From a31be2ae299d471d6837106348865844654f05ff Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: "J. Nick Koston" <nick@home-assistant.io>
Date: Tue, 20 Jan 2026 13:58:20 -1000
Subject: [PATCH] handle free on error

---
 esphome/components/wifi/wifi_component_esp_idf.cpp | 1 +
 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+)

diff --git a/esphome/components/wifi/wifi_component_esp_idf.cpp b/esphome/components/wifi/wifi_component_esp_idf.cpp
index 2a2f5fece2..99474ac2f8 100644
--- a/esphome/components/wifi/wifi_component_esp_idf.cpp
+++ b/esphome/components/wifi/wifi_component_esp_idf.cpp
@@ -835,6 +835,7 @@ void WiFiComponent::wifi_process_event_(IDFWiFiEvent *data) {
       err = esp_wifi_scan_get_ap_record(&record);
       if (err != ESP_OK) {
         ESP_LOGW(TAG, "esp_wifi_scan_get_ap_record failed: %s", esp_err_to_name(err));
+        esp_wifi_clear_ap_list();  // Free remaining records not yet retrieved
         break;
       }
       bssid_t bssid;