Occupancy is not detected

The Occupancy is not detected condition passes when one or more occupancy sensors are reporting a space as not occupied. Use it in an automation to only run actions when a room or area is empty, like turning off devices or starting a clean-up routine.

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 this condition 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. From the search box, search for and select Occupancy is not detected.
5. Under Targets (see Targets), select one or more occupancy entities, devices, an area, a floor, or a label.
6. If you selected more than one target, under Condition passes if, pick Any or All.
7. Under For at least, you can set how long one or more sensors must be reporting the space as not occupied before the condition passes. Leave it at zero for the condition to pass as soon as the space becomes empty.
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, refer to this condition as occupancy.is_not_detected. A basic example looks like this:

condition: occupancy.is_not_detected
target:
  entity_id: binary_sensor.occupancy_office
options:
  for: "00:30:00"

This passes when the sensor binary_sensor.occupancy_office has been continuously reporting the office as not occupied for 30 minutes.

Options in YAML

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

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 occupancy entity behind that target.

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

• Use For at least to make sure a room has truly been empty before running actions, so a brief absence does not trigger the automation.
• For larger spaces, combine multiple occupancy sensors with the All behavior to confirm that the entire space is empty.
• Pair with time conditions to avoid running clean-up actions during the night, when occupancy sensors may report rooms as empty even though people are sleeping.

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: pause the playroom speaker when no one is around

When the playroom has been empty for 10 minutes, this automation pauses the playroom speaker.

• Trigger: Time pattern (every 5 minutes)
• Condition: Occupancy is not detected
  • Target: Playroom occupancy sensor
  • For at least: 00:10:00
• Action: Media player pause
  • Target: Playroom speaker

alias: "Pause playroom speaker when empty"
triggers:
  - trigger: time_pattern
    minutes: "/5"
conditions:
  - condition: occupancy.is_not_detected
    target:
      entity_id: binary_sensor.occupancy_playroom
    options:
      for: "00:10:00"
actions:
  - action: media_player.media_pause
    target:
      entity_id: media_player.playroom_speaker

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:

• Occupancy is detected: Tests if one or more occupancy sensors are reporting a space as occupied.