If you offer up only Google Home or Alexa, you'll still run into the same support issues for every basic user you initially helped.
This is the first mention of your use of Node Red thus adding an additional layer of complexity. Your point is moot!
The obvious answer is that its Free OSS.
There are usually funding models that allow other OSS products to pay developers and testers who maintain LTS versions. I know that some of the hardware does provide some funds to HA, but it's probably somewhat limited.
If a company has a "cutting edge" and an LTS version they need to spend more time (and money) creating fixes for both versions.
Additionally since HA is predominately a home/end user product it's unlikely users would get paid to diagnose / fix issues as some people are for OSS used by businesses - which would reduce the feedback and support that HA gets from its user base.
I'm with JohnBeMe; I maintain 3 HA instances (mine, parents' and sister's). I usually update mine 2-4 times a year, except for ESPHome devices, which I never update once they start working as intended.
But you had those peaceful years, don't forget them now!
As for the other two installations I manage, I don't really do that. My parents' HA is configured to perform specific tasks, which it does, and that's it. My brother-in-law rarely asks questions; every few months I make a new automation or such. But I completely agree with worldvirus that this wouldn't be possible with more "demanding" users.
That said, I also see many benefits to updating frequently. The main one for me is remembering the update process itself and the specifics of each installation.
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True. It's amazing how many different "things" is capable of communicating with HA.
But, back to the title: it's ... just WRONG. "bring in some stability" ? What stability? HA is (with rare exceptions) rock solid and stable. Title should state (according to the content) more like "stop updating HA so frequently".. Or OP is wrongly thinking that all these updates are for HA stability correction? Not so at all. They are for HA improvement, devices added...
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