Home Assistant becomes unresponsive without internet connection

Installation
1

Hi everyone,

I’m currently facing a problem where Home Assistant becomes completely unresponsive after being offline (no internet connection) for a while.

Here’s what’s happening:

  • After losing internet for some time, the frontend becomes inaccessible.
  • I can still access the system via SSH.
  • None of my automations are working anymore.
  • Restarting doesn’t always help — it seems like HA just stops functioning properly when there’s no internet.

Has anyone experienced this before?
Is there a way to make Home Assistant fully functional without internet access, or at least prevent it from locking up like this?

Some details:

  • I’m running Home Assistant OS (latest version).
  • I do have some cloud-based integrations, but most of my setup is local (Zigbee, MQTT, etc.).
  • DNS might be an issue, but I’m not 100% sure.

Any ideas what could be causing this or how I can fix it?
After an reboot it works for a couple hours, very slow, but works.
Frontend on my tablets/Fully Browser, always say: AnroidView cant render…

Thanks in advance!

Logs:

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image1547×964 246 KB

3

Thanks a lot for the detailed answer!

I already use Pi-hole as my DNS server and have it configured at the router level, so all devices — including Home Assistant — should be using it. I also suspect that some Add-ons or Integrations (like Roborock, weather, etc.) might be the reason for the unresponsiveness during internet outages, especially if they’re trying to reach cloud services and get stuck waiting for timeouts.

Is there a way to prevent these Add-ons or integrations from causing issues when there’s no internet? Ideally, I’d like to keep them installed but somehow disable or sandbox them during offline periods.

Also, you’re absolutely right about NTP (time sync) – it’s most likely not working without internet, and I assume that’s also causing problems. But as far as I know, NTP requires an internet connection unless I run a local NTP server. Is that the only way to solve this?

Would love suggestions on:

  • How to make HA fully resilient when offline
  • How to sandbox/disable cloud-dependent integrations temporarily
  • How to handle NTP in a no-internet setup

Thanks again!

4

Can only fully answer one of your questions:

Use the Chrony Add-On. It’s made for this.

As for the rest of your questions, maybe set up a ping sensor which pings Google (8.8.8.8) periodically. Set up an automation which disables those cloud integrations like Roborock & Solarman using the Spook integration.

Out of curiosity - I see a bunch of errors with Solarman when you’re offline, but the Solarman integration in HACS says it uses a local connection. How are you testing the “no internet” scenario? Asking because it should still find devices on your local network, unless you just pulled the ethernet cord going to your server.

5

You can disable any integration in settings.
I ran HA without any problem for over a month without internet connection. I had chrony and Pihole with local DNS. I had a RTC plugged into my RPI4. Don’t know if RTC worked but I never rebooted HA during that time to find out. Imagine a whole month without updating anything.

6

That’s a good point.

Normally, everything should run locally, so I’m not sure where the errors or warnings are coming from.

My access points are still online, and so is my OpenWRT router — only the modem lost its connection.

I suspect it might be related to NTP.

7

Having the same problem.
And yes I have 2 things on my dashboard that need a connection. The wether forecast and a ping to Google to see if the connection has any outages over the day.
But that shouldn’t hold back the home assistant from working. Problem is. I can’t load my car when Vodafone again decides that they have problems.

I took the HA approach so I can always access the charger, battery etc. But it seems like it’s not working this way :frowning: