The reliable way to detect a Home Assistant entity that has gone stale is to measure the age of its last report on a schedule, using the timestamp that matches the entity’s reporting behavior. A state-change trigger alone cannot detect silence, because no event arrives when a device stops sending data.
Home Assistant exposes three useful clocks: last_changed, last_updated, and last_reported. Choose among them deliberately, set a timeout longer than the entity’s normal reporting cadence, and combine the age check with native availability or MQTT expiry when the integration supports it.
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What “stopped updating” means in Home Assistant
“Updating” can mean several different things. A temperature sensor might report every minute even when the temperature is unchanged. Another integration might write a new state only when the value changes. A third device may keep the same state but refresh an attribute such as battery voltage. Those cases produce different Home Assistant timestamps.
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Before creating an alert, establish what the integration actually does: how often it normally reports, whether identical values are written repeatedly, whether an online/offline signal exists, and whether a restart can replay an old value. The timeout is meaningful only in relation to those facts.
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The three state timestamps
| Timestamp | Advances when | Use it when | Main risk |
|---|---|---|---|
last_changed |
The entity’s state value changes. | A change in the state value is the signal you need, such as a contact moving from open to closed. |
A healthy sensor with a constant value can look stale even while it reports normally. |
last_updated |
The state value or one of its attributes changes. | Attribute activity is also evidence of freshness. | An integration that writes identical state and attributes may not advance this timestamp. |
last_reported |
The integration writes the state again, even when state and attributes are identical. | The integration emits regular reports and you want to know whether Home Assistant received another report. | It records Home Assistant’s receipt or state write, not an independently verified device-origin time. |
Home Assistant’s state-object documentation describes last_reported as the date and time the entity last reported its state. It also notes that some integrations, including MQTT, write state only when something has changed unless force-update behavior is enabled. That difference is why a universal “older than 10 minutes” rule is unsafe.
A quiet value is not automatically a failed sensor
Suppose a refrigerator sensor reports 4 °C every 60 seconds. Its last_changed value may remain unchanged for hours, while last_reported advances every minute. Alerting on last_changed would create a false failure. Conversely, if an integration reports only on value changes, a long last_reported age may be normal and a value-change clock may be the only useful signal.
Why a state-change automation cannot detect silence
A state trigger runs because Home Assistant received an event. When a sensor stops sending, there is no new event to trigger that automation. The automation can therefore remain perfectly healthy while the entity’s displayed value becomes hours old.
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- Run an automation periodically and compare the selected timestamp with the current time.
- Use a time-aware template trigger that becomes true after the age crosses your threshold.
- Prefer integration-level expiry or availability when the integration provides it, then add an age check for stale values that remain available.
The evaluation interval controls detection delay. A five-minute check can notice a failure shortly after the threshold is crossed, but it will not provide second-by-second detection. Choose an interval that fits the consequence of missing the data and the number of entities being checked.
Choose the monitoring method
| Method | What it detects | Best fit | Important limitation |
|---|---|---|---|
| Periodic timestamp check | An entity whose selected timestamp is older than a chosen age. | A curated group of sensors with known reporting intervals. | Requires a sensible threshold for each entity or class of entity. |
| Template trigger | The moment an age expression changes from below to above a threshold. | One or a small number of entities with a stable cadence. | A condition that remains true does not by itself create repeated alerts. |
MQTT expire_after |
An MQTT sensor becoming unavailable after no message arrives for the configured period. | MQTT devices that publish predictably. | It must be coordinated with the device’s publishing cadence and retained-message behavior. |
| Availability topic or payload | An explicit online or offline state supplied by the device or broker. | Devices that publish reliable availability information. | A device can remain marked available while its measurement value is stale. |
homeassistant.update_entity |
A request for a fresh reading from integrations that support the action. | Manual troubleshooting or an on-demand refresh. | It does not change the entity’s normal update frequency and cannot make a device report. |
Build a periodic stale-entity check
1. Inventory the entities you actually expect to report
Start with an explicit list rather than treating every entity in Home Assistant as a heartbeat sensor. Include entities whose freshness matters: a freezer temperature, leak detector, power meter, or presence sensor. Exclude helpers, scenes, switches that change only on command, and sensors whose update interval is intentionally irregular.
For each entity, record four facts:
- Its normal reporting interval, measured from ordinary operation.
- Whether equal values are written repeatedly.
- Whether the integration supplies an availability state.
- What should happen after Home Assistant restarts.
Inspect an entity in Developer Tools and observe its state attributes while the device is operating. Compare the three timestamps rather than assuming they move together.
