Remove clients from the UniFi Network

Use this action to clean up clients that briefly connected to your UniFi Network application, for example to keep your client list tidy after visitors or passing devices show up. It removes clients that only appeared for a short time and that you have not given a name or fixed address.

A client is removed only when both of the following are true:

• The time between when it was first seen and last seen is less than 15 minutes.
• It has no fixed IP address, hostname, or name configured.

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 remove short-lived clients 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. From the list of actions, search for and select Remove clients from the UniFi Network.
6. Select Save.

Options in the UI

This action has no options.

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 unifi.remove_clients. A basic example looks like this:

action: unifi.remove_clients

Options in YAML

This action has no options.

Good to know

• Clients you have named or given a fixed IP address or hostname are never removed.
• The action runs across every loaded UniFi Network application you have set up in Home Assistant.

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: tidy up short-lived clients every week

Run the cleanup on a schedule so your client list stays manageable over time.

• Trigger: Time: Sunday at 03:00
• Action: Remove clients from the UniFi Network

alias: "Weekly UniFi client cleanup"
triggers:
  - trigger: time
    at: "03:00:00"
conditions:
  - condition: time
    weekday:
      - sun
actions:
  - action: unifi.remove_clients

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:

• Reconnect wireless client: Tries to get a wireless client to reconnect to the UniFi network.