Locate vacuum

The Locate vacuum cleaner action causes the vacuum to play a sound or flash lights, making it easier to find.

Use it when the robot has ended up under a bed, behind furniture, or somewhere else that is hard to spot at a glance.

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 use this action from an automation or script:

1. Go to Settings > Automations & scenes.
2. Open or create an automation.
3. Add an action and search for Vacuum: Locate vacuum cleaner.
4. Select one or more vacuums, area, or group.
5. Select Save.

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.

action: vacuum.locate
target:
  entity_id: vacuum.upstairs

This makes vacuum.upstairs play its locate signal.

Omitting entity_id will target all supported vacuums in your system.

Options in YAML

YAML sometimes provides additional options for more complex use cases that are not available through the UI.

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 vacuum entity behind that target.

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

• The locate function’s effects (sound, lights) depend on your vacuum model.

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: locate the vacuum when the dust bin is full

Some vacuum integrations expose a binary sensor when the dust bin is full (for example, iRobot Roomba and Braava). If your vacuum reports that its bin needs attention, this automation makes it play its locate signal so you can find it quickly.

• Trigger: Roomba bin full sensor turns on
• Action: Locate vacuum
• Target: Upstairs vacuum

alias: "Locate vacuum when bin is full"
triggers:
  - trigger: state
    entity_id: binary_sensor.roomba_bin_full
    to: "on"
actions:
  - action: vacuum.locate
    target:
      entity_id: vacuum.upstairs

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.