#Home Assistant Green disk nearly full

1 messages · Page 1 of 1 (latest)

cerulean vector
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I got a repair notice this morning saying my disk is running low on free space and I only have 2GB left. I have looked at the documents the notice links to but I can't translate tehm into something I can understand. It appears to be impossible to add extra storage to HA Green and although there seems to be something called recorder where I could change what is saved or purge data from the disk, I can't find it on the system.
Please can some kind person help me to sort this out before the disk fills up completely and the whole thing dies. I have no ability to code in Yaml, and I have had the system just over a year.

solid marten
cerulean vector
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Thank you Michael - I have 2GB of backups, my system backs up every night and saves a backup to the cloud and to the system, saving 3 backups and deleting older ones. Every time I update it I save a backup first and I keep a couple of those on the system, otherwise it is just "storage" which I presume is data:

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I have some addons, but I have tried to keep it to a minimum because I know storage is finite. I think what I need to do is choose which data to retain and which not - for example I have smart plugs for things like dehumidifiers which are useful to see what they are currently using but don't need to keep all the data all the time when they are not in use

solid marten
cerulean vector
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could it be logs, and if so how do I delete them?

solid marten
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Logs take care of themselves.

solid marten
# cerulean vector could it be logs, and if so how do I delete them?

Tbh, A way to narrow a few things down without delving too deeply is probably to:

create full backup, keep it safe along with encryption key
do a full reset of the green
upload backup during onboarding to restore system.

It might seem drastic but it is likely to just solve the issue outright.

cerulean vector
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Knowing me, that is likely to break teh whole thing - I am catastrophic when it comes to this sort of stuff. I haven't a clue how to onboard a backup to HA

solid marten
cerulean vector
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I see, and is the encryption key somewhere I can find it? I may have made a note of it but not sure (sorry, I'm a pensioner with a poor memory).

solid marten
solid marten
cerulean vector
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Ahh, I think I did download an emergency kit, thanks. I haven't an SD card but I could try a normal reset

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Thank you for your help 🙂

solid marten
cerulean vector
last cloud
cerulean vector
last cloud
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I tried to make it easily followable :<

cerulean vector
# last cloud I tried to make it easily followable :<

Thank you - I understand that programming is hard. Unfortunately it uses visuals and words that are completely new to me. I don't know what docker means, I don't know what SSH addon means, there are various groups of letters like gdu and ncdu which mean absolutely nothing to me, and it says to "use" things and do things that I have no idea how to access or even what device to attempt to access them on. Basically I am a computer imbecile with a talent for breaking anything vaguely techie and have bitten off far more than I can get in my mouth, let alone chew.

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Home Assistant is incredibly useful and having had it for a year I don't know what I would do without it. I am currently trying to pluck up the courage to do a factory reset, but I am terrified of breaking it,

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It takes me several days to dare to do a core update, let alone this

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Another question before I make any serious errors - I have bluetooth and Zigbee dongles attached to Home Assistant Green. Should I remove them before doing a reset?

last cloud
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I personally wouldn't bother.

cerulean vector
cerulean vector
solid marten
cerulean vector
# solid marten Tbh, A way to narrow a few things down without delving too deeply is probably to...

Hi Michael, restoring the system worked in that when it came back up the disk space was 28% full. However, only a week later it is now 45% full. At this rate it is only going to last a couple more weeks before it fills up again. Is there anything else I can try to stop it from doing this? It does an automatic backup to HA and the cloud every night, and keeps 3 backups, which are less than 500Mb each, but it is noticeable that the biggest increase in space used comes over night (3% last night for example).

cerulean vector
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Has anyone any idea what I can do to stop the disk filling up - it seems to be getting worse as it is now 49% full. I can't keep wiping the whole thing every 2-3 weeks. Is it irreparably broken? Do I need to buy another unit and start again from scratch? I would be really, really upset if I have to stop using Home Assistant because I can't stop it doing this.

solid marten
bold mantle
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What app integrations are present

solid marten
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And as @bold mantle mentioned, What apps are installed? perhaps one is misbehaving and doing strange stuff.

