Is Your Yoto Player Offline? (Here’s The Easy Fix!)

If you keep your Yoto player offline, you can only listen to content that has already been downloaded.

Hence, if you have no locally stored content in your Yoto, you definitely need to connect to the internet.

In this quick guide, we’ll show you how to connect your Yoto player to the internet, how to verify that the connection is reliable, and overcome potential problems.

Also, we’ll explore what you can do with an offline Yoto player, so continue with the guide!

Why is My Yoto Player Offline?

If you’ve just taken your Yoto player out of the box, it’s entirely normal for the unit to be offline.

If you, however, previously connected the device, but it’s offline, then there is an internet fault.

Here’s why your Yoto player is offline:

Yoto Player Offline – How to Get It Online In Minutes?

Note: Have you tried turning off and on your Yoto player to see whether it will become online?

1. Pair the Yoto Player to the Wi-Fi

If your Yoto player is brand new and offline, the first step is to carry out the initialization setup, which includes pairing the device to the Wi-Fi.

The process is quite simple, so we’ll guide you through the steps and get your Yoto player connected to the internet in a matter of minutes.

Step #1 Download the Yoto App

The first step is to download the Yoto app from the Google Play Store or App Store, respectively for your Android or iOS smartphone.

When you download and install the app, create a new profile or sign in to your account to begin the setup process.

Step #2 Turn On & Charge Yoto

The next step is to ensure that the charging dock or cable is connected to a proven wall outlet and that your Yoto player is charging.

To know whether your Yoto player is charging, check if the smart LED cable is lit up. Alternatively, press the power button and check the charging icon.

Step #3 Authenticate Your Yoto

In the Yoto app, select “Set up a player” and then press both orange buttons on the device until you see the 6-digit authentication code.

Then enter the code into the mobile app and press the “Continue” button to proceed with the setup.

Step #4 Pair Yoto to your Wi-Fi

The final step before you can connect Yoto to your router’s Wi-Fi is to pair your phone to the temporary Yoto network.

You will be prompted to “Join” the temporary network and the display of the device will change to green.

Finally, you’ll be prompted to select your router’s Wi-Fi network (which must be 2.4 GHz) and insert the password to connect.

If the connection is successful you should see the Wi-Fi icon on the display of your Yoto player. That’s it. Your Yoto player must be online. If not continue reading…

2. Shorten the Wireless Distance

If your Yoto player can’t connect to the Wi-Fi, or it has been previously connected, but now it’s not, maybe you’re too far away from the router.

So, take your Yoto player closer to the router, if possible in the same room, and check whether the Yoto device will come online automatically.

You can check whether the device is online by searching for the Wi-Fi icon on the display.

Well, if your Yoto player was unable to connect to the Wi-Fi during the setup, test now when the unit is closer to the router.

We recommend following the instructions above describing how to connect.

Note: Have you checked whether your Wi-Fi is accessible and online?

3. Power Cycle the Network Router

If your Yoto player connects to your Wi-Fi, but it’s offline, this generally shows that your Wi-Fi is “empty” which means not connected to the internet.

Well, this happens either when there is an issue with the network router or whenever your broadband is down, hence the internet is offline.

One of the quickest ways to refresh the connection and resume the operation of your Wi-Fi is to power cycle your network router.

Simply, unplug your router from the outlet for 50–60 seconds.

Your router needs about 3–4 minutes for the Wi-Fi to come back online when you restart it so be patient and wait for your Yoto player to reconnect.

Reminder: If your Yoto player successfully reconnects to the Wi-Fi you’ll see the Wi-Fi icon, if not you’ll need to manually reconnect.

4. Disable the Router’s Wi-Fi Merge

Your Yoto player might have become offline because your router is no longer sharing 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi, which is the only frequency your Yoto player supports.

Well, to be precise, the dual-band routers always share the 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi in one form or another, it only depends on the settings.

However, many routers have a setting called “Smart Connect” (or similarly), which combines both your 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz Wi-Fi’s into one signal network.

This option typically allows your devices to connect to one single Wi-Fi, regardless of whether they only support 2.4 GHz or both.

So, we recommend checking and disabling this setting, if enabled:

1. Go to your router’s GUI from http://192.168.100.1/.
2. Login by using admin/admin or admin/password.
3. Then, locate the “Wi-Fi” or the “Wireless” section.
4. Then search for a function combining your Wi-Fi:

• Smart Connect
• Band Steering
• Wi-Fi Optimization
• Smart Band Selection
• Auto Band Select
• Adaptive Wi-Fi
• DFS

When you find the respective setting, disable it, so your router can independently share both the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz Wi-Fi.

Then connect your Yoto player to the 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi frequency.

Note: You can skip this step if you have a dual-band router and 2 separate Wi-Fi networks!

5. Factory Reset your Yoto Player

If nothing works and your Yoto player offline, regardless of what you try, the next step is to perform a factory reset.

Note that this will erase ALL of your downloaded content, and you will not be able to listen to anything unless you re-download the content from the Yoto player cards.

Here’s how to factory reset the Yoto player in easy steps:

1. Press ALL 3 buttons on your Yoto player.
2. Wait for the nightlight to pulse in red color.
3. In 3 seconds of pulsing, release the buttons.
4. Quickly press the orange button on the side.

This will trigger the factory reset on your Yoto player. When the reset is over you will need to reconnect the device to the Wi-Fi.

We recommend following the instructions from the first step.

What Can You Do With Offline Yoto Player?

If you’re away from a wireless network you can only listen to the content that you have locally downloaded while your Yoto player was online. 

Also, you won’t be able to listen to cards that are linked to radios or podcasts, since they require internet access and streaming from the cloud.

How to Use Phone Hotspot with Yoto?

If you’re away from your router, you can use your phone’s hotspot to connect Yoto to the internet and become online.

This is easy as long as you have an Android or iOS phone with mobile data.

Here’s how to enable the hotspot on Android or iOS mobile devices:

• Android: Settings → Network & internet → Hotspot & tethering → Wi-Fi hotspot.
• iOS: Home screen → Settings → Personal Hotspot → Allow Other to Join

Then, go into the Yoto app, and select “Set up a player” to carry out the instructions in the same way as you’re connecting to your router.

Note: You can see your hotspot password from the menu where you have enabled the feature!