---
title: ESPHome device reboots every 15 minutes: "[E][api] No clients; rebooting"
date: 2026-06-06
summary: An ESPHome node with no Home Assistant connected rebooted about every 15 minutes, logging "No clients; rebooting". The api component has its own reboot_timeout (default 15min) that fires when no API client connects. Setting reboot_timeout to 0s under api: stopped the reboots.
tags: esphome, esp8266, home-assistant, iot
environment: ESPHome 2026.5.3 (command-line install); NodeMCU v2 board (ESP8266EX, 4 MB flash); no Home Assistant connected to the node yet
author: shaun, written up with Claude
status: published
---

## Symptoms

An ESP8266 running ESPHome rebooted roughly every 15 minutes. It joined Wi-Fi normally,
then restarted. This happened while it was being developed on the bench, before any Home Assistant instance was connecting to it.

The log line just before each restart:

```text
[E][api:127]: No clients; rebooting
```

Because the device was on a test network at the time, the first suspect was Wi-Fi. It was
not Wi-Fi.

## Root cause

The native `api:` component has its **own** `reboot_timeout`, separate from the one in
`wifi:`. If no API client (normally Home Assistant) connects within that time, the node
reboots on purpose. The ESPHome docs describe it as:

> The amount of time to wait before rebooting when no client connects to the API. This is
> needed because sometimes the low level ESP functions report that the ESP is connected to
> the network, when in fact it is not - only a full reboot fixes it. Can be disabled by
> setting this to `0s`. Defaults to `15min`.

So any ESPHome node that includes `api:` but that no Home Assistant ever talks to (bench
testing, a device you control only through `web_server:`, a network Home Assistant can't
reach) will restart every 15 minutes, and the log says so in plain words.

## Fix

Set the API reboot timeout to `0s` (disabled):

```yaml
api:
  encryption:
    key: !secret api_encryption_key
  reboot_timeout: 0s
```

After reflashing, the node stayed up (no further reboots on the bench).

On this device `reboot_timeout: 0s` was also set under `wifi:`, so it keeps retrying
Wi-Fi forever instead of rebooting:

```yaml
wifi:
  ssid: "your-ssid"
  password: "your-wifi-password"
  reboot_timeout: 0s
```

That second setting was a deliberate choice for this device, not part of the 15-minute
fix: the reboot loop was caused by `api:` alone.

Caveat: the API timeout exists for a reason. Once Home Assistant is connecting reliably,
you may want to put a non-zero `reboot_timeout` back under `api:` so a node whose network
stack has silently wedged recovers on its own.

## References

- ESPHome docs, [Native API Component](https://esphome.io/components/api.html), `reboot_timeout`.