Recovery
What to do when the storage in your system fails, or the hardware has to be replaced.
Before anything else, check you have what you need: a recent backup, and the key that unlocks it. On a Sensa-supplied unit that key is your emergency kit. On your own Home Assistant it is the password you set when you created the backup.
If you never downloaded the emergency kit, you are not stuck. Sign in to mySensa, open your vehicle, and press Show backup key. Your system sends its key up automatically, so it is there whether you remembered to save it or not.
Putting your system back
If your system still runs, you do this yourself and you do not need us. Open the Sensa Settings panel, choose the Backup tab, and press Restore on the backup you want. Your system puts everything back and restarts. See Backups for what that covers and how long it takes.
That is the answer to most problems, including a change you want to undo, a device setup that went wrong, or an update you would rather not have taken.
The unit is damaged but the storage is fine
If the machine will not power on but the card or drive is undamaged, move the storage into a replacement machine of the same model and power it on. Everything comes back as it was, with no restore needed.
Your licence is tied to your hardware, so Sensa may ask you to enter your licence key again. Enter the same key and it rebinds itself.
The storage has failed
This is the one case you cannot finish on your own, because a wiped card has no backups left on it and a fresh unit has nowhere for you to put your copy back.
If Sensa supplied your unit, get in touch at hello@sensa.systems with your licence key and we will send you a replacement card. Fit it, power the unit on, and enter your licence key when prompted. Send us your backup file and we will load it for you.
If you run Sensa on your own Home Assistant:
- Install Home Assistant on the replacement card or drive the way you installed it originally
- Boot the new hardware and wait for the Home Assistant onboarding screen
- Choose Restore from backup rather than creating a new install, then upload your backup file and enter its password
- Wait for the restore to finish
- Enter your licence key when prompted
Moving to new hardware
The steps are the same as for failed storage, with one addition at the start: take a final backup on the old system first.
Afterwards, open the Sensa Settings panel and check that your network scan and device assignments still match, particularly if the new system is on a different network or in a different vehicle.
Starting again from scratch
Sometimes the answer is not a backup but a clean slate: an installer finishing a job before handing the van over, or an owner who wants to set everything up again from the beginning. On a unit we supplied, open the Sensa Settings panel, choose the System tab, and press Factory Reset. A plain Restart Sensa sits beside it for the far more common case of simply wanting a fresh start without losing anything.
Pressing Factory Reset does not erase anything yet. It shows you what will go, and asks you to press Erase everything to go ahead. What goes:
- every device you have added, and its settings
- your dashboards, scenes, instincts and helpers
- your uploaded images
- the log, the alarms and all sensor history
- every backup, including any you pinned
Backups go because a backup is a whole copy of the previous owner's system, and a reset that changes hands must not carry one across. If you want to keep one, download it first.
What stays: your licence, your logins and their passwords, the Wi-Fi, and the software version. So the unit comes back activated and on the same update stream, ready for you to walk through setup again on the tablet in your hand rather than stranded on an activation screen.
Once you press Erase everything, a full-screen message takes over the tablet and stays there while the unit clears itself out and restarts. There is nothing to press and nothing to watch for: when the system is ready again it loads the Habitation screen on its own, and you start setting up from there.
The reset will not run while a software update is in progress. Let the update finish and try again. In that case nothing takes over the screen, so you see the reason straight away on the System tab.
Restart Sensa now does the same thing. Press it and the same full-screen message takes over, so you are not left looking at a dead page or at a Home Assistant screen while the system comes back. A restart usually takes about a minute, and it puts you back on Settings, where you were, rather than on the home screen. If either screen is still there after five minutes, a Try the dashboard button appears so you can go and look for yourself.
If you run Sensa on your own Home Assistant there is no Factory Reset button. You are a full Home Assistant administrator there, so remove the Sensa Nomad integration from Devices and Services and delete any backups you no longer want.