2026.10.4
Home ▸ Common tasks ▸ General

Viewing and downloading logs

Home Assistant writes down what it does in logs. When something doesn’t work as expected, the logs often show why. For example, a log can show that an integration can’t reach a device, or that a line in your configuration isn’t valid.

To find out more about a problem with one integration, you can also turn on debug logging for that integration. For the steps, refer to Debug logs and diagnostics.

Viewing the logs

The Logs page shows the errors and warnings of Home Assistant. A message that repeats is shown once, with the number of times it occurred. The list starts again each time Home Assistant restarts. The raw logs show all messages, including older ones.

Prerequisites

  • Administrator rights.

To view the logs

  1. Go to Settings > System > Logs.
    • Result: The page shows the errors and warnings of Home Assistant Core.
  2. To see the details of a message, select it.
    • The details show, for example, which integration the message comes from, when it first occurred, and how often.
  3. To see the entire log, select Menu > Show raw logs.
    • To go back to the errors and warnings, select Menu > Show condensed logs.
  4. To find a message, enter a word from the message in the Search logs field.

Viewing the logs of other parts of the system

On Home Assistant Operating SystemHome Assistant OS, the Home Assistant Operating System, is an embedded, minimalistic, operating system designed to run the Home Assistant ecosystem on single board computers (like the Raspberry Pi) or Virtual Machines. It includes Home Assistant Core, the Home Assistant Supervisor, and supports apps. Home Assistant Supervisor keeps it up to date, removing the need for you to manage an operating system. Home Assistant Operating System is the recommended installation type for most users., other parts of the system have their own logs, for example, the Supervisor and each of your apps. You can view these logs on the Logs page as well.

Prerequisites

  • Administrator rights.
  • Home Assistant Operating SystemHome Assistant OS, the Home Assistant Operating System, is an embedded, minimalistic, operating system designed to run the Home Assistant ecosystem on single board computers (like the Raspberry Pi) or Virtual Machines. It includes Home Assistant Core, the Home Assistant Supervisor, and supports apps. Home Assistant Supervisor keeps it up to date, removing the need for you to manage an operating system. Home Assistant Operating System is the recommended installation type for most users..

To view the logs of other parts of the system

  1. Go to Settings > System > Logs.
  2. In the top-right corner, select the button with the name of the log that is shown, for example, Home Assistant Core.
  3. Select the log that you want to see.
    • Result: The log is shown. New messages are added at the bottom while the page is open.

The following logs are available:

  • Home Assistant Core: Home Assistant itself, including your integrations, automations, and scripts.
  • Supervisor: The part of the system that manages updates, backups, and apps.
  • Host: The operating system.
  • DNS, Audio, and Multicast: The services for name resolution, sound, and device discovery on your network.
  • Your apps, by name.

Viewing the logs of an earlier startup

On Home Assistant Operating SystemHome Assistant OS, the Home Assistant Operating System, is an embedded, minimalistic, operating system designed to run the Home Assistant ecosystem on single board computers (like the Raspberry Pi) or Virtual Machines. It includes Home Assistant Core, the Home Assistant Supervisor, and supports apps. Home Assistant Supervisor keeps it up to date, removing the need for you to manage an operating system. Home Assistant Operating System is the recommended installation type for most users., the logs of earlier startups of the system are kept until the space for logs is full. Then the oldest logs are removed. For example, if the system rebooted because of a problem, the log of the previous startup can show what happened before the reboot.

A startup is a start of the entire system, for example, after a reboot. Restarting Home Assistant doesn’t count as a startup. After a long time without a reboot, only the current startup may be left. Then Show HAOS startups isn’t shown in the menu.

Prerequisites

  • Administrator rights.
  • Home Assistant Operating SystemHome Assistant OS, the Home Assistant Operating System, is an embedded, minimalistic, operating system designed to run the Home Assistant ecosystem on single board computers (like the Raspberry Pi) or Virtual Machines. It includes Home Assistant Core, the Home Assistant Supervisor, and supports apps. Home Assistant Supervisor keeps it up to date, removing the need for you to manage an operating system. Home Assistant Operating System is the recommended installation type for most users..
  • The logs of an earlier startup are still kept.

To view the logs of an earlier startup

  1. Go to Settings > System > Logs.
  2. Select the log that you want to see.
  3. Select Menu > Show HAOS startups.
  4. In the list of startups, select the startup.
    • Current is the log since the last startup. Previous is the startup before that. Earlier startups are shown as, for example, 2 startups ago.
    • Result: The log of that startup is shown.

Downloading the logs

You can download a log to keep a copy of it, or to look at it in another program, such as a text editor.

Prerequisites

  • Administrator rights.

To download the logs

  1. Go to Settings > System > Logs.
  2. Select the log that you want to download.
    • On Home Assistant Operating SystemHome Assistant OS, the Home Assistant Operating System, is an embedded, minimalistic, operating system designed to run the Home Assistant ecosystem on single board computers (like the Raspberry Pi) or Virtual Machines. It includes Home Assistant Core, the Home Assistant Supervisor, and supports apps. Home Assistant Supervisor keeps it up to date, removing the need for you to manage an operating system. Home Assistant Operating System is the recommended installation type for most users., you can also select another part of the system or an earlier startup. For the steps, refer to Viewing the logs of other parts of the system and Viewing the logs of an earlier startup.
  3. Select Download logs .
    • In the errors and warnings view of Home Assistant Core, the entire log is downloaded right away.
    • In the raw logs, a dialog opens. Under Lines, select how many lines to download, and then select Download. The newest lines are downloaded.
    • Result: Your browser saves the log as a file, for example, home-assistant_<date and time>.log, or supervisor_<date and time>.log for the Supervisor log.

Where the logs are stored

Where Home Assistant stores its logs depends on your installation type.

  • Home Assistant Operating SystemHome Assistant OS, the Home Assistant Operating System, is an embedded, minimalistic, operating system designed to run the Home Assistant ecosystem on single board computers (like the Raspberry Pi) or Virtual Machines. It includes Home Assistant Core, the Home Assistant Supervisor, and supports apps. Home Assistant Supervisor keeps it up to date, removing the need for you to manage an operating system. Home Assistant Operating System is the recommended installation type for most users.:
    • All logs are stored in the system journal of the operating system. They are kept across startups, until the space for logs is full. For details, refer to Viewing the logs of an earlier startup. You view them on the Logs page or with the ha command, for example, ha core logs or ha supervisor logs.
    • Home Assistant doesn’t write a home-assistant.log file in your configuration folder. To also write the log to that file, refer to Enable duplicate log file.
    • If a home-assistant.log file is left in your configuration folder, Home Assistant renames it to home-assistant.log.old when it starts.
  • Home Assistant ContainerHome Assistant Container is a standalone container-based installation of Home Assistant Core. Any OCI compatible runtime can be used, but the documentation focus is on Docker. [Learn more]:
    • The log is stored in home-assistant.log in your configuration folder.
    • When Home Assistant starts, the log of the previous run is moved to home-assistant.log.1.
    • The container runtime also keeps the log. For example, with Docker, use docker logs homeassistant, if your container is named homeassistant, as in the installation steps.
    • If the HA_DISABLE_LOG_FILE environment variable is set, Home Assistant doesn’t write home-assistant.log. Then you can’t show the raw logs or download the log on the Logs page. For details, refer to the Logger integration.

On both installation types, if Home Assistant crashes, details of the crash are written to home-assistant.log.fault in your configuration folder.

Related topics