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You could try manually pruning the docker container images too.

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something like docker image prune although I am not sure if you can run this from a terminal app or if it needs to be on the host terminal.

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perhaps an app is misbehaving and trying to update and downloading a bunch of images or something.

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although as said the above guide from impact will help narrow down specific files/directories that are growing.

cerulean vector
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Thank you both. I updated the OS version when I did the restore so that is up to date. The core is up to date except for the most recent version so I am on 2026.4.2. There are no pending updates to any of the apps,

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The apps that are installed are Alpha ESS, Backup, Bluetooth, BT Home, Electricity Maps, ESP Home, Google Translate, HACS, Home Assistant Connect, Home Asssistant Green, Home Assistant Supervisor, Local Calendar, Melcloud, Meteorological Institutt, Mobile App, Myenergi, Octopus Energy, Radio Browser, Shelly, Shopping List, Solar Edge, Sonoff, Sun, ThemoPro and Zigbee Home Automation. I have Terminal installed, 6 custom dashboards and an extra one called Ewelink smart home which appeared when I installed teh Sonoff smart plugs.

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Attached to the little box is a blue ZBT-1 dongle and nearby is a little square grey dongle that deals with the bluetooth - it has a strange name that I can't remember.

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After a lot of thought my diagnosis is that I first noticed the problem on 12th April when I got a notification that the disk was 90% full. I have added no new integrations since and the disk fills up at about 3-4% a day. When I restored it 28% was used, meaning that to use the extra 62% will have taken it something in the region of 15-20 days, which takes you back to 23rd - 28th March for the cause., which is very interesting. On 23rd March I had electricians here, finishing of work which involved completely rewiring and replacing my consumer unit. Before they turned the power off I shut down Home Assistant, but stupidly didn't think to unplug it. The power came back on and then went off again straight away and I remember the electrician saying that something slightly odd had happened. Home Assistant will have been starting up when it was suddenly deprived of power. I wonder if this has damaged it. For information, since that day I have also had problems with my Zappi, which will charge the car but not accept any sort of programming from Octopus, car or Zappi app. The 13A fuse in the kettle blew a couple of days later, 3 of my smart plugs record the current power but don't reset at midnight like they used to, one of my sets of growlights stopped working the next day and the house now draws a continual small (10-60W) import from the grid even with solar and battery running everything. The electricians have been back twice since to try and sort these things and are completely bemused although they haven't given up. My thought is that there has been a spike in the electricity that has damaged some things, including Home Assistant. Does that sound likely?

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I am looking at Impact's link above and trying to turn off the part of my brain that goes into meltdown when it sees computer code. The point I start to get lost is where it says Advanced SSH addon, then tells me to run something. Do I have to install this Advanced SSH addon? Where do I run it - is that in Terminal? "apk add gdu

Use this if you want to ignore shares/mounts

gdu --ignore-dirs /share /

Otherwise use this

gdu /" is double dutch to me - what are shares/mounts and do I want to ignore them?

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"Then press m (file modification dates) and c (file counts) and i (item info) and look around with the arrow keys.
Press ? for shortcuts, q to close modals. Ask before deleting anything if you're unsure 😉" - presumably the options m, c ? and q will appear somewhere?

last cloud
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Yep. You click the link to the app and install and configure it (set password in options). Once started you can use it via the sidebar to enter these commands.

cerulean vector
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Sorry for the stupid questions - I am not a programmer

last cloud
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m is a shortcut. Basically press the m key on the keyboard when gdu is open.

cerulean vector
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ahh

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I've never used those - that probably tells you something about the level I usually work at

last cloud
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You'll get there over time. HA can be somewhat complicated so you kinda have to learn a lot of things at some point.

cerulean vector
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yeah, this is why I chose HA Green - it took me over a day to work out how to install HACS

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I'm not stupid, I just go into a sort of frozen panic state where I am terrified of breaking things

last cloud
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The green can give you an easier start by saving you from the installation but that's just part of the learning curve. Once you learn how to reset and take and restore backups that panic should decrease a lot since you can't permanently break things. Theoretically.

