I started with home assistant 1.5 years ago and been fine tuning it ever since. Spend a lot of time to get everything running and got lights / heating / curtains / windows and more all controlled by home assistant.
It al runs well with many automation’s and scripts until an update
But then the updates every week/month and the time a have to put into it because of stuff that is changed / deprecated in update is huge and my willingness to spend time on getting it goes down fast
It is working fine leave it alone, i don’t want (breaking) update’s anymore.
This is not going to last
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If you don’t want to update, or you don’t have time to read the breaking changes… just skip the update.
I have to agree that the monthly update has become a bit of a fetish. Quarterly would be fine. I don’t think I’ve actually used features from an update since the beginning of the year. And most breaking changes only break… after an update. 
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I do my update immediately after I do my manual, full image, end-of-month monthly backup. I use this backup image as my new production system. Then I update to the last .x version for the month (believing that any issues would be fixed before next months release). If the update breaks something (this just happened going from 2025.5.3 → 2025.6.3 because of an issue with an integration - not found in any breaking changes), I just restore my backup.
I agree that it’s kind of a pain but I’m interested in knowing that my backups are good - doing the update is secondary.
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But how does moving to quarterly updates improve that? Logic would suggest that the reason breaking changes are discovered after updates is because they weren’t discovered during beta… does moving to quarterly updates somehow make a more disparate group of users join the beta team?
Here’s an idea… then don’t update?
If your system is running then there’s no reason to update. The purpose for updates are to add new features or fix issues with existing ones.
If your system is functioning… then leave it alone?
You only have to deal with it every three months?
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Less frequent updates mean larger sets of changes mean more risk of breakage. It’s always a question of trade offs.
I feel like the current frequency of monthly releases plus point releases for fixes and smaller changes reflects the speed of change in the home automation ecosystem as well as a good frequency to trust updates with bugs will be fixed sooner rather than later.
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You don’t have to do any updates. I have certain instances that do not do any updates, if they are running fine, it great. You’re not required to do any updates, even if it is a break change, if your system is working as you like, skip all the updates. If there an update that addresses a problem you have, well I guess you have to do that update if you want full functionality.
But basically, updates are not required.
I do an update almost every single day. It hasn’t broken for me in a long time. Occassionally I will do a full backup of my VM that is kept offline on local storage.
I have the Google Drive Backup addon which takes a fuill backup once a day. If there ever is an issue, I just restore that - but it hasn’;e happened in a long time.
Also before every update I do a backup of those components with Google Drive Backup. I rarely have to do a restore, and every time I have done one it has worked perfectly…
Now you all hate me… 
It would be a nightmare. 3x as many changes in the one release.
Home assistant is not a “set and forget” system. It requires constant (but minimal) maintenance.
I update 3rd party integrations and cards when they are available, probably one a week, and it takes less than a minute.
I usually participate in the monthly beta testing. This month is the first month in a long time I have had to roll back a version due to an updated core integration not working as expected. It took less than 5 minutes to report the issue and roll back via the command line (it did not require a backup restore). It has already been fixed and I’m back on the beta.
If you can’t handle scheduling 10 to 15 minutes a month on a quite Sunday afternoon for update maintenance then you might be better off with something like HomeKit.
True but if you fall too far behind then when you do have to update, for a new feature you want or a security update, you are going to have to deal with a lot of changes all at once. It can be quite overwhelming. Far better to stay within a few versions of the latest.
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Does it? Sometimes it feels like busywork.
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I can see why you would think that. The updates do often look like the devs are just fiddling around the edges and ignoring issues that have been open for a long time. I have one front end issue that I can guarantee you all suffer from that I have kept open for 3 years and it is still not fixed.
But new integrations are added every release that benefit someone, and the UI has come a long way in the last few years.
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Damn. And I thought it was turning my lights on and off.
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There are cases where built-in things break, but OP needs to clarify the split between built-in things and custom things breaking.
Poorly thought-out software with a poorly thought-out legacy codebase compounded by poorly thought-out decisions, rinse repeat. Not to mention the most horrific UI and UX I have ever seen. Sorry. I know it’s free. I know people volunteer their time to contribute code. It’s bad. It’s awful. It’s rage inducing. Because it OBVIOUSLY COULD HAVE BEEN SO MUCH BETTER, had the devs made a few different decisions a long time ago.
The way HA used and uses YAML makes it clear that whoever is calling the shots on this thing is a sociopath. Or an idiot. Either way, not meant to be making commercial software.
You must be new to home assistant, because no update task in HA takes 15 minutes, they always take considerably more. You are lying if you say otherwise.
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Perhaps it is just because I know what I’m doing?
I’m here to help if you want some advice when you finish venting.
Also you are skating very close to contravening our Code of Conduct.
No insults please.
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Yes, I realize you have been here for quite a while, I was pointing out that saying updates take 15 minutes is disingenuous. If it’s somehow true for you, then perhaps the real question is: why do so many people struggle with every single aspect of HA? Why do so few people “know what they’re doing”? In 2025, HA’s codebase should be mature. It is not.
In reality, 99% of tasks in HA should only take 15 minutes, and in most users’ heads they probably do. How many times have you thought “Great idea for an automation, I’ll just add that real quick” or “I can’t wait to set up this new device” only to run into some unexpected blocker, so you look in the logs (which aren’t where they used to be), filter for the device, google the error, dig through the forums hoping to find someone with the same issue who also has the same hardware…I get a tension headache just thinking about it. Even putting aside the integration layer’s inescapable vulnerabilities to third-party stupidity (I acknowledge there is only so much that can be done here), the ridiculously bad UI/UX makes any interaction with the software painful and arduous.
When so many users complain about so many aspects of the software for such a long time, it becomes the fault of the product team.
I do appreciate the offer to help even after I was snarky, but my system is in a period of stability because I have learned never to touch it.
I have been using HA now for about 6 years. I update every time I spot something that has an update. I read the breaking changes so I know what to expect. I spend maybe no more than 30 seconds every other day sorting the updates. I only have one occasion that sticks i my mind of an update that broke something I was not expecting. That just involved a rollback and wait till the fix was sorted. My system has only ever broken because of something I did, and then that is easy to fix. Even if it does break it is so easy to restore a backup its not really an issue.
I do spend a lot of time messing about with HA but not because of updates its because I enjoy it and want to try new stuff.
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Just done a pair of updates today, that wasted nearly 5 seconds of my life clicking those buttons.
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