A robot vacuum that shows as offline in the app is usually still running fine but has lost its link to your Wi-Fi or the manufacturer’s servers: confirm the robot has power and signal, restart your router and the app, and if it still will not reconnect, remove the robot from the app and add it again on your 2.4 GHz network.
Why the app loses the robot
- A weak Wi-Fi signal at the dock. If the dock sits far from the router or behind walls, the robot drops off when the signal fades.
- A router or password change. A new router, a renamed network, or a changed Wi-Fi password breaks the saved connection until the robot is set up again.
- A 5 GHz only network. Nearly all robot vacuums use the 2.4 GHz band only. If your phone or router pushed the robot onto 5 GHz, it cannot stay connected.
- The robot is off the dock or powered down. A robot with a drained battery, a flipped power switch, or a resting spot far from the dock will show as offline.
- A server or app outage. The status also depends on the manufacturer’s servers. When those are down, the robot can work while the app still reads offline.
Fix it in order
- Confirm the robot has power. Return it to the dock, check that it is charging, and make sure any physical power switch is on.
- Restart the app and your phone. Fully close the app and reopen it, or restart the phone, to clear a stale connection.
- Restart your router. Power the router off for about thirty seconds and back on, then give it a minute to come up before checking the app.
- Check for an outage. If nothing on your network changed, wait and try later, since a server outage clears on its own.
- Confirm you are on 2.4 GHz. Put your phone on the 2.4 GHz network before any re-setup so the robot is not handed a band it cannot use.
- Remove and re-add the robot. Delete the robot from the app and run setup again. Check the manual for the exact button or hold needed to put your model into pairing mode.
- Move the dock closer if signal is weak. If the robot keeps dropping, relocate the dock nearer the router or add coverage to that area.
When it is the robot, not the network
If other devices hold Wi-Fi in the same spot and the robot alone keeps dropping, the fault may sit with the robot. Signs of an internal cause include a robot that will not enter pairing mode, a connection that fails only after a firmware update, or repeated disconnects that began without any change to your network. A firmware regression usually shows up across many units of the same model at the same time, which separates it from a local Wi-Fi problem. You can check whether others are reporting the same connection issue on the Tracker, and for how remote control and app dependence fit into a robot’s independence, see our assessment of robot vacuum autonomy.