cerulean vector
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Hmm, I wouldn't put it past me! But yes, I see about the backups, although I noticed when I did the restore last time that all the backups had vanished including in the cloud, so if it had not worked I would have been completely stuck

last cloud
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I don't use the nabu cloud but that shouldn't happen. The local (on device) backups are removed by a full reset. Fortunately there's different storages you can back up too. Google drive for example. Or simply download them to your PC regularily.

cerulean vector
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I download a manual backup to my pc every time I do one. It saves it as a TAR file but I wouldn't have the faintest idea how to get it back onto HA

last cloud
cerulean vector
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ok

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I will try downloading the addon and see if I can make head or tail of it - will you be around later, maybe this evening, if I make a mess of stuff? I have to get on with things now unfortunately

last cloud
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I can't really predicts when I'm available but michael and I are attached to this thread and get notifications. One of us can likely help.

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Also time zones make "evening" ambiguous 😄

cerulean vector
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Thank you, I really appreciate your help 🙂 FYI I am in the UK.

cerulean vector
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Ok, I have installed Terminal and SSH and now have 2 things that say Terminal in the sidebar. Is that because I had it before, or is this a different one, and should I get rid of one, in which case, how?

last cloud
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You can technically keep and use both if you configure them to use different network ports. I'd just keep the Advanced one. You can remove the other in the settings.

cerulean vector
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Stupid question - how do I remove it? I can't see it in teh list of integrations

last cloud
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It's an app/addon.

steady jasperBOT
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App store

Open your Home Assistant instance and show the app store

cerulean vector
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You are seeing this page because you have been linked to a page in your Home Assistant instance but have not configured My Home Assistant. Enter the URL of your Home Assistant instance to continue.

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ok I've got to teh app store

last cloud
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The Core SSH App should be there. It's the same place where you configure the password for the Advanced SSS App.

cerulean vector
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I can't see core SSH. I also can't see an apps link in teh sidebar of HA, which I am 95% certain was there bofore

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I can see Terminal, which says it is allowing logging in remotely - which I do need to do

last cloud
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I might not have the correct name at the top of my head. I'm mobile at the moment. Apps is in the settings.

cerulean vector
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Ok found Apps, I can see both Terminals. I think at this point I will leave it for now as there are multiple other things I ought to be doing!

last cloud
cerulean vector
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Thanks, I have disabled the old one and removed its sidebar item. The new Terminal is showing in the sidebar and in the apps list. If I click on the sidebar it says the app is not running and gives me teh option to start it. If I do that it thinks about it for a bit and then seems to go back to the stopped state. If I start it after clicking on the app in the apps list it appears to start but if I then try to go to it from the sidebar it says it is not running...

last cloud
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Check its logs. You likely didn't set a password as mentioned earlier.

cerulean vector
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This is absolutely typical of what happens when I try to so this sort of stuff - what normally happens for everyone else does not happen for me!

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Where do I set a password - I didn't see an option to do that

last cloud
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In the Configuration tab under SSH.

cerulean vector
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its asking for a username, which is hassio, do I need to change that to me?

last cloud
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You can but no.

cerulean vector
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aha, it now opens.

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so the next thing I do is type apk add gdu ?

last cloud
cerulean vector
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what is shares/mounts - do I want to ignore tehm or not?

cerulean vector
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ok so I have turned off protection and restarted the app and I now have Terminal open and a green arrow followed by a blue wiggly line, then a grey block. I expected to be able to copy and paste the code, but it doesn't like that. I am now absolutely petrified of breaking something.

