Updates and recovery

Updating a panel

From Home Assistant. Each panel has an update entity. When a newer version is published the entity offers it, and installing is a button press; Panel Assistant installs the update and confirms the panel came back healthy. This is the route to use.

An update starts when Panel Assistant or you explicitly request it. The panel app does not install scheduled updates. Its web interface’s Install tab also lets you choose and install a panel-app version, including a pre-release. That choice applies to the installation you start; there is no saved update channel.

In the unreleased 1.0.0-rc2 version, a panel-app update started from Home Assistant can also install a verified compatible System WebView on supported panels. If the browser-engine stage remains unfinished, use the update Repair’s Try again action. It checks existing work before requesting another attempt; there is no scheduled retry. Other panels still need the Play Store, vendor firmware or the manual route described in updating the system WebView.

In that version, a supported rooted panel can keep network ADB off while Panel Assistant manages it through its authenticated app connection. App updates and supported maintenance use that connection and the panel’s privileged installer. The local recovery service can reopen network ADB if the app connection stops being renewed or recovery requires it.

Panels that need ADB

When you install an update from Home Assistant, Panel Assistant uses ADB automatically for panels that cannot install the update themselves. If the panel accepts the connection without an on-screen tap, your original consent to install Panel Assistant also covers creating and storing an ADB key for future updates. If the panel requires approval on its screen, Home Assistant raises a Repair that names the panel and starts authorization. Follow the Repair to approve the prompt on that panel.

A panel that cannot be updated

Some panels can only be updated over ADB, because they have no way to install an app themselves. On those, ADB is not a convenience: it is the whole update path, and if it stops working the panel keeps running normally while quietly staying on the version it has. Home Assistant shows a Repair naming the panel when this happens.

The usual cause is a change made on the panel rather than in Home Assistant. A vendor firmware update, a factory reset, or a vendor option that restores the shipped software can all switch Android’s developer options back off, and that takes ADB with it. Nothing warns you at the time, because from the panel’s point of view nothing is wrong.

Turning developer options and USB debugging back on restores the update path on most panels, and the steps are the same ones used when first preparing that panel: see prepare a panel. Panels differ in how those settings are reached, and some vendors hide them behind a sequence of taps on an About screen.

If the Repair stays, or the panel switches network debugging off by itself, such as a Meta Portal after a restart or a Shelly Wall Display after a reset, plug the panel into your computer by USB and start the USB installer from Home Assistant, as in install over USB. Nothing has to be removed first: on a panel that already has the app the installer installs nothing. If the panel asks, tick Always allow from this computer and tap Allow; the installer then turns network debugging back on and says Panel Assistant can reach the panel again. Home Assistant offers the panel’s update from there, and the update keeps its settings and history.

If Home Assistant also shows Allow updates on … for the panel, it can be reached but has not accepted this Home Assistant yet. Open that Repair, or go to Settings, Devices and services, Panel Assistant, select Configure for the panel and choose Allow updates, then tap Allow on the panel when it asks.

What an update protects

Panel Assistant checks the panel before it changes anything and backs up the panel’s settings before each update, keeping the last five backups for each panel.

Before a change you are unsure about, make a backup yourself: on the panel’s web interface, open Install, then Backup, and keep the downloaded .hpb file.

Recovery

A dashboard that will not load after an update is usually the system WebView or the dashboard itself, and the panel has its own startup and recovery behaviour for that. Troubleshooting covers the usual causes. A panel on the 1.0 panel app cannot go back to an earlier release; upgrading to 1.0 explains what can.

Recovery below the app is a different matter. Panel Assistant never touches a panel’s firmware, but some rooted panels can have their firmware partitions backed up and restored by hand, and that is documented in firmware backup and restore.

Danger

Firmware restore is experimental and has not been tested against a bricked device. Treat partition-level work on a panel as something that can leave it unusable, and read that document in full before starting.