Why are backups created with the standard backup tool always Partial, with no option to create a Full backup?

Configuration
1

I’ve always used hassio-google-drive-backup for backups, but I’m looking to switch to the standard backup feature built into HA (Settings - System - Backup). However, even when selecting everything, it still counts as a partial backup.

Right now, I’m running both: the internal tool for a daily “partial” backup, which is actually a full one, and hassio-google-drive-backup for a full backup every three days.

I prefer full backups because I’ve had situations where I needed a complete restore, and that only works with backups labeled as “Full.”

It seems like having a simple “Full backup” checkbox in the internal tool would make sense, though maybe there’s a reason it hasn’t been added.

2

What do you see when you click on the backup inside HA?

I just created 3 manual backups manually in HA:

  • Backup with Media, Share Folder & all Addons included
  • Backup with Media & Share Folder excluded but all Addons included
  • Backup with Media, Share Folder & all Addons excluded

They were all named “Custom Backup” by default - no references to Full or Partial in the name.

3

What version of Home Assistant are you running?

That isn’t true.

4

Can you elaborate?

I tried restoring with a backup that was labeled partial from the command line and it would not allow me, it told me I needed to select a full backup.

5

If you go to a terminal and type

ha backups list

It will show that they are Partial backups and not full backups

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6

Not really it is a simple question.

And You can restore partial backups.

7

I agree that you can restore partial backups, but only if you need parts of the backup. But if you want to recover your FULL system, you will need a full backup.

And the current backup feature will always create a partial backup, even if you select to backup everything. And that backup can NOT be used to do a full restore.

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8

I just opened two of my full backups. Everything is there. Add-ons, config folders, everything. They are not partial.

9

If you go to a terminal and type

ha backups list

It will show that they are Partial backups and not full backups

So yes they contain EVERYTHING, but are not considered a full backup and as such can not be used for a full restore.

2 Likes
11

I had a similar issue yesterday. I made a mess of something in my config and couldn’t reach the gui.
So I tried to restore from a backup via cli (ha backups restore slugname), but it failed with the “partial backup”-error. In fact all my backups (ha backups list) were marked as “type”: “partial”.
I did eventually fix my issue with vi in the cli and then did a restore from the gui.

However, as a verification/sanity check I just made a backup of everything from the gui, and then checked the json in the backup. It reads: “type”: “partial”. It is beyond me why that is, but it seems counterintuitive, that a backup of everything gets marked as partial.

3 Likes
12

Yes they can. I’ve helped multiple people do that.

They may not be able to be used to restore during install of a new system but you can do a fresh install, upload the backup and restore from within the backup system.

This is the only issue I could find:

Feel free to open a new one.

13

I solved it with an automation to ensure a FULL backup. Based on your input and the issue report it seems some people do have an issue with it and some dont.

I am still confinced that the automatic backup in my installation only creates backups that are considered as “Partial”. The backups that it has created support that as running the command “ha backups list” in a terminal will show that they are PARTIAL.

I now run this automation:

alias: System - Full backup 05:00
description: ""
triggers:
  - at: "05:00:00"
    trigger: time
conditions: []
actions:
  - action: hassio.backup_full
    metadata: {}
    data:
      compressed: true
mode: single
1 Like