How to connect MI Robot Vacuum Mop P to Hotspot (also works for Viomi and Lydsto robot vacuums)

Many of you seem to be struggling with connecting MI robot vacuum to a hotspot when there is no wifi or limited wifi available in your home. Let’s try to do that today:

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I’m using an iPhone for this demonstration. The steps could be similar for Android phones (except for one or two steps which I will highlight)

Couple of pre-requisites:

1. I’m assuming you have already installed the MI robot vacuum app from app store or play store. If not - please do that first.

2. You also require 2 mobile phones - from one phone you will use a data connection and from the other you will use the app. Both app and hotspot on the same phone unfortunately does not work.

On the phone that you are using for network (that is the phone that does not have the app) follow these steps

Step 1: Turn on the hotspot on the phone that you are connecting to. Some things to keep in mind when you are turning the hotspot:

The robot only connects to a 2.4GHz network. So if you are using some of the newer versions of phones which use 5GHz by default, you will not be able to connect to such networks. How to change it? In the phone you are using as a hotspot (not the one you have installed your app)

In iPhones, when you are enabling the personal hotspot - select Maximize Compatibility.

In Android phones, go to the personal hotspot settings - switch from 5GHz to 2.4 GHz. I’ve put a link in the description that will give step by step guide for different Android phones

This step is important, make sure you don’t miss it.

Step 2: Make sure your hotspot name only has alphabets and numbers. Mine was called Saumya’s iPhone which did not work. Had to change it.

On your robot vacuum (this process works for MI, Viomi and Lydsto robot vacuums)

Press and hold the home and power button for 3 seconds till it starts blinking. If you have voice commands turned on, it will tell you that it is ready for network setup

On the phone that has the MI Home app

Step 1: On your mobile with the MI app - click add a new device. Make sure to turn on bluetooth as indicated by the app if you want it to automatically scan. Select robot vacuum and then select the specific robot you are adding. As you can see, this process works for MI, Viomi and Lydsto robot vacuums. Select your model.

Step 2: The app will tell you to press and hold power and home button. If you have not already done it as mentioned earlier, do it now before you go to the next step. Make sure the power and home buttons on the robot are blinking.

Step 3: Add the hotspot name and password. Make sure you have changed the network to 2.4GHz as I told earlier. If you haven't, the robot will not be able to connect to the hotspot.

Step 4: As guided by the app - go to your wifi-settings and connect your phone to ‘viomi-vacuum-xxx’ (or whatever it says on the app when you are trying this out). If you don’t see viomi-vacuum-xxx - it means you have not pressed the power and home buttons properly or the robot is not ready for network connection.

Step 5: Now the app will ask you to bring your phone with the internet connection closer to the robot. Typically hotspots could work upto 20 meters.

Step 6: The app should tell you that the connection is successful.

After this you should see your robot connected to the network on the app. If you want to check, you can go to the robot on the app -> Settings -> Additional settings -> Network info. That should show you your hotspot.

Problems you could encounter:

1. You are trying to connect to a hotspot on the same phone as the app - this does not work

2. You are trying to connect to a 5 GHz network (I did this and was wondering why it failed). - this does not work

3. You have not reset your robot for network configurations

4. Your phone with the network connection is too far from the robot

After the initial configuration, you can set a schedule that the robot should run and forget about it. But if you need more flexibility - every time you need to operate your robot vacuum - you will need both phones available and need to make sure that the robot is connected to your hotspot (it will not be blinking if it is connected) before you can operate it on the app.

I hope this was useful. You may want to watch this video next on what I find good and not good in the MI robot vacuum. Thank you for watching, see you in the next video.