Home Assistant on your own Mac or PC, step by step

What you need

• A computer that can stay on, with 8 GB of memory or more and about 40 GB free:
  • a Mac with Apple silicon (M1 or later): follow the Mac steps with VMware Fusion; or
  • a Windows 10 or 11 PC with an Intel or AMD processor: follow the Windows steps with VirtualBox.
• Both apps are free; the steps show how to get them.
• For appliances: your appliances already working in the Home Connect phone app, and the email you sign in to it with (your SingleKey ID).
• An iPhone or iPad with iOS or iPadOS 17 or later, for myYam (coming soon).

On a Mac

1. Get and install VMware Fusion

VMware Fusion is free, but it's only downloadable from Broadcom's support site (Broadcom owns VMware), behind a free account.

1. Create a Broadcom account at profile.broadcom.com. Enter your email, type in the code they send you, and choose a password. Complete your profile with your real name and address: Broadcom screens new accounts for export rules, and made-up details hold the account up.
2. Sign in at support.broadcom.com: click Support Portal (top right), then Go To Portal.
3. In the dropdown at the top of the page, choose VMware Cloud Foundation.
4. Click My Downloads on the left, then the link Free Software Downloads available HERE.
5. Search for Fusion, click Show Results, then VMware Fusion, then the latest release (named like 26H1).
6. Click the Terms and Conditions link, read it, and come back. Only then can you tick the box. Then click the download icon. If a form asks for more verification, fill it in using plain English letters only.
7. Install: open the downloaded .dmg and double-click the VMware Fusion icon. Enter your Mac password when asked; Fusion installs into Applications.
8. First start: open VMware Fusion from Applications. Allow the permissions macOS asks for, including Local Network: the hub needs it to be seen on your Wi-Fi. If a licence screen appears, choose Use VMware Fusion for Personal Use.

Broadcom's own instructions are in their knowledge base. Free users get no phone support from Broadcom, but nothing here needs it.

2. Run Home Assistant on the Mac

1. Download the Home Assistant image for Apple silicon from Home Assistant's releases page. Scroll to Assets, download haos_generic-aarch64-<version>.vmdk.zip, and double-click it to unzip. Don't use the haos_ova-… file: that's for Intel Macs and won't start on Apple silicon.
2. In VMware Fusion: File › New › Create a custom virtual machine. Operating system: Linux › Other Linux 6.x kernel 64-bit Arm. Disk: Use an existing virtual disk, pick the .vmdk, and let Fusion make a separate copy. Click Finish and save it as "Home Assistant".
3. Before starting it, open the VM's Settings:
   • Processors & Memory: 2 cores, 4096 MB.
   • Hard Disk: increase it to 64 GB and click Apply.
   • Network Adapter: Bridged Networking › Autodetect, so the hub gets its own address on your home network. "Share with my Mac" won't work.
4. Start the VM and wait about 5 minutes. Then open homeassistant.local in Safari. If that doesn't load, use the address shown in the VM's window, such as http://192.168.1.50.
5. Create your Home Assistant user. When it asks where home is, drag the pin onto your house: Who's home and the weather in myYam depend on it.
6. Stop the Mac from sleeping: System Settings › Energy (or Battery), turn on Prevent automatic sleeping when the display is off. In Fusion, set the VM to start automatically when Fusion opens.

Check: Home Assistant's page loads in Safari on your iPhone, at the same address, while it's on your home Wi-Fi. Then carry on at Home Connect appliances.

On a Windows PC

1. Get and install VirtualBox

VirtualBox is free and open source, for personal and work use. No account is needed.

1. Go to virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads and click Windows hosts. Skip the Extension Pack on the same page: Home Assistant doesn't need it, and it's only free for personal use.
2. Run the downloaded installer and accept the defaults. If it says the Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable is missing, install it from the link the installer gives, then run the VirtualBox installer again. Windows briefly disconnects the network while VirtualBox adds its network driver; that's expected.
3. Open Oracle VirtualBox from the Start menu.

Check: VirtualBox opens and shows its (empty) list of machines.

2. Run Home Assistant on the PC

1. Download the VirtualBox image from Home Assistant's Windows page: the VirtualBox link gives haos_ova-<version>.vdi.zip. Right-click it › Extract All to get the .vdi file. Move it somewhere permanent, such as Documents\Home Assistant, because the VM runs from this file.
2. Grow the disk before the first start (it's small to begin with). In VirtualBox: File › Tools › Media › Add › pick the .vdi, set Size to 64 GB, and click Apply.
3. Create the VM: click New.
   • Name: Home Assistant. Leave ISO Image empty.
   • Type: Linux; Version: Oracle Linux (64-bit).
   • Base Memory: 4096 MB (2048 is the minimum), Processors: 2.
   • Tick Use EFI. Home Assistant won't start without it.
   • Hard Disk: choose Do Not Add a Virtual Hard Disk, then Finish, and accept the warning.
4. Attach the disk: select the VM › Settings › Storage. Under Controller: SATA, remove any empty disk, then click the add-hard-disk icon › Add and pick your .vdi.
5. Network: Settings › Network › Adapter 1: Attached to: Bridged Adapter, and choose the Wi-Fi or Ethernet adapter the PC uses for the internet. NAT won't work: the hub needs its own address on your home network.
6. Click OK, then Start. Wait about 5 minutes, then open homeassistant.local in your browser. If that doesn't load, try http://homeassistant.local:8123, or the address shown in the VM's window.
7. Create your Home Assistant user. When it asks where home is, drag the pin onto your house.
8. Keep it running:
   • Settings › System › Power › Screen and sleep: set When plugged in, put my device to sleep after to Never.
   • Settings › Windows Update › Advanced options › Active hours: cover the day, so update restarts happen overnight.
   • Start the hub when you sign in: open Task Scheduler › Create Basic Task, name it "Home Assistant", trigger When I log on, action Start a program. Program: "C:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox\VBoxManage.exe"; arguments: startvm "Home Assistant" --type headless.

