Turn off camera

Use this action to turn off a camera, for example to stop a camera while you are home. Not all cameras support this action. Check the documentation of the integration that provides your camera.

Using this action from the user interface

If you prefer building automations and scripts visually, Home Assistant walks you through this action step by step. You pick what to target, tweak a few options, and save. No YAML knowledge required.

To turn off a camera from an automation or a script:

1. Go to Settings > Automations & scenes.
2. Open an existing automation or script, or select Create automation > Create new automation.
3. If you’re setting up a new automation, add a trigger in the When section. Scripts don’t need a trigger. They run when something else calls them.
4. In the Then do section, select Add action.
5. Select what you want to control. Under By target (see Targets), select the camera you want to turn off.
6. From the actions shown for that target, select Turn off camera.
7. Select Save.

Options in the UI

This action has no additional options beyond the target.

Using this action in YAML

If you work directly in YAML, or you want to know exactly what Home Assistant does under the hood, this section has the technical reference. It lists the field names you use in YAML, their types, and which ones are required.

In YAML, refer to this action as camera.turn_off. A basic example looks like this:

action: camera.turn_off
target:
  entity_id: camera.living_room_camera

This turns off camera.living_room_camera.

Options in YAML

This action has no additional YAML options beyond the target.

Targets of the action

This action requires a target. The target is the object of the action. You can point the action at a single entityAn entity represents a sensor, actor, or function in Home Assistant. Entities are used to monitor physical properties or to control other entities. An entity is usually part of a device or a service. [Learn more], a device, an area, a floor, or a label, and Home Assistant will run the action on every matching camera entity behind that target.

• Entity: one specific camera entity, such as camera.living_room.
• Device: every camera entity that belongs to a device.
• Area: every camera entity in a room or area.
• Floor: every camera entity on a floor.
• Label: every camera entity that shares a label.

You can also select different target types in one action. For example, you can add a specific entity and an area as targets in the same action to run the action on both of them at once.

Good to know

• This action only works with camera entities, and only with cameras that support being turned off.

Try it yourself

Ready to test this? Open Developer tools > Actions, search for this action, fill in the fields, and select Perform action. You see what happens on your actual entitiesAn entity represents a sensor, actor, or function in Home Assistant. Entities are used to monitor physical properties or to control other entities. An entity is usually part of a device or a service. [Learn more] without writing a line of YAML.

More examples

Real scenarios where this action shows up in automations and scripts. Copy any example and adapt it to your setup.

Automation: turn off a camera when you arrive home

Turn off a camera when someone arrives home.

• Trigger: State: Person changes to home
• Action: Turn off camera
  • Target: Living room camera

- alias: "Turn off the camera when someone arrives home"
  triggers:
    - trigger: state
      entity_id: person.alex
      to: "home"
  actions:
    - action: camera.turn_off
      target:
        entity_id: camera.living_room_camera

Still stuck?

The Home Assistant community is quick to help: join Discord for real-time chat, post on the community forum with the action you’re calling and what you expected to happen, or share on our subreddit /r/homeassistant.

Related actions

These actions work well alongside this one:

• Turn on camera: Turns on a camera.

• Enable camera motion detection: Enables the motion detection of a camera.

• Disable camera motion detection: Disables the motion detection of a camera.

• Take camera snapshot: Takes a snapshot from a camera.

• Record camera feed: Creates a recording of a live camera feed.

• Play camera stream: Plays a camera stream on a supported media player.