I’m just setting up my new Homey Pro, and by clicking on the backup and some searching learned it’s a paid cloud-based service and that the local backup is a full backup at the os level.
I searched but mostly found people who wanted to change how it’s done and not just the info on how it works. And for the record, I have no problems with the payment. What I am wanting to understand (before I one day need it) is when I would use the cloud backup.
I get that I would use the local if I’m switching hubs for whatever reason. It’s the cloud part that I can’t find the information on - would this be for if an update (or something I do) «breaks» something and the Homey OS is still ok but the configuration/apps are not working correctly?
Cloud backups are very minimal, they contain only data and metadata (like which apps are installed). They don’t contain the actual apps, or the firmware, so when you need to restore your Homey after a factory reset or replacement you will always get the latest versions of the apps and firmware. Or in other words: cloud backups will not allow you to revert your Homey to a previous working state (for instance when an app or firmware update breaks something), unless the issue is purely caused by misconfiguration.
Local backups are full internal storage backups, so they contain everything (apps, firmware, data, etc). Since they contain the firmware of your Homey, they are hardware-specific. If a new Homey Pro is released in the future that contains different hardware, it might not be possible to use local backups to transfer data from an old Homey Pro to a new Homey Pro. Making a local backup requires connecting Homey to a local PC/Mac over USB, which means your Homey will be offline during that time.
So if, for example I added a new app, changed a bunch of flows and couldn’t figure out how to fix it - would I then be able to do a factory reset and restore the latest cloud backup, and that would initiate a download of the apps that were installed? Or would it be that I just do a restore from the cloud and it would then look like «yesterday» minus the new app and changes I made?
I guess what I’m trying to wrap my head around is how “deep” would a cloud restore be - all the way down to firmware?
Automatic cloud backups are created once a night. The 7 most recent backups are kept.
When you want to do “risky things”, first start a cloud backup yourself.
If I could, I would local backup with every firmware update.
Things can go wrong, and DO go wrong.
To be able to revert right away is better than waiting for the next bugfix.
Like I said: cloud backups don’t store firmware or apps. When you restore from a cloud backup, Homey will install the latest firmware and the latest version of each app. So you cannot revert back to a previous version of an app, or firmware, using cloud backups.
Additionally, apps installed from other sources but the homey.app store will not get downloaded & restored.
(Other sources can be homeycommunity.space or github/bitbucket)
But, their settings and devices are backupped, and will appear after installing those apps.
In other words, after restoring a backup, all (or most) comes back as soon as you installed those apps again.
