Battery is not charging

The Battery is not charging condition passes when a battery-powered device is not actively charging. A device is not charging when it is unplugged, off its dock, or fully charged with the charger no longer drawing power. Use Battery is not charging to run an automation only when a device is on battery power, for example to skip a heavy task while a phone is unplugged, or to confirm a robot vacuum is off its dock before sending it to clean.

Using this condition from the user interface

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

To use Battery is not charging in an automation:

1. Go to Settings > Automations & scenes.
2. Open an existing automation, or select Create automation > Create new automation.
3. In the And if section, select Add condition.
4. Select what you want to check. Under By target (see Targets), pick the area your device is in (like your bedroom or office). You can also select a device, a specific entity, or a label.
5. From the conditions shown for that target, select Battery is not charging.
6. Under Condition passes if (see Behavior), pick Any or All to control how the check behaves when multiple devices are targeted.
7. Under For at least, set how long the device must have been continuously not charging before the condition passes. Leave it at zero to pass immediately.
8. Select Save.

Options in the UI

Using this condition 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, Battery is not charging is referred to as battery.is_not_charging. A basic example looks like this:

condition: battery.is_not_charging
target:
  entity_id: sensor.phone_battery

This passes when sensor.phone_battery is not charging.

Options in YAML

Targets of the condition

This condition requires a target. The target is the object that Home Assistant will check. You can point the condition 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 evaluate every matching battery entity behind that target.

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

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

Behavior with multiple targets

When you target more than one entity (or select an area, floor, or label that contains several), the Condition passes if option controls how the results combine:

• Any (default): the condition passes if at least one of the targeted entities matches. For example, if you check three smoke sensors and only one of them detects smoke, the condition still passes. This is useful for questions like “is there smoke anywhere in the house?”
• All: the condition passes only when every targeted entity matches. For example, if you check the same three smoke sensors, the condition passes only once all three report cleared. This is useful for “is the entire house safe now?” checks, so your automation does not send an all-clear while one room still has a reading.

Good to know

• The condition works with sensors and devices that report a charging state, such as devices that expose a battery charging attribute.
• Devices that are unavailable (unavailable) or have an unknown state (unknown) are skipped for Any and fail for All.
• A fully charged device with the charger still connected may report as not charging, because the charger has stopped drawing power. If you want to be sure the device is unplugged, combine this condition with Battery level.
• To check the opposite state, use Battery is charging.
• For an overview of the status of your battery 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], open the Maintenance dashboard. This dashboard allows you to quickly see which batteries need replacing.

Try it yourself

Ready to test this? Go to Settings > Automations & scenes, open an automation, and add this condition. Trigger the automation with and without the condition met, and watch whether it continues or stops.

More examples

Real scenarios where this condition gates an automation. Copy any example and adapt it to your setup.

Automation: remind you to plug in your phone at bedtime

If your phone is not charging when you head to bed, send a gentle reminder so it’s ready for the next day.

• Trigger: Time: Every day at 23:00
• Condition: Battery is not charging
  • Target: Phone battery
• Action: Send a notification message
  • Target: My device (notify.my_device)

alias: "Remind to charge phone at bedtime"
triggers:
  - trigger: time
    at: "23:00:00"
conditions:
  - condition: battery.is_not_charging
    target:
      entity_id: sensor.phone_battery
actions:
  - action: notify.send_message
    target:
      entity_id: notify.my_device
    data:
      message: "Your phone isn't charging. Don't forget to plug it in."

Still stuck?

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

Related conditions

These conditions work well alongside this one:

• Battery is charging: Tests if one or more battery-powered devices are charging.

• Battery level: Tests if a battery level is above a threshold, below a threshold, or in a range of values.

• Battery is low: Tests if one or more batteries are reporting a low charge.