If you are using ProxMox, you aren’t bare-metal. To clarify terminology, HAOS running inside a Proxmox VM isn’t bare‑metal — only direct installs on hardware are.
Have finally managed to roll back to 2026.8.3 by running “ha core update --version 2026.8.3” in the CLI in Terminal. Has now rolled back to the previous stable release without loss of any continuous data. Tried to restore originally from backups, but the whole reboot loop made that impossible.
I don’t think i’ve ever been afraid to perform a home assistant upgrade 
until now
If you are afraid of upgrading it likely means you don’t have good backups or a testing environment. Work on having that 
I have a backup(now!), this is my home environment, so no i don’t have a test environment, i could, but i don’t.
To be honest if i needed to test every build/patch/update in a test environment then i probably wouldn’t be using this anymore.
My bacup is solid. I upgraded had 6 integrations fail and immediately rolled back. So far three are fixed and three still show issues and the unknown Cpu spike affects systems that look like mine so.
Im afraid of upgrading too. I don’t blame them. I’m on hold as well. Don’t assume.
Rolling back for me failed spectacularly, rebooted during the process and bricked the install as far as my understanding goes…
Even the new install+restore appeared to fail mid way through, although it did seem to work in the end, no idea what happened there.
Gone back to using Proxmox backups to a NAS for security though.
It only takes one issue to make you rethink/consider DR solutions
FYI,
I tried the upgrade again
“insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results”
Same rebooting issue, and failed downgrade either by command line, or via the gui.
Restored from Proxmox backup and back on 2026.8.3
A fix should be in todays 2026.9.1 release
Be afraid. Be very afraid. 
This is an interesting discussion to have, while we’re all waiting for the fix. (or fixes?)
My HA update procedure is quite detailed. The first step is watching the Beta blog and release thread here, and collecting possible impacts on my system. This goes on for about 3 weeks. The actual upgrade goes pretty quickly once I’ve worked up the courage to pull the trigger. Record and document current state, take backups, review and re-pack the database, that sort of thing. Run the update. Then a bunch of validations and functionality checks afterward, including monitoring for any CPU or memory utilization changes.
It strikes me that this is similar to what I used to do for software updates when I was supporting ten thousand production workstations in a highly regulated environment.
HA updates kind of demand this level of attention. Not the sort of thing most people do to update, say, their cell phones or laptops.
Yet the team is pushing hard to make HA “approachable” for the casual user. Seems to be a real dichotomy there. Is the intent for HA to require this level of technical skill to support, or not?
Im beginning to wonder if this is “sanity” , A HomeAutomation System, with Monthly Updates of New features, integration etc. etc. … And No Stable Version, one could run for i.e. 6 month ( And still be able to Update" after 6 month", with i.e security , enhancement features and common OS, libs updates )
Many Brand Devices have starting to Support/Comply/Integrate with other Brands, And they are running Stable versions.
The idea of Having All brands, All features, All service in 1 and same APP, seems more and more to be a BAD idea … could just be because of a RoadMap, which actually does not have Focus upon stability, NOR User friendliness.( And i mean not user friendliness in the sense of making an APP for imbecile Kids, who can’t, or wont read, or are blind )
I am beginning to to “restructure” my Home-Automations features and services , so i can rely upon the Devices i Buy for that purpose , And Not running on a “play-ground” with some kind of a unstructured , irresponsible approach to a “RoadMap” and their Userbase
I honestly thought i could use HA for controlling my Home from abroad now that i’ve decided to spend my retirement ,in the cold month, abroad
Sure i can, i still have 2 old versions running( For different purposes ), which are not online. most likely will my Green also end up this way, as i can’t really see a reason to spend many hours a month, on constant “Upgrades” which will eventually build up a humongeous CORE, with 1000 of people contributing/fiddling with the CORE code, BUMP
To be fair.
You could just leave your system “as is” and never update. Or only update once a year.
Apart from maybe cloud changes everything would run perfect for this year if you don’t change anything.
Thx for your Tip , Why didn’t i think of that 
, ohh yes i did … 3-4 years ago , still running
I could just leave my system as is and never update, and never get any of the new features and updates, or security fixes, whilst i’m at it, i might as well still run Windows XP…
From a security standpoint, surely having an older system especially one that connects to the internet in one way or another is not a good idea, don’t windows xp system start picking up viruses as soon as they have a connection to the internet?
Anyhow, i like my systems to be relatively up to date. so i half expect a hiccup every now and again, i’ve had issues with Zigbee2MQTT before, and a few minor issues.
But for someone to suggest that i need a test environment, isn’t exactly selling this as a good product for the masses, if anything it makes it more of a niche product squarely aimed at people that are prepared to do extensive coding, troubleshooting and testing before moving to their ‘production’ environments.
Not to mention, One can’t hardly have an identical Test-Environment with all same Devices/Integrations/Apps/Services/Automations etc running, which kind of “Degrade” the Test-Environment to a “Vanila” Dummy Box, for testing UI changes, and to some extend templates etc, And as a “pre-View” of latest UI changes
However running a VM, have this “neat” feature of making an “full image” backup, before installing an update, fast and safest backup
Yeah, i now have a scheduled backup on my hypervisor, i didn’t before and that got me into a lot of trouble…
Yep, I know that, I just didn’t do a good job of writing it.
I was trying to say that my actual bare metal install had no problems, so I was just wondering out loud if the issues people were having were related to Proxmox, as most of the examples here were people running Proxmox. Sorry, I did not make that very clear 
To be fair, i’ve had my fair share of issues with Proxmox over the years, including dropped network connections, which has been since resolved.
I’ll try the 2026.9.1 update when it drops and see if it behaves any differently.
Just as any software on any system: it can run stable or not.
Even more if you use something like Proxmox to run multiple services, it’s a good thing to make sure that your foundation is reliable otherwise this can become very frustrating.
I have been using it now for 7years and never had any issues, except for my mistake with a ZFS pool.
I’ve been running HA since… i can’t remember, it’s been so many years, i got too comfortable with the update button hahaha!!
started with crappy ‘smart lights’, domoticz, briefly openhab, and then homeassistant, on a raspberry pi, then on a dedicated hypervisor.
Don’t get me wrong, i’m not angry at anyone working on Home assistant, they’ve done an amazing job, and i’m not going to switch because of an update issue
If anything, it’s made me think about how safe my system is, and to be honest, my system was restored from the cloud backup without too much issue, so thanks again HA team
I’ll still maintain my own proxmox backup, because i can, but even if that fails, i’m not without a useable backup solution.