From 14355f39fa50537a1e0f975f2d9d1573adb80b34 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Josh Hawkins <32435876+hawkeye217@users.noreply.github.com> Date: Sun, 24 May 2026 15:26:47 -0500 Subject: [PATCH] docs --- docs/docs/configuration/live.md | 33 +++++++++++++++++++----- docs/docs/configuration/reference.md | 4 +-- docs/docs/integrations/home-assistant.md | 10 +++++-- docs/docs/integrations/mqtt.md | 6 ++--- 4 files changed, 39 insertions(+), 14 deletions(-) diff --git a/docs/docs/configuration/live.md b/docs/docs/configuration/live.md index 5749379c63..8cf4f2d49c 100644 --- a/docs/docs/configuration/live.md +++ b/docs/docs/configuration/live.md @@ -257,19 +257,38 @@ cameras: -### Disabling cameras +### Camera state -Cameras can be temporarily disabled through the Frigate UI and through [MQTT](/integrations/mqtt#frigatecamera_nameenabledset) to conserve system resources. When disabled, Frigate's ffmpeg processes are terminated — recording stops, object detection is paused, and the Live dashboard displays a blank image with a disabled message. Review items, tracked objects, and historical footage for disabled cameras can still be accessed via the UI. +Each camera has three possible states, surfaced as a status selector in **Settings → Camera Management**: -:::note +- **On** — streams are processed normally. Object detection, recording, and Live view are active. +- **Off** — Frigate's ffmpeg processes are paused. Recording stops, object detection is paused, and the Live dashboard displays a blank image with a "Camera is off" message. The camera is still visible in the Live dashboard and its past review items, tracked objects, and historical footage remain accessible via the UI. This state does **not** persist across Frigate restarts; the camera returns to On after a restart. +- **Disabled** — the change is saved to your configuration file (`enabled: False`). The camera stops immediately, Frigate stops ffmpeg processes, and all live and historical UI elements for the camera are no longer visible but remains retained on disk. The camera is still listed in **Settings → Camera Management** so it can be re-enabled. **A restart of Frigate is required to bring a disabled camera back to On.** -Disabling a camera via the Frigate UI or MQTT is temporary and does not persist through restarts of Frigate. +#### Turning a camera on or off -::: +Turning a camera off is temporary and does not require a restart. The available controls are: -For restreamed cameras, go2rtc remains active but does not use system resources for decoding or processing unless there are active external consumers (such as the Advanced Camera Card in Home Assistant using a go2rtc source). +- The power button in the single-camera Live view header +- The right-click context menu on a camera tile on the Live dashboard +- The Camera Management settings pane (status set to **Off**) +- The mobile settings drawer on the single-camera Live view (admin users only) +- The [MQTT topic](/integrations/mqtt#frigatecamera_nameenabledset) `frigate//enabled/set` with payload `ON` or `OFF` +- The Home Assistant integration via the [`camera.turn_on` / `camera.turn_off` actions](/integrations/home-assistant#camera-api) -Note that disabling a camera through the config file (`enabled: False`) removes all related UI elements, including historical footage access. To retain access while disabling the camera, keep it enabled in the config and use the UI or MQTT to disable it temporarily. +#### Disabling a camera + +Disabling a camera saves the change to your configuration file. Navigate to **Settings → Camera Management** and set the camera's status to **Disabled**. Runtime processing stops immediately; the change persists across restarts. + +Re-enabling a disabled camera requires a restart of Frigate so that the ffmpeg processes and other camera-scoped resources can be initialized. The UI will prompt you to restart when you switch a disabled camera back to On. + +#### Restream behavior + +For both Off and Disabled cameras, go2rtc remains active but does not use system resources for decoding or processing unless there are active external consumers (such as the Advanced Camera Card in Home Assistant using a go2rtc source). + +#### Choosing Off versus Disabled + +If you want a camera's historical data (review items, tracked objects, footage) to stay accessible in the UI while you stop processing, set the camera to **Off**. If you want the camera fully removed from the Live dashboard, review filters, and other UI surfaces, set it to **Disabled**. The Disabled state still keeps the camera in Camera Management so it can be re-enabled later; if you want to remove all traces of a camera including its configuration, delete it via Camera Management instead. ### Live player error messages diff --git a/docs/docs/configuration/reference.md b/docs/docs/configuration/reference.md index e5eb161386..a006de8fd2 100644 --- a/docs/docs/configuration/reference.md +++ b/docs/docs/configuration/reference.md @@ -840,8 +840,8 @@ cameras: # Required: name of the camera back: # Optional: Enable/Disable the camera (default: shown below). - # If disabled: config is used but no live stream and no capture etc. - # Events/Recordings are still viewable. + # When False, ffmpeg is not started and the camera is hidden from the UI + # (except Camera Management). Re-enabling requires a Frigate restart. enabled: True # Optional: camera type used for some Frigate features (default: shown below) # Options are "generic" and "lpr" diff --git a/docs/docs/integrations/home-assistant.md b/docs/docs/integrations/home-assistant.md index 5b9c014377..14ee795289 100644 --- a/docs/docs/integrations/home-assistant.md +++ b/docs/docs/integrations/home-assistant.md @@ -195,7 +195,7 @@ For clips to be castable to media devices, audio is required and may need to be ## Camera API -To disable a camera dynamically +To turn a camera off (pauses Frigate's processing of the stream; does not persist across Frigate restarts; see [Camera state](/configuration/live#camera-state)): ``` action: camera.turn_off @@ -204,7 +204,7 @@ target: entity_id: camera.back_deck_cam # your Frigate camera entity ID ``` -To enable a camera that has been disabled dynamically +To turn a camera back on: ``` action: camera.turn_on @@ -213,6 +213,12 @@ target: entity_id: camera.back_deck_cam # your Frigate camera entity ID ``` +:::note + +These actions toggle Frigate's runtime On/Off state. To permanently disable a camera, set its status to **Disabled** in **Settings → Camera Management** in the Frigate UI. + +::: + ## Notification API Many people do not want to expose Frigate to the web, so the integration creates some public API endpoints that can be used for notifications. diff --git a/docs/docs/integrations/mqtt.md b/docs/docs/integrations/mqtt.md index 28c178d1f5..719aa4389a 100644 --- a/docs/docs/integrations/mqtt.md +++ b/docs/docs/integrations/mqtt.md @@ -306,7 +306,7 @@ Publishes the current health status of each role that is enabled (`audio`, `dete - `online`: Stream is running and being processed - `offline`: Stream is offline and is being restarted -- `disabled`: Camera is currently disabled +- `disabled`: Camera is currently turned off (either at runtime via the `enabled/set` topic, or persistently via the configuration file). See [Camera state](/configuration/live#camera-state) for the distinction. ### `frigate//` @@ -368,11 +368,11 @@ The published value is the detected state class name (e.g., `open`, `closed`, `o ### `frigate//enabled/set` -Topic to turn Frigate's processing of a camera on and off. Expected values are `ON` and `OFF`. +Topic to turn Frigate's processing of a camera on or off at runtime. Expected values are `ON` and `OFF`. The change is **not** persisted across Frigate restarts — the camera returns to the configured state on restart. To permanently disable a camera, use **Settings → Camera Management** in the Frigate UI. See [Camera state](/configuration/live#camera-state) for the difference between turning a camera off and disabling it. ### `frigate//enabled/state` -Topic with current state of processing for a camera. Published values are `ON` and `OFF`. +Topic with current runtime state of processing for a camera. Published values are `ON` and `OFF`. ### `frigate//detect/set`