home-assistant/core · error · BackupReaderWriterError

Home Assistant must be included in backup

Error message

Home Assistant must be included in backup

What it means

BackupReaderWriterError raised when creating a core backup with include_homeassistant=False. The core backup format is the Home Assistant configuration directory archive; a core backup that excludes Home Assistant itself would be empty, so HA rejects it.

Source

Thrown at homeassistant/components/backup/manager.py:1739

        extra_metadata: dict[str, bool | str],
        include_addons: list[str] | None,
        include_all_addons: bool,
        include_database: bool,
        include_folders: list[Folder] | None,
        include_homeassistant: bool,
        on_progress: Callable[[CreateBackupEvent], None],
        password: str | None,
    ) -> tuple[NewBackup, asyncio.Task[WrittenBackup]]:
        """Initiate generating a backup."""
        date_str = dt_util.now().isoformat()
        backup_id = _generate_backup_id(date_str, backup_name)

        if include_addons or include_all_addons or include_folders:
            raise BackupReaderWriterError(
                "Addons and folders are not supported by core backup"
            )
        if not include_homeassistant:
            raise BackupReaderWriterError("Home Assistant must be included in backup")

        backup_task = self._hass.async_create_task(
            self._async_create_backup(
                agent_ids=agent_ids,
                backup_id=backup_id,
                backup_name=backup_name,
                extra_metadata=extra_metadata,
                include_database=include_database,
                date_str=date_str,
                on_progress=on_progress,
                password=password,
            ),
            name="backup_manager_create_backup",
            eager_start=False,  # To ensure the task is not started before we return
        )

        return (NewBackup(backup_job_id=backup_id), backup_task)

View on GitHub (pinned to 58a3fdb3ea)

Solutions

1. Always pass include_homeassistant=True for core backups
2. If you only wanted to trigger an agent-side backup, use the agent's own API rather than the core create flow
3. Audit the create-backup payload construction to stop forwarding unsupported combinations

Example fix

// before
{"include_homeassistant": false, "include_database": true}
// after
{"include_homeassistant": true, "include_database": true}

assert include_homeassistant, "Core backups must include Home Assistant"

When it happens

Trigger: Calling the core backup creation API with include_homeassistant set to False (while the addon/folder flags are already clean).

Common situations: A client forwards a full backup-options form and passes include_homeassistant: false; script built for agent-only backups assumes the flag is honored; UI payload built by concatenating optional flags defaults wrongly.

Related errors

• Addons and folders are not supported by core backup
• username_not_normalized
• You need at least Home Assistant version {backup_meta_versio
• Operation mode not supported
• Command not found. Exiting sequence

AI-assisted analysis of home-assistant/core@58a3fdb3ea (2026-08-14). Data as JSON: /api/errors/235bf8545880b82e. Report an issue: GitHub.