I've lost access to Home Assistant

Configuration
1

I set up Home Assistant about a year ago, configured a few scenes and automations and since then I barely ever touch it. (Testament to how great it works :bowing_man:t2:)

But recently I cannot access the access the unit, either through the web GUI, nor the Android/iOS apps.

Some relevant info:

  • All automations and scenes are still working fine (e.g. clicking a zigbee switch still operates lights, lights still switch off at night time, etc.)
  • Installation was through normal Home Assistant OS install
  • Unit is configured to use DuckDNS, however I have tried to access through home network using homeassisant.local:8123 plus X.X.X.X:8123 and nothing works.
  • I can still ping the unit via local network

It seems that this is frontend related.
I am fairly ā€˜technicalā€™, Iā€™m comfortable with Python, Yaml and the command line, Iā€™m just not sure where the right place to start troubleshooting might be so I decided not to touch anything until speaking with some Home Assistant experts :upside_down_face:

Are there any troubleshooting guides for this kind of thing? And if not, where would you recommend to start?

Many thanks

2

Wow are you in for a world of pain when you do have to update. A yearā€™s worth of breaking changes.

Do you have SSH access?

Or can you connect a keyboard and monitor to whatever you are running home assistant on?

3

A quick update: Iā€™ve just tried to connect again and suddenly I can connect fine through DuckDNS on a browser. But I canā€™t connect over local network on browser and my Android app wonā€™t connect either through External (DuckDNS) or Internal. But at least Iā€™ve got access to the frontend again.

4

Did you try clearing your browser cache?

Did you try connecting to https://<ip_address>:8123 ?

5

I have tried on an incognito session (should have clear cache).

And yes, local IP address doesnā€™t work. I have not tried my external IP address. I will give that a go now

6

:relaxed: One of the few reasons I did log in from time to time was to keep it up to date. More for security reasons than anything else.

Now that I have managed to log in via DuckDNS, Iā€™ve updated it again. Still no change on local network connection or Android app.

Weirdly though, I can see on ā€˜mapsā€™ that it correctly knows the location of my wife, even though her iPhone app also wonā€™t connect.

7

I was going to ask about this. I get a ā€˜connection refusedā€™ when I try to use the same username as the frontend login. What user should I be logging in with via SSH?

8

Whatever credentials you setup in the SSH addon.

9

Working:

  • Web GUI on browser through (external) DuckDNS
  • Web GUI using secure http (https://homeassistant.local:8123), being told it is unsecured and proceeding anyway
  • SSH access

Not working:

  • Web GUI using plain http (even though above works)
  • Android app, using any of the above
10

I never added that add on. But luckily I did add the ā€œSSH & Web Terminalā€ add on. And now Iā€™ve got GUI access I also have SSH access through the GUI. It logs me in as root

11

Then the credentials you set for that addon.

It also provides remote SSH access, not just the web interface.

12

Great. I have SSH access

1 Like
13

Thank you for your help with this @tom_l. What would you suggest next?

I have updated the working/not working list above:

14

DuckDNS includes LetsEncrypt. After installing DuckDNS you only have https access, you can no longer use http.

This has always been the way. It was the way you were accessing it before.

You have to add the security exception to your web browser as the SSL certificate is for your DuckDNS address not https://homeassistant.local:8123

For some reason your browser lost this exception. Did you clear your Browser history?

15

Does the DuckDNS add on auto renew its cert? I have it setup but have been wondering if I need to worry about renewing the SSL at some point.

16

Yes it does. If you want to keep an eye on it thereā€™s this sensor:

Very easy to set up. Just feed it your domain.

17

Thank you for that!

Follow up question is how do I renew the cert? I added the sensor and now see its expiring next month.

18

It will happen automatically. Iā€™m not sure when.

1 Like
19

Youā€™re right. I had forgotten about that as it had been working for so long!

The bigger issue is that Iā€™ve lost access on the Android app. It is trying to use the same https/DuckDNS link as is now working in the browser. One day it just stopped working for both myself (Android) and my wife (iOS). Any clues?

20

Have you tried deleting the app and reinstalling it?

From memory they require the DuckDNS address as there is no way to add a security exception for the local address. So your router needs to support hairpinning (NAT loopback).