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The original was posted on /r/homeassistant by /u/Vegetable_Fox_236 on 2026-07-30 21:37:03+00:00.
Hi everyone,
I live alone, and I’d like my loved ones to be able to access my photos and important documents if something were to happen to me.
I currently have a custom Dead Man's Switch set up in Home Assistant, which works as follows:
Trigger: If my phone hasn't been charged for over 36 hours AND no motion is detected in the house, an alert is triggered via the HA app and smart speakers, asking me to tap a button to confirm I'm okay.
Emergency Action: If another 12 hours pass without a response (and the phone is still not charging), Home Assistant automatically sends a Telegram message to my family to check on me. That same message includes the key to decrypt a document stored on my Google Drive containing my critical access information. (Note: My family would also get access to that Google Drive folder after 6 months via Google's Inactive Account Manager).
The Problem / Catastrophic Scenario:
What happens in the event of a house fire, earthquake, or total home destruction? If my local Home Assistant server gets destroyed at the same time I do, the automation won't run, and the whole system fails.
I'm looking for ideas to cover this scenario (no matter how unlikely it might be). I’ve thought of two options, but neither really convinces me:
Option A: Leaving the document unencrypted on Google Drive. This feels way too risky, as it would contain even my master password for my password manager.
Option B: Using Bitwarden's Emergency Access. It requires Bitwarden Premium, but the main issue is that my family members are completely non-technical and reluctant to start using password managers.
Has anyone come up with a smooth, secure, and non-tech-savvy-friendly alternative to handle a total local server failure?
Thanks in advance for any suggestions!