Media player turned on

The Media player turned on trigger fires when a media player powers on. Use it when you want Home Assistant to react as soon as the device becomes available for use, even before playback starts.

Use Media player turned on to prepare the room, set a source, or turn on supporting devices whenever a TV, speaker, or receiver powers up.

Using this trigger from the user interface

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

To use Media player turned on in an automation:

1. Go to Settings > Automations & scenes.
2. Open an existing automation, or select Create automation > Create new automation.
3. In the When section, select Add trigger.
4. Select what you want to monitor. Under By target (see Targets), pick the media player you want to watch. You can also select an area, a floor, a device, or a label.
5. From the triggers shown for that target, select Media player turned on.
6. Under Trigger when (see Behavior), choose how multiple targeted media players should behave. The default is Each.
7. Under For at least, enter how long the media player must stay on before the trigger fires. The default is 0.
8. Select Save.

Options in the UI

Using this trigger 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, this trigger is referred to as media_player.turned_on. A basic example looks like this:

trigger: media_player.turned_on
target:
  entity_id: media_player.family_room_tv

This fires when the family room TV turns on.

To wait until all targeted media players have stayed on for 30 seconds:

trigger: media_player.turned_on
target:
  area_id: downstairs
options:
  behavior: last
  for: "00:00:30"

Options in YAML

Targets of the trigger

This trigger requires a target. The target is the object that Home Assistant will watch. You can select 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 as a target, and Home Assistant will watch every matching media_player entity behind that target.

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

You can also select different target types in one trigger. For example, you can add a specific entity and an area as targets in the same trigger to monitor 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 Trigger when option controls how the trigger responds:

• Each (any in YAML, default): the trigger fires every time any one of the targeted entities transitions. For example, if you monitor three motion sensors in the living room and someone walks past sensor 1, the automation fires. When they walk past sensor 2 a moment later, it fires again. Every individual event counts.
• First (first in YAML): the trigger fires only on the first transition in the targeted group, then waits until all targeted entities have reset before it fires again. For example, if you monitor the same three motion sensors, the automation fires when the first one picks up movement (someone entered the room). The other two firing afterward are ignored, so you get one notification per “someone walked in” event instead of three.
• All (last in YAML): the trigger fires only after the last targeted entity in the group has fired, meaning all of them are now in the expected state. For example, if you monitor the lights in the living room, bedroom, and hallway, the automation fires only once all three have turned off. This is useful for scenarios like “start the robot vacuum only after every light on the floor is off,” so you know the room is truly empty.

Good to know

• This trigger reacts to the power state. If the media player was already on and only playback starts, use Media player started playing instead.
• Media players that are unavailable or unknown do not count as on until they report a supported power state again.
• If you want to react when the device powers off, use Media player turned off.

Try it yourself

Ready to test this? Go to Settings > Automations & scenes, create a new automation, and add this trigger. Save the automation, then change the state of the targeted entity to watch the trigger fire 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].

More examples

Real scenarios where this trigger fires in automations and scripts. Copy any example and adapt it to your setup.

Automation: turn on a bias light when the TV powers on

When the family room TV turns on, also turn on the light behind it.

• Trigger: Media player turned on
  • Target: Family room TV
• Action: Turn on light
  • Target: TV bias light

alias: "Turn on the TV bias light when the TV turns on"
triggers:
  - trigger: media_player.turned_on
    target:
      entity_id: media_player.family_room_tv
actions:
  - action: light.turn_on
    target:
      entity_id: light.family_room_tv_bias_light

Automation: set the receiver source when it turns on

When the receiver powers on, switch it to the TV source automatically.

• Trigger: Media player turned on
  • Target: Receiver
• Action: Select media player source
  • Target: Receiver

alias: "Set the receiver source when it turns on"
triggers:
  - trigger: media_player.turned_on
    target:
      entity_id: media_player.receiver
actions:
  - action: media_player.select_source
    target:
      entity_id: media_player.receiver
    data:
      source: "TV"

Still stuck?

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

Related triggers

These triggers work well alongside this one:

• Media player turned off: Triggers after one or more media players turn off.

• Media player started playing: Triggers after one or more media players start playing.