Vacuum encountered an error

The Vacuum encountered an error trigger fires as soon as your vacuum reports an error state. You can use it to create alerts, notifications, or proactive automations when something interrupts a cleaning session.

This is useful when you want to know right away that the robot is tangled, blocked, out of water, or needs another kind of manual help before it can continue.

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 this trigger 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. From the search box, search for and select Vacuum: Vacuum encountered an error.
5. Under Targets, pick the vacuum entities (or an area/floor) you want to monitor.
6. Under Trigger when, pick Each, First, or All to control group behavior.
7. Under For at least, enter how long the vacuum must remain in the error state before the trigger fires.
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, refer to this trigger as vacuum.errored. A basic example looks like this:

trigger: vacuum.errored
target:
  entity_id:
    - vacuum.upstairs
    - vacuum.downstairs
options:
  behavior: first

This fires after the first vacuum reports an error.

Options in YAML

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

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 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 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 (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: 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: 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 fires only when a vacuum actually enters an error state.
• If a vacuum comes back online from unavailable or unknown, that does not count as an error event.

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: alert when the vacuum reports an error

When the vacuum enters an error state, send a notification right away so you can clear the problem before the cleaning run is abandoned for the rest of the day.

• Trigger: Vacuum encountered an error
• Target: Upstairs vacuum
• Action: Send notification via mobile_app_phone

alias: "Vacuum error alert"
triggers:
  - trigger: vacuum.errored
    target:
      entity_id: vacuum.upstairs
actions:
  - action: notify.mobile_app_phone
    data:
      title: "Vacuum error"
      message: "The upstairs vacuum reported an error."

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:

• Vacuum paused cleaning: Triggers when a vacuum cleaner pauses cleaning.

• Vacuum returned to dock: Triggers when a vacuum cleaner docks.