Check: Home Assistant's page loads in Safari on your iPhone, at the same address, while it's on your home Wi-Fi.

Windows troubleshooting

Home Connect appliances

For Bosch, Siemens and Neff washers, dryers, dishwashers and ovens. For other brands (Hue, Ring, LG and so on), add them in Home Assistant under Settings › Devices & services › Add integration and follow the steps it shows.

3. Make sure your appliances are online in the cloud

Home Assistant talks to Home Connect's cloud, not to the appliance directly, and the Home Connect app can control an appliance at home even when it's offline in the cloud.

• In the Home Connect app, each appliance should show as connected with remote control available.
• If one says offline, switch it off at the wall for 30 seconds and back on. If that doesn't help, re-join it to Wi-Fi from the app.

4. Create a Home Connect developer app

This gives Home Assistant its own key to your appliances. It's free.

1. Register at developer.home-connect.com. For Default Home Connect User Account for Testing, enter your SingleKey ID email, in lowercase.
2. Applications › Register application: Application ID anything, such as home-assistant; OAuth flow Authorization Code Grant Flow; Redirect URI https://my.home-assistant.io/redirect/oauth.
3. Save, then open the application's Details page and copy its Client ID and Client Secret. Use these, not the "Simulator Client ID" on the front page, which gives an unauthorized_client error.
4. Sign out of the developer portal and wait 15 minutes. New or changed apps take a while to work.

5. Add Home Connect to Home Assistant

1. Settings › Devices & services › Add integration › Home Connect.
2. When asked for application credentials, paste the Client ID and Client Secret, and give them any name.
3. A Home Connect sign-in page opens. Sign in with your SingleKey ID email exactly, then accept the permissions. If you mistype the email, the page offers to create a new account; go back and fix the email instead.
4. Your appliances appear as devices. Give each an area (Kitchen, Utility…), so myYam knows which room it's in.

Check: start a short programme. Its status and finish time update in Home Assistant within a minute.

6. Connect myYam

1. Install myYam on your iPhone or iPad.
2. Open it on your home Wi-Fi. It finds the hub by itself.
3. Tap Sign in with Home Assistant and sign in on Home Assistant's own page with your Home Assistant username and password.
4. Your appliances appear in Rooms, in the area you chose. Ask Siri "My Yam, is the laundry done?"

Prefer a token? In Home Assistant, click your name (bottom left) › Security › Long-lived access tokens › Create token, name it myYam and copy it (it's shown once only). myYam accepts it with the hub's address instead of signing in.

7. Optional: use myYam away from home

Your hub's address only works on your home Wi-Fi. Home Assistant Cloud, run by Nabu Casa (the company behind Home Assistant), gives it a secure address that works anywhere, with nothing to change on your router.

It's a paid subscription after a free trial that needs no card; see Nabu Casa's prices.

1. In Home Assistant: Settings › Home Assistant Cloud › Start your free trial.
2. Enter your email and a password, then confirm the email they send you.
3. Back in Home Assistant, sign in to Home Assistant Cloud.
4. Under Remote Control, make sure it's on and copy the address. It looks like https://abcd1234….ui.nabu.casa.
5. In myYam, the away address is usually picked up by itself after you sign in. If not: Settings › Home Assistant › Add away address, paste it, and tap Save. myYam checks the hub answers there before saving.

myYam uses the home address when you're in and switches to the cloud address by itself when you're out, and Siri and the widgets do the same. It still needs your hub running: the computer (or the Green) must be on and awake.

Check: turn off Wi-Fi on your phone and pull down on myYam's Home page. The menu under the icon at the top right says connected away.

Later: move from your computer to a Home Assistant Green

Running the hub on a computer means it must always be on. The Home Assistant Green is a small, quiet box from Nabu Casa that runs Home Assistant all the time on very little power; see where to buy one. You keep everything you've set up by moving a backup across.

1. On your current Home Assistant: Settings › System › Backups › Backup now › Manual backup. Leave out media and the share folder to keep it small. Download the emergency kit when asked and keep it safe: it holds the key that unlocks the backup. When it's done, open the backup's ⋮ menu › Download backup.
2. Check the backup will fit: the Green has 32 GB of storage. Settings › System › Repairs › ⋮ › System information shows Disk used, which must be less than that.
3. Set up the Green: plug in power and an Ethernet cable to your router, wait a few minutes, then open homeassistant.local on your computer.
4. On the welcome screen choose Restore from backup › Upload backup, pick the file, and enter the encryption key from the emergency kit. Don't refresh the page while it restores; it restarts itself.
5. Sign in with your usual Home Assistant user. Your devices come across as they were. Wait until they all show as connected before shutting down the old VM, and don't run both at once.
6. In myYam: if the Green has a different address from your old hub, use Settings › Home Assistant › Forget hub and sign in again. The Home Assistant Cloud address hasn't changed.

Check: the computer can sleep and myYam still shows your appliances.

If something goes wrong

Still stuck? See Support or email info@myyam.app.