Yi Home Camera Geofencing Not Working? A Simple Fix

How to Fix Yi Home Camera Geofencing Problems

Geofencing on your Yi or Kami Home camera is a convenient feature designed to automatically arm and disarm your camera based on your location. When it works, it's seamless. When it fails, you either get bombarded with notifications when you're home or, worse, the camera fails to arm when you leave.

This troubleshooting guide will focus on the most common cause of Yi geofencing issues: your smartphone's settings. Let's get this feature working for you.

## The Key to Success: Smartphone Permissions

Unlike many other camera issues, problems with geofencing are almost always rooted in your phone's settings, not the camera itself. The Yi Home app needs very specific permissions to track your location in the background.

### 1. Grant "Always On" Location Access

The app needs to know your location even when it's not open on your screen.

• On an iPhone (iOS):

  1. Go to your phone's Settings.
  2. Scroll down and tap on the Yi Home or Kami Home app.
  3. Tap on Location.
  4. You must select the Always option. If it's set to "While Using the App" or "Never," geofencing will not work correctly.

• On an Android Phone:

  1. Go to your phone's Settings.
  2. Tap on Apps, then find and tap on the Yi Home or Kami Home app.
  3. Tap on Permissions, then Location.
  4. Select Allow all the time. This ensures the app can check your location in the background.

### 2. Disable Battery Optimisation for the Yi App

Aggressive battery-saving modes are the enemy of geofencing. They work by preventing apps from running in the background.

• On an iPhone: If you are using Low Power Mode, this can affect background app refresh. Try disabling it to see if it resolves the issue.
• On Android:
  1. Go to Settings > Apps > Yi Home / Kami Home.
  2. Tap on Battery.
  3. Set the permission to Unrestricted or Not optimised. This tells your phone not to put the app to sleep to save power.

## Checking Your Geofencing Setup in the Yi App

Once your phone permissions are correct, let's double-check the settings within the app itself.

### 1. Accurate Home Location

The geofence is a circle drawn around the "Home" location you've set. If this location is inaccurate, the feature will fail.

1. In the Yi Home app, go to the settings for the camera you want to use with geofencing.
2. Find the Geofencing or Location-based Alert setting.
3. Check the map and ensure the pin is placed precisely over your home address. If it's on a neighbour's house or down the street, it will not trigger correctly. Adjust it if necessary.

### 2. Toggling the Feature Off and On

Sometimes, a simple reset of the feature can fix the problem.

1. In the camera's settings, disable the geofencing feature.
2. Log out of your Yi Home account within the app.
3. Close the app completely.
4. Re-open the app and log back in.
5. Navigate back to the camera settings and re-enable geofencing. This can re-establish a clean connection with your phone's location services.

## Important Limitation: Single User Only

It is critical to understand that Yi's geofencing feature is designed to work with one phone only. It cannot track multiple family members. If you have set it up on your phone, it will arm the camera when you leave, even if someone else is still at home. This is a current limitation of the system.

By ensuring your phone's permissions are set correctly and your home location is accurate, you can overcome the most common obstacles and get your Yi camera's geofencing feature working as intended.