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I have done a backup

last cloud
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The commands there are safe. I thought the mouse issue was fixed by now. Does SHIFT + right click give you a paste option?

cerulean vector
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shift + right click, if you mean press teh shift key and right click the mouse, does nothign as far as I can see

last cloud
cerulean vector
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as usual I don't understand that 🙁

last cloud
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And yes I'm aware all these hoops are painful and kind of ridiculous but 🤷

cerulean vector
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its more that I don't trust myself not to do something stupid

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you are being very kind and patient, thank you

last cloud
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Hmm. I reinstalled the app to start with default settings but the normal browser context menu (right click) to paste stuff works for me on chrome.

cerulean vector
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I was using ctrl c and ctrl v which is the way I normally copy and paste

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I'm using Brave which is pretty much chrome

last cloud
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TLDR: Try CTRL+SHIFT+V.

cerulean vector
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I tried right click and it works, thanks. Do I now press return?

last cloud
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Yep.

cerulean vector
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its doing something...

last cloud
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Deleting all the data of course 😈
HAOS is composed of a lot of files. Finding and checking all their sizes and such can take a few seconds.

cerulean vector
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ok I have a list. At teh top it says in green 22.2 GiB /mnt

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the next biggest thing (I assume) is 501.9 MiB /user

last cloud
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Look around with the arrow keys for the largest items. You can mostly ignore everything but *mnt/data and stuff beneath.
This is what's wiped during a factory reset, for example.

cerulean vector
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ok...

last cloud
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Here's how mine looks for comparison

image.png
cerulean vector
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this is what I see

image.png
last cloud
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I don't expect you to know what this data is for, just look around if you're curious. I also added a section at the bottom today about how to easily clean some and check which image/addon/app uses the space: https://gist.github.com/Impact123/fb086b391f7d14cb3515144fcbe4785e#a-note-about-dockeraddonapp-bloat
The docker part looks fairly normal. depends how many apps you have installed and which ones. The way linked above should partially show what's taking up its space. You can traverse into the supervisor directory. I'm guessing most of the data is your HA backups but worth a check.

cerulean vector
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yes 1.7GiB is backups (there are currently 4)

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so after 3 days from when I restored it there were 3 additional backups, after which the system deletes the oldest one when it does a new one (every night). So why is the stored data increasing at about 3% a day?

last cloud
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That I cannot tell you but you can now check exactly what takes up what amount of space which should help figure that out.

cerulean vector
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Its very odd because it only started after I had electrical work done. It can't have been doing it before or it would have filled up the disk

last cloud
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Maybe it's the database or logs. Anything else had a large size in the *mnt/data/supervisor/ path?

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You can close gdu via q or CTRL+C and check docker system df -v. Also try the repair I linked and see if it decreases.

cerulean vector
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the next biggest under supervisor is 795.8 MiB /homeassistant

solid marten
cerulean vector
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I am not aware of anything downloading images if you mean pictures. there are charts created from the data, mainly from smart plugs or APIs, and quite a few utility meters

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Nothing has been changed recently which is why I suspect the electrical work

solid marten
last cloud
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Images refer to the docker/container "templates". It's what taking space in the docker directory. You can see their sizes via docker system df -v.

cerulean vector
last cloud
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Basically you need some space for the archive/image and then the uncompressed version of that that the app uses as working path. Well, kinda.

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On updates that image is updated and the old one apparently kept around for some time. After all this time I still don't know when images are auto pruned. To be fair I didn't look into it much but still, someone should have mentioned it.

cerulean vector
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So if I have an API that is reading data every 10 seconds or something, its creating an updated image and the old one stays around?

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I'm thinking for example of my Shelly that monitors the heating, which sends data very frequently

last cloud
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No. Pretty much all services on HAOS are containers. HA, apps, etc. Containers are considered ephemeral/temporary. When they are created they are created form a image. The image is like the template or base state of a service. Think of it like a archive (.zip) file for a portable application. You extract it and run the app.

cerulean vector
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mmm, ok

last cloud
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Reading your API likely stores some data in the recorder database though. For investigating that I recommend the DB Stats app. Also linked in my article. But considering the homeassistant directory is not very large it likely is not that. The database file is called home-assistant_v2.db.

cerulean vector
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yeah, its a puzzle. If I type in ha supervisor repair
ha host reboot will that reduce the disk space used?

last cloud
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Maybe. The idea was that you check docker system df -v first to see the images and their sizes. You could check it again afterwards.

