A backup is a second copy of the data in order to protect themselves against these disappear by natural disasters or human error. A backup should be stored somewhere other than the original data.
If you run Home Assistant on a Raspberry Pi with a microSD card, then it is not a question of if but when the card will break. Then it is extra important to have a backup copy of the smart home layout so you get back up quickly.
Home Assistant has a built-in backup function, which creates an image of your setup. This can be loaded on a “blank” installation of Home Assistant, and in a few minutes, you will be back where you were.
The image that is created is placed in a separate folder. Here you can copy this file to an external space so that it does not disappear when the microSD card breaks.
BUT – there’s also a lot easier, and better, way of doing this. Namely, by installing an add-on to Home Assistant that uses Google Drive as a storage area for backup your.
Home Assistant Add-on: Google Drive Backup
A complete and easy way to back up your Home Assistant snapshots to Google Drive.
This is for you if you want to quickly set up a backup strategy without much fuss. It doesn’t require much familiarity with Home Assistant, its architecture, or Google Drive.
It is super-easy to install this add-on, just follow the instruction on the Google Drive Backup page
Once you’ve installed the extension, you can easily configure it to make backups, eg every night. From now on, the Google Drive Backup service will ensure that the backup is completed at the agreed time, and at the same time uploaded to Google Drive. Now you do not have to worry about the microSD card breaking. All you have to do now is have one spare card lying around, so you can get back up quickly when (not if) the microSD card breaks.