Disable Recorder

Use this action to stop the recorder from saving events and state changes to the database. This is handy when you want to skip recording during a noisy or temporary period, for example while running a test that would otherwise fill the database with values you don’t need to keep.

Only users with administrator rights can run this action.

Using this action from the user interface

If you prefer building automations and scripts visually, Home Assistant walks you through this action step by step. You pick what to target, tweak a few options, and save. No YAML knowledge required.

To disable the recorder from an automation or a script:

1. Go to Settings > Automations & scenes.
2. Open an existing automation or script, or select Create automation > Create new automation.
3. If you’re setting up a new automation, add a trigger in the When section. Scripts don’t need a trigger. They run when something else calls them.
4. In the Then do section, select Add action.
5. From the list of actions, search for and select Disable Recorder.
6. Select Save.

Options in the UI

This action has no options.

Using this action in YAML

If you work directly in YAML, or you want to know exactly what Home Assistant does under the hood, this section has the technical reference. It lists the field names you use in YAML, their types, and which ones are required.

In YAML, refer to this action as recorder.disable. A basic example looks like this:

action: recorder.disable

Options in YAML

This action has no options.

Good to know

• Recording stays disabled until you call the Enable Recorder action or restart Home Assistant. After a restart, recording is active again.
• Any events and state changes that happen while the recorder is disabled are not stored, so they won’t appear in your history.

Still stuck?

The Home Assistant community is quick to help: join Discord for real-time chat, post on the community forum with the action you’re calling and what you expected to happen, or share on our subreddit /r/homeassistant.

Related actions

These actions work well alongside this one:

• Enable Recorder: Resumes recording events and state changes to the database.

• Purge Recorder database: Cleans up old data from the recorder database.

• Purge Recorder entities: Removes recorded data for specific entities, domains, or patterns.

• Get Recorder statistics: Retrieves long-term statistics for one or more entities.