Backing up your Z-Wave network's non-volatile memory (NVM) is a critical step in ensuring a smooth smart home experience—especially when working with 700 and 800 series Z-Wave sticks in Home Assistant. Whether you're preparing to migrate your Z-Wave network to a new stick, upgrading to a newer Z-Wave model, or simply taking precautionary measures before a firmware update, having a reliable NVM backup can save you hours of reconfiguration and potential device headaches. In this guide, we'll walk you through the exact steps to perform an NVM backup, so you're never caught off guard.
The NVM backup can be used when moving from a 700 series stick to an 800 series, a 700 to 700, or 800 to 800. Please note, however, that you cannot move from 500 to 700 or 800 using the NVM backup due to SDK limitations. If you have a 500 series stick and would like to move to 700 or 800, unfortunately this would entail excluding all devices and re-including to the new stick.
The reason we recommend using Home Assistant versus PC Controller when moving from 700 to 800 is that the 800 series has a different NVM memory layout than the 700 series. The 700 series NVM is 48 KB divided into two sections, one for the Z-Wave protocol related data (nodes, routes, etc.), one for the application related data (radio settings, etc.), while the 800 series NVM is only 40 KB, and application and protocol data is stored together in a single section.
- PC controller does not care about this distinction and just writes the raw NVM data. If you restore a 700 series NVM onto an 800 series controller via Silicon Labs' PC Controller software, you end up with an incorrect layout, which the 800 series firmware cannot read, and 8 KB of missing data.
- Z-Wave JS detects the NVM layout of the target controller first, and if that layout is supported, it will parse the source NVM and rewrite it into the new target format.
Creating the NVM Backup
1. In Home Assistant, click on the Settings tab on the bottom left of the page:
2. Click on Devices & Services:
3. Select the Z-Wave integration:
4. Click Configure:
5. Scroll down and click Download Backup under the Backup and Restore section:
6. Ensure your browser keeps the download, some interfaces may label it as insecure. It will be saved to the downloads folder:
7. Navigate back to the Z-Wave integration page:
8. Click the 3 dots next to configure and delete to remove the hub/integration:
9. Important: Physically remove the old Z-Wave stick from your computer/Pi/hub.
Setting up the New Stick
1. Physically insert the new Z-Wave stick to your computer/Pi/hub:
2. In Home Assistant, click on the Settings tab on the bottom left of the page:
3. Open Devices & Services:
4. Click Add Integration in bottom right:
5. Search Z-Wave and select Z-Wave.
6. Under What do you want to add? select Z-Wave:
7. Under Select connection method, select Submit:
8. Your new z-wave stick will appear as a found device; click on the new stick device and click Finish:
Restoring the Backup
1. After clicking Finish in the step above, Home Assistant should automatically load the Z-Wave integration page. If not, it can be found again through Settings > Devices & Services as shown in the sections above. On the Z-Wave integration page, click Configure.
2. Scroll down and select Restore From Backup. Select the backup file that you saved from section 1 of these instructions in your downloads folder.
3. The backup will now install. The time this takes is dependent on the size of the network, so be patient! A Backup restored window will appear if the network restoration is successful.
Your NVM backup and restoration is now complete; click OK.
If you encounter an issue with the backup or restoration, we have some troubleshooting steps here. If you have an issue with the Z-Wave integration on Home Assistant, please utilize the community forums for help and to report issues on GitHub and Discord, as Home Assistant is an open source software and does not have a dedicated support team.