2. Select a threshold that exceeds normal cadence
Set the stale threshold above the longest normal gap, not merely above the nominal interval. For an illustrative device that normally reports every 60 seconds but occasionally takes three minutes, a 10-minute threshold gives room for ordinary jitter. That is an example of a user-selected value, not a universal Home Assistant recommendation.
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Detection delay is approximately the threshold plus the time until the next periodic evaluation. A shorter threshold detects failures sooner but increases false positives during radio interference, broker restarts, or ordinary network delays. A longer threshold is quieter but leaves stale data unreported for longer.
3. Create the periodic automation
In Home Assistant, create an automation from Settings → Automations & scenes. The following pattern checks a deliberately selected list every five minutes and builds a list of entities whose last_reported age exceeds an illustrative 10-minute limit. Adapt the entity IDs, interval, and timeout to your installation.
alias: Alert when selected entities stop reporting
mode: single
trigger:
- platform: time_pattern
minutes: '/5'
variables:
watched_entities:
- sensor.kitchen_temperature
- sensor.freezer_temperature
- sensor.server_power
timeout_seconds: 600
action:
- variables:
stale_entities: >-
{% set now_ts = as_timestamp(now()) %}
{% set ns = namespace(items=[]) %}
{% for entity_id in watched_entities %}
{% set entity = states[entity_id] %}
{% if entity is not none and entity.last_reported is not none %}
{% if now_ts - as_timestamp(entity.last_reported, 0) > timeout_seconds %}
{% set ns.items = ns.items + [entity_id] %}
{% endif %}
{% endif %}
{% endfor %}
{{ ns.items }}
- condition: template
value_template: '{{ stale_entities | length > 0 }}'
- service: notify.notify
data:
title: Home Assistant entity has stopped reporting
message: 'Stale entities: {{ stale_entities | join('', '') }}'The list and timeout in this example are intentionally illustrative. If the integration does not advance last_reported for repeated identical values, substitute last_updated or last_changed according to the behavior you observed. Verify the chosen property in Developer Tools → Template before relying on the automation.
4. Prevent notification floods
A periodic check can send the same alert every five minutes while a device remains offline. Use one of these policies:
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- Store the previous stale list in an input helper and compare it before calling the notification service.
- Use notification throttling or an automation mode that prevents overlapping runs.
Also include the entity ID and its measured age in the message. “Sensor failed” is less useful than “sensor.freezer_temperature last reported 17 minutes ago; threshold 10 minutes.”
5. Test with a controlled interruption
Do not wait for a real failure to validate the alert. Temporarily disconnect one device, stop its publisher, or disable its integration if that can be done safely. Confirm that:
- The selected timestamp stops advancing.
- The alert appears after the expected threshold plus evaluation interval.
- A second notification is not sent on every periodic run unless that is intentional.
- Restoring the device clears the stale condition and, if configured, sends a recovery notice.
Restore the device and verify that a fresh report—not merely a manual refresh—advances the timestamp.
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Use a template trigger for a single entity
A template trigger is useful when one entity has a clear cadence and you want an alert when its age crosses a boundary. The trigger below is illustrative and uses last_reported with a 10-minute threshold:
alias: Alert when freezer temperature stops reporting
mode: single
trigger:
- platform: template
value_template: >-
{{ states.sensor.freezer_temperature.last_reported is not none
and (as_timestamp(now())
- as_timestamp(states.sensor.freezer_temperature.last_reported, 0)) > 600 }}
action:
- service: notify.notify
data:
title: Freezer sensor stale
message: 'The freezer temperature has not reported for more than 10 minutes.'This expression changes from false to true when the threshold is crossed. It normally does not retrigger continuously while it remains true. For several entities, a periodic automation is easier to reason about because it can evaluate a list and implement its own deduplication and recovery logic.
Use MQTT expiry and availability when they exist
MQTT sensors can express freshness at the integration level. Set expire_after to the number of seconds after which Home Assistant should mark the sensor unavailable if no message arrives. Choose a value longer than the device’s expected publishing interval and account for normal network delay.
mqtt:
sensor:
- name: Kitchen temperature
state_topic: 'house/kitchen/temperature'
availability_topic: 'house/kitchen/status'
payload_available: 'online'
payload_not_available: 'offline'
expire_after: 600The exact topic names and payloads must match the device. An availability topic is valuable when the device explicitly publishes online and offline states. Expiry is valuable when the data topic itself is the only heartbeat.
Do not treat unavailable as the only stale signal. A device may keep an entity available while the last measurement remains old, especially when availability is published separately. Pair availability with a periodic age check when stale values would be dangerous.
Restart, retained messages, and startup handling
Restarts change how you should interpret timestamps. On startup, an entity may have no current report yet, or an integration may restore its previous state. A startup automation that immediately evaluates every entity can therefore alert before integrations have had time to connect.