cerulean vector
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ok I can try that - how do I get back to teh bit where I can type stuff?

last cloud
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It's where the CTRL hotkeys come in again.

cerulean vector
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sorry I'm rather slow

last cloud
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Take your time, feel free to re-read stuff.

cerulean vector
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this is what I see

image.png
last cloud
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Personally I feel like 32G is stretching it for a future proof HA device. Even more so after HAOS 17 which uses more space.
Hmm. That ewelink app seems to use a lot of space. The rest looks normal. You should be able to uninstall the HACS addon. It's a one time thing.

cerulean vector
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I keep using HACS though

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for new addons

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ewelink is the app that works the sonoff smart plugs, of which I have 26

last cloud
cerulean vector
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err, no idea tbh

last cloud
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Just trust me on that 😉
Well, trust, but verify.

cerulean vector
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it wouldn't surprise me if the ewelink is the problem because 3 of the smart plug utility meters broke after teh electrical work

last cloud
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Maybe I have some time tomorrow to look into it and reproduce it. Kinda curious about that

cerulean vector
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you are very kind

solid marten
last cloud
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I'm not really used to seeing a lot of space in that Containers space usage section.

cerulean vector
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I have installed all the updates that have appeared for all of the apps, the only pending update is the latest core one

solid marten
cerulean vector
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so what do I do about that - do I uninstall it and install the new one?

solid marten
last cloud
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Back up first. And not just to the green 🙂

cerulean vector
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last time I deleted an addon (for my car) I broke it completely and have been unable to reinstall it. Thats one of the reasons I'm very scared of this

last cloud
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I don't expect the device to blow up but I've "exhaustion quit" some migrations like this in the past and having a recent backup is very helpful for that occasion.

solid marten
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I am suspicious that there was an update/change that broke the old one and its now misbehaving and spewing stuff somewhere. and the new version likely works better.

cerulean vector
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there are 2 things related to the smart plugs. One is the sonoff integration and the other appears as a tab in the sidebar called ewelink smart home. I was surprised to see that as I don't think I specifically installed it, but its a long time ago and my memory isn't great.

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which do I delete?

solid marten
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The app, not the integration.

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settings - apps

cerulean vector
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ok - will it break all my utility meters?

solid marten
cerulean vector
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I will do, thanks

cerulean vector
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Ok, I uninstalled the ewelink app and attempted to reinstall it from the link on the page. It says "an unknown error occurred"

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the data from the smart plugs still seems to be being updated, so I am not sure what the ewelink app actually does

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Uninstalling ewelink has dropped the disk usage from 53% earlier to 36%

solid marten
cerulean vector
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yes 🙂

solid marten
cerulean vector
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not sure how to manually remove the old repo, or even how to find it

solid marten
cerulean vector
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ahh, is that where I remove the old HACS thing mentioned earlier?

solid marten
cerulean vector
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ok, forget that. so I just delete teh ewelink one

solid marten
cerulean vector
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yes

solid marten
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delete that

cerulean vector
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ok, that's gone

solid marten
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then can press "add"

cerulean vector
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it asks for url

solid marten
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and add the new repo:
https://github.com/iHost-Open-Source-Project/hassio-ihost-addon

cerulean vector
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ok

solid marten
# cerulean vector ok

Then when you you go "back" and are on the install app screen you will probably see the new version in the list along with the other stuff in that repo.

cerulean vector
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ok found it and installing it (I hope)...

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its taking its time...

solid marten
cerulean vector
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ok it seems to have installed it

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Now showing 40% disk used so that app uses 4%

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seems a lot

solid marten
cerulean vector
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ok

solid marten
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Again, I have no idea what the app is actually doing or what it contains so just guesswork at this point. 😛

cerulean vector
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So hopefully we have solved the problem, I will keep an eye on the disk space and see what happens

cerulean vector
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not quite sure why it is needed as well as the Sonoff integration

solid marten
cerulean vector
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Thank you so much for all your help , and Impact as well - I could not have done this without it. Very much appreciated.

solid marten