No-Go Zones & Virtual Walls: How to Set Them Up Correctly

Three Types of Boundaries

• No-go zones — the robot will not enter at all. Rectangular or polygonal regions drawn in the app. Best for pet feeding areas, charging cable nests, kids' toy corners.
• Virtual walls — a single line the robot will not cross. Useful for splitting an open-plan area without blocking a full rectangle.
• No-mop zones — the robot enters and vacuums, but lifts the mop or skips wet-cleaning. Critical for rugs, hardwood transitions, and pet beds.

Legacy “virtual wall” hardware (iRobot's Dual Mode lighthouses, NorthStar towers) still works on classic Roomba models but is unrelated to app-defined zones on modern robots.

Prerequisites: A Stable Map

Before drawing any zone, your robot needs a saved, named map. The first cleaning run is for mapping — do not interrupt it, do not move the dock, and do not pick the robot up. After that run, open the app and confirm the map is saved (in Roborock: Map Management → Save Map). If you skip this step, every subsequent run rebuilds the map and any zones you draw vanish.

For best results:

• Open every interior door during the first map run
• Move dining chairs and footstools to their normal positions
• Do not move the dock after mapping
• For two-story homes: complete the map on floor one, carry the robot to floor two, and run a fresh mapping cycle — the app stores up to 4 maps

Roborock App Workflow

1. Open the Roborock app and select your robot
2. Tap the map preview at the top of the home screen to enter full-map mode
3. Tap the icon labeled Furniture or Restricted Zones
4. Choose No-Go Zone, No-Mop Zone, or Invisible Wall
5. Drag to draw the rectangle or polygon. Resize using the corner handles.
6. Tap Save. Changes propagate to the robot within 5–10 seconds over Wi-Fi.

Roborock maps allow up to 10 no-go zones, 10 no-mop zones, and 10 invisible walls per saved floor.

Dreame / Mova App Workflow

1. Open the Dreamehome app (Mova robots use the same app)
2. Tap your robot, then the map area
3. Tap Map Edit in the lower-right toolbar
4. Select Forbidden Zone, No-Mop Area, or Wall
5. Draw and confirm. Carpet zones are configured separately under Carpet Settings

Dreame's app additionally lets you assign a cleaning order to rooms — useful if you want the robot to leave the bedroom for last.

iRobot Home App Workflow

iRobot calls no-go zones “Keep Out Zones.”

1. Open the iRobot Home app and tap the map
2. Tap the + icon then Keep Out Zone
3. Drag the rectangle. iRobot supports only rectangles, not polygons.
4. Apply the zone to a specific room or all rooms

Note: Keep Out Zones are only respected on Roomba i, j, s, and Combo series. The classic 600/700/800-series ignores them and requires physical Dual Mode Virtual Walls (battery-powered IR beacons sold separately).

Eufy Clean Workflow

1. Open Eufy Clean (or Eufy Home on older firmware)
2. Tap your robot's tile, then the map
3. Tap No-go Zone from the lower toolbar
4. Drag rectangle, set type (vacuum block / mop block), save

Eufy's mapping is more conservative than Roborock's — if you make significant furniture changes the robot may invalidate the map and prompt for a remap.

Ecovacs Home Workflow

1. Open Ecovacs Home, select your Deebot
2. Tap the map → Map Management → Edit Map
3. Add zones: Virtual Boundary (line), No-Sweep, No-Mop
4. Confirm and save

Ecovacs supports zone profiles per room, so you can have one set of restrictions for the “living room” route and a different set for the “whole home” route.

When the Robot Ignores a Zone

Four common reasons:

1. Map drift. If the robot's LiDAR position has drifted (often after a furniture rearrangement) the zone is technically still in the right map coordinates but the wrong physical location. Fix: re-run a mapping cycle.
2. Zone too small. Most apps require a minimum size (typically 0.5 m × 0.5 m). A thin sliver of a zone gets dropped silently.
3. Robot started from a non-dock position. If you pick up the robot, move it to another room, and tap “clean”, it loses its map anchor and falls back to random navigation, ignoring all zones. Always start from the dock.
4. Firmware update reset the map. Some firmware updates invalidate stored maps. Check release notes; remap if needed.

Common Use Cases

• Pet feeding area: No-go zone around the bowls. Place a soft rug under the bowls so spilled food sits on the rug, not the floor.
• Charging cables and pet beds: No-go zone covering the floor strip behind the desk or sofa where cables live.
• Bathroom rugs: No-mop zone over each rug. Tile gets cleaned, rug stays dry.
• Christmas tree: Seasonal no-go zone enabled in December, disabled in January.
• Floor-mounted heating vents: No-mop zone so the robot doesn't drip water onto a hot vent.