Use a startup grace period appropriate to your system, then evaluate. During that grace period, distinguish “no report since this boot” from “the device was already stale before the restart.” If you need that distinction, record the Home Assistant start time and include it in the condition rather than assuming every restored state is fresh.
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MQTT retained messages require special care. A retained payload can be replayed when Home Assistant reconnects or reloads the MQTT entity. That creates a newly received Home Assistant state even though the device may not have produced new data. A retained value is not proof of a fresh measurement. Prefer a device-generated timestamp, sequence number, or separate heartbeat when the device exposes one; otherwise keep a conservative timeout and test restart behavior explicitly.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Understand what manual updates can and cannot do
The homeassistant.update_entity action asks supported integrations for a fresh reading. It is useful when troubleshooting an entity or refreshing data on demand, but Home Assistant documents that it does not change how often the entity updates on its own.
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Choose thresholds per device, not per domain
Two entities in the same domain can have completely different reporting behavior. One temperature sensor may publish every 30 seconds; another may report only when the value changes. A motion sensor may be silent while a room is empty by design. A power meter may publish continuously but pause during a broker outage.
Group entities only when they share all of these characteristics:
- The same expected reporting interval and tolerance for delay.
- The same timestamp semantics.
- The same response when stale, such as notification only versus turning off an automation.
- The same startup and retained-state behavior.
Otherwise, keep per-entity thresholds. A small YAML mapping can hold different values, while the automation loops over each entity and compares its own limit. This avoids penalizing slow sensors with an aggressive timeout and avoids waiting too long for critical fast sensors.
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Monitor many entities without creating noise
A whole-system scan is tempting, but blindly checking every entity produces misleading alarms. Helpers, template entities, manually controlled switches, and event-driven sensors may not have a meaningful heartbeat. Start with a curated list and expand it only after confirming each entity’s semantics.
For a larger installation, maintain a monitoring registry outside the automation’s logic: entity ID, timestamp to use, timeout in seconds, and a human-readable label. The evaluator can then produce one report containing all stale entries, sorted by age. Keep the report readable and include the last known state so an operator can distinguish an old but safe value from a dangerous one.
Do not use a stale alert as a substitute for data validation. A sensor can report frequently while measuring the wrong thing, publishing an impossible value, or repeating a frozen value generated by a malfunctioning device. Freshness monitoring answers “did a report arrive?”; range checks and plausibility checks answer different questions.
Troubleshooting common failure cases
The alert fires even though the sensor is healthy
- You are checking
last_changedon a sensor whose value normally remains constant. Uselast_reportedif repeated reports are written, orlast_updatedif attributes change. - The timeout is shorter than the real reporting interval or normal network jitter. Increase it beyond the longest ordinary gap.
- The entity reports only on change, so silence is expected. Monitor an integration heartbeat or availability signal instead.
The alert never fires
- The automation is triggered only by state changes. Add a time pattern or a time-aware template trigger.
- The selected timestamp is still advancing because another attribute is changing. Decide whether that attribute represents meaningful freshness.
- The template is reading the wrong entity ID or timestamp property. Test the expression in Developer Tools → Template.
- The notification action is failing even though the stale list is correct. Run the action manually and inspect automation traces.
The entity says unavailable but the age check does not list it
Some templates skip entities whose state object or timestamp is missing. Treat explicit unavailable as a separate alert path, or include it in the stale list with a clear reason. Do not convert missing timestamps into a current time; that would hide the failure.
The sensor appears fresh after a restart, but the device was offline
Check for restored state and retained MQTT payloads. A replayed value can update Home Assistant without representing a new device measurement. Add startup grace handling and, where possible, use a device-origin timestamp or heartbeat.
Manual refresh makes the alert disappear briefly
The integration may have returned a cached reading or performed one successful poll without restoring its normal reporting path. Confirm that subsequent reports continue at the expected cadence. The update action is a diagnostic request, not a change to the device’s schedule.
A practical operating checklist
- List only entities whose freshness matters.
- Observe their normal cadence and whether identical values are written.
- Select
last_changed,last_updated, orlast_reportedbased on that behavior. - Set an illustrative threshold above the longest normal gap and document why it was chosen.
- Evaluate age periodically or with a time-aware template; never rely solely on a state-change trigger for silence.
- Use MQTT
expire_afterand availability topics where appropriate. - Plan startup grace periods and test retained-message behavior.
- Deduplicate alerts and send a recovery notification when reporting resumes.
- Test by deliberately interrupting one publisher, then verify both failure and recovery paths.
The result is a monitor that distinguishes a stable, healthy value from a value that has genuinely stopped receiving reports, while preserving the integration-specific behavior that makes a single universal timeout unreliable.
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