UniFi Protect

UniFi Protect is Ubiquiti’s camera and recording application. It runs on a UniFi OS console such as a UNVR or a Cloud Gateway with storage. Much of what follows came from search summaries and third-party pages and is marked unverified. Check Ubiquiti’s own articles before relying on it.

Documentation: UniFi Help Center · Home Assistant UniFi Protect

Recording Modes #

Per camera: Always, Detection Only, or Never. Retention and the purge order (oldest first is commonly reported) were not verified.

Streams #

Enable RTSPS in the camera’s settings, Advanced, then pick Low, Medium or High.
RTSPS is reported on port 7441, and plain RTSP on 7447 by removing the s from the URL. These ports come from community and Home Assistant sources only.
ONVIF support for third-party cameras arrived in Protect 5.0. Feature depth varies by camera.

bash

ffplay "rtsps://<CONSOLE_IP>:7441/<STREAM_ALIAS>?enableSrtp"

The URL form above comes from the stream settings page, not from Ubiquiti documentation, so copy the exact URL the UI shows.

Backups #

Settings, Control Plane, Backups, then Restore. Backups cover configuration and not recordings. This path moves settings between a UDM Pro and a UNVR. See UniFi Backups and Migration.

Home Assistant #

The Home Assistant integration needs Protect 7.2.105 or newer on a UniFi OS console, and an API key. A local user is optional and unlocks more entities. Live feeds use RTSPS, and camera speaker audio needs UDP 7004. See Home Assistant and UniFi API and Automation.

Network Tips #

Put cameras on their own VLAN with no internet access, and allow only the console to reach them (UniFi Firewall and VPN).
Use PoE switches with enough budget for cameras.
Camera disconnects are most often cabling, PoE power or VLAN issues, but no official fixes were verified.

Access: door access control (readers and intercoms).
Talk: a VoIP phone system. Both run on UniFi OS. They are described here only by name.

Not Verified #

Hardware specs, storage and retention behaviour, adopting cameras from another Protect, user permissions, ONVIF compatibility list, RTSP ports.