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Camera Troubleshooting

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Dusty Greif edited this page Nov 11, 2019 · 24 revisions

Live Stream Troubleshooting

Live streams in the homebridge-ring plugin work out of the box for most users, but sometimes require some troubleshooting. They do not require any additional configuration beyond what is required to use the plugin in general. The requests and data for the live streams flow through many network devices along their path to screen so problems can pop up anywhere along the way. If you are having issues with your live streams, please follow these steps. You can try live streaming after each step to see if your issue has been fixed.

  1. Make sure you are on the latest version of the homebridge-ring plugin
  2. Verify that your Ring subscription is active. The live feeds go through the Ring servers and require an active subscription to function.
  3. Restart the following devices
    • Your phone/tablet/mac that you are trying to view the live stream on
    • Your hombridge server (raspberry pi or whatever you are running it on)
    • Your HomeKit hub. This is an Apple TV, iPad or HomePod that your HomeKit data passes through to get from your network to the cloud.
  4. Ensure that your homebridge server and your HomeKit hub are on the same network.
  5. Remove the camera from HomeKit via the Home app, then add it back. If you don't see the camera as an option to add back, follow the steps below.
  6. Check your logs in homebridge

If you are still unable to use live streams after these steps, it is most likely an issue with your network or with your ISP. Unfortunately these issues are beyond the scope of this plugin and I probably will not be able to help you. Please note, reinstalling homebridge/hoobs will most likely not fix any issues with this plugin. It's a drastic move and will probably just be a waste of your time.

Check your logs in homebridge

A proper live stream should look like this:

[Ring] Preparing Live Stream for [Camera Name]
[Ring] Waiting for stream data from [Camera Name]
[Ring] Received stream data from [Camera Name]
[Ring] Streaming active for [Camera Name]
[Ring] Stopped Live Stream for [Camera Name]

If you do not see Preparing Live Stream logged at all, then HomeKit/homebridge are not properly relaying the live stream request to the homebridge-ring plugin. Follow the troubleshooting steps above (particularly rebooting all your devices) which normally fix this issue.

If you see Failed to retrieve public ip address, then your IP address is not externally discoverable with any of the methods that we currently use to get your external IP address. This is likely something odd that your ISP is doing and not an issue that we can fix with the plugin.

If you see Waiting for stream data followed by Stopped Live Stream, it is a network issue. Your router is not allowing the ring plugin to open the ports that it needs for stream data to flow in. Check your router to see if it has UPnP or NAT-PMP features that you can enable. If those settings aren't available or don't fix the issue, there isn't much I can do for you. If you are a developer and are able to find a code solution to the problem, I would be happy to take a PR to help others having similar network issues.

Cannot add Camera from Home

If you remove a camera from HomeKit for some reason (such as live stream troubleshooting), sometimes it will not show up again in the "Add Device" flow in the Home app. If this happens, follow these steps:

  1. Verify that your homebridge server, HomeKit hub, and the device that you are trying to add the camera on are all on the same network without a firewall/router blocking access between them.
  2. Stop homebridge
  3. Go into your ~/.homebridge/persist directory and finding any AccessoryInfo.${uniqueId}.json files that relate to your camera. You can open them up and they have the device name right at the start of the file. Keep track of the ${uniqueId} values for your cameras. Delete each camera's AccessoryInfo.${uniqueId}.json and associated IdentifierCache.${uniqueId}.json file
  4. Remove the cameras from HomeKit via the Home app
  5. Start homebridge
  6. Re-add the cameras like you did the first time around

Known Live Stream Issues

  • Sound does not work - This is a codec issue between Ring and HomeKit. It may be possible to get it working, we just need to find a codec and configuration that is compatible between the two. I would appreciate help from anyone who has a good understanding of codecs and SDP.
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