#19035·esphome

ESP32-C5 Wi-Fi initialization causes boot loop on Seeed Studio XIAO ESP32-C5

Author: lboueCreated Sep 8, 2026Updated Sep 17, 2026

The problem

Wi-Fi initialization causes the Seeed Studio XIAO ESP32-C5 to reboot continuously with ESPHome 2026.8.2. The device boots and remains stable when Wi-Fi is configured but disabled at boot with enable_on_boot: false. This appears to isolate the problem to the Wi-Fi initialization path on the ESP32-C5.

Which version of ESPHome has the issue?

2026.8.2

What type of installation are you using?

Home Assistant Add-on

What platform are you using?

ESP32

Component causing the issue

No response

YAML Config

yaml

# Board: Seeed Studio XIAO ESP32C5
# Definition: definitions/boards/seeed_xiao_esp32c5/manifest.yaml

esphome:
  name: xiao-esp32-c5
  friendly_name: XIAO ESP32-C5

esp32:
  variant: esp32c5

logger:

api:
  encryption:
    key: "**************"

ota:
  - platform: esphome

wifi:

  ssid: !secret wifi_ssid
  password: !secret wifi_password
  ap:
    ssid: XIAO ESP32-C5 Fallback Hotspot
    password: "VkGUtcalJgWt"

captive_portal:

Steps to reproduce

Flash the configuration above to a Seeed Studio XIAO ESP32-C5.
Connect to the serial console at 115200 baud.
Let the device boot.
ESPHome starts the Wi-Fi component.
The device resets and repeats the boot sequence.

The last ESPHome message before the reset is:

[C][wifi:649]: Starting

Actual behavior

The device enters a boot loop when Wi-Fi is enabled at boot.

The bootloader successfully loads the application:

I (193) boot: Loaded app from partition at offset 0x10000

ESPHome then starts normally:

[I][logger:122]: Log initialized
[I][app:060]: Running through setup()

With Wi-Fi enabled, the last message is:

[C][wifi:649]: Starting

The device then resets.

The bootloader reports:

ESP-ROM:esp32c5-eco2-20250121
Build:Jan 21 2025
rst:0x15 (USB_UART_HPSYS),boot:0x58 (SPI_FAST_FLASH_BOOT)

I (21) boot: ESP-IDF v5.5.5 2nd stage bootloader
I (21) boot: chip revision: v1.0
I (22) boot: efuse block revision: v0.3
I (22) boot.esp32c5: SPI Speed      : 80MHz
I (22) boot.esp32c5: SPI Mode       : DIO
I (22) boot.esp32c5: SPI Flash Size : 4MB

After several repetitions, ESPHome's safe mode reports unsuccessful boot attempts.

Expected behavior

The XIAO ESP32-C5 should boot normally and initialize Wi-Fi.

Important comparison / workaround

If Wi-Fi is configured with:

yaml

wifi:
  enable_on_boot: false
  ssid: !secret wifi_ssid
  password: !secret wifi_password
  ap:
    ssid: XIAO ESP32-C5 Fallback Hotspot
    password: "REDACTED"

the device boots successfully and remains stable.

The resulting log contains:

[I][app:117]: setup() finished successfully!
[I][app:151]: ESPHome version 2026.8.2
[I][app:158]: ESP32 Chip: ESP32-C5 rev1.0, 1 core(s)

[C][wifi:1565]: WiFi:
[C][wifi:1565]:   Local MAC: 10:BD:A3:CF:81:A0
[C][wifi:1565]:   Connected: NO
[C][wifi:1571]:   Disabled

After 60 seconds:

[I][safe_mode:154]: Boot seems successful; resetting boot loop counter

The device continues running normally.

Anything in the logs that might be useful for us?

The issue therefore does not appear to be related to:

flashing;
the bootloader;
partition loading;
ESPHome application startup;
API;
OTA;
logger;
or the general ESP32-C5 variant support.

The failure only occurs when ESPHome actually enables the Wi-Fi subsystem during startup.

I have not yet captured a Guru Meditation or complete panic backtrace because the serial output currently stops at wifi: Starting before the reset.

I would like to know whether there are any known ESP32-C5 Wi-Fi issues with ESP-IDF 5.5.5, or whether the ESPHome Wi-Fi component requires any additional configuration for the XIAO ESP32-C5.

Additional information

esptool --port COM3 chip_id
Warning: Deprecated: Command 'chip_id' is deprecated. Use 'chip-id' instead.
esptool v5.1.0
Connected to ESP32-C5 on COM3:
Chip type:          ESP32-C5 (revision v1.0)
Features:           Wi-Fi 6 (dual-band), BT 5 (LE), IEEE802.15.4, Single Core + LP Core, 240MHz
Crystal frequency:  48MHz
MAC:                10:bd:a3:ff:fe:cf:**:**
BASE MAC:           10:bd:a3:cf:**:**
MAC_EXT:            ff:fe

Stub flasher running.

Warning: ESP32-C5 has no chip ID. Reading MAC address instead.
MAC:                10:bd:a3:ff:fe:cf:**:**
BASE MAC:           10:bd:a3:cf:**:**
MAC_EXT:            ff:fe

xiao-esp32-c5-logs.txt

Source: esphome/esphome

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