Josh Hawkins
199bea081c
* add import/export for camera group layouts and streaming settings Camera group layouts and per-camera streaming settings are stored in the browser's IndexedDB, so they are tied to a single browser on a single device. Users with more than one device have to rebuild every group layout and re-pick every camera's stream settings by hand, and clearing browser data loses the work. Add a Backup & Restore card to Settings > UI Settings that exports these settings to a JSON file and imports that file on another device. Import shows a confirmation dialog with per-section counts, switches for layouts, streaming settings, and UI preferences, and warnings about camera groups or cameras in the file that are not on this server. Server-side storage is deliberately avoided. These are per-device presentation settings: a layout arranged for a desktop is wrong on a tablet, and continuous full-resolution streams that are free on a wired LAN are not on a phone. An explicit file moves settings only when the user chooses to move them. Implementation notes: - web/src/utils/uiSettingsTransfer.ts owns a registry of transferable IndexedDB keys. Each entry records whether the key is user-namespaced, matching which persistence hook wrote it, plus a zod schema for its value. - Only registry-known keys are ever written, and only when their value passes that schema. The file format deliberately lets unknown keys survive parsing, so this filter is what prevents a hand-edited file from writing arbitrary storage keys or out-of-range values. - Export falls back to the legacy un-namespaced key, because the username migration runs lazily on first mount of each owning hook. - Streaming settings merge per group rather than replacing the whole map, so groups configured only on the receiving device survive. - Import writes storage and then reloads, because useUserPersistence reads a key only on mount and StreamingSettingsProvider would otherwise write its stale in-memory state back over the import. - playbackBandwidthEstimate, frigate-search-history, and live-layout are excluded: the first two are measurements and user data rather than preferences, and live-layout's default is derived from the device. * merge imported streaming settings per camera instead of per group
8.6 KiB
id, title
| id | title |
|---|---|
| live | Live View |
import NavPath from "@site/src/components/NavPath";
Live view is Frigate's real-time dashboard and the page you land on by default. It shows all of your cameras at a glance, streams your most recent alerts across the top, and lets you open any camera in a full-resolution single-camera view with audio, two-way talk, PTZ, and on-demand recording controls.
This page describes how to use the Live view. For how to configure live streaming (go2rtc, stream selection, smart streaming, WebRTC, and audio), see the Live View configuration docs.
The dashboard at a glance
The default All Cameras dashboard shows every camera, with a filmstrip of recent alerts scrolling across the top. Clicking an alert opens it in Review; each card also has a check button to mark it reviewed without leaving the dashboard. Only alerts appear in the filmstrip. To suppress a label or zone from showing there, configure it as a detection instead (see Alerts and Detections).
By default Frigate uses smart streaming: a camera's image updates roughly once per minute while nothing is happening, and switches to a full live stream the moment activity is detected. This conserves bandwidth and resources. You can change this for each camera when using a camera group (see Streaming settings below), and the behavior is explained in detail under Live view technologies.
On mobile, a toggle in the header switches between a grid layout and a single-column list layout. On desktop a fullscreen button is available in the lower-right corner.
Switching dashboards and camera groups
The icon rail (top-left on desktop, a horizontal strip on mobile) switches between dashboards:
- The home icon is the All Cameras dashboard, which shows every camera enabled for the dashboard.
- Each camera group you create appears as its own icon. Selecting a group shows only that group's cameras.
Camera groups are useful for organizing cameras by location (for example, Front of House or Backyard) and for giving each group its own dashboard layout and camera streaming preferences.
You can also view Birdseye on the dashboard, or open it directly at http://<frigate_host>:5000/#birdseye. Clicking a camera inside the Birdseye view jumps to that camera's live feed.
Creating and editing camera groups
Admins can manage groups from the pencil icon next to the group rail, which opens the Camera Groups dialog. From there you can add a group, or edit and delete existing ones. When creating a group you choose:
- a Name (spaces are converted to underscores),
- the cameras to include (each camera has a toggle and a gear that opens its streaming settings), and
- an icon used for the group's button in the rail.
Deleting a group also clears any custom layout you saved for it.
Rearranging a camera group layout
On desktop and tablet, each camera group has its own freely-arrangeable grid. Enter Edit Layout mode from the layout button in the lower-right corner: camera tiles gain a drag handle and corner resize handles. Drag a tile to reposition it and drag a corner to resize it (the aspect ratio is preserved). Exit edit mode to save. The layout is stored in your browser per device, so each device can have its own arrangement, and layouts can be exported to a file and imported on another device.
The default All Cameras dashboard is not manually arrangeable. It automatically sizes tiles based on each camera's aspect ratio (wide cameras span two columns, tall cameras span two rows).
Reading the tile indicators
Each camera tile surfaces its current state with a few overlays:
- A pulsing red dot in the corner means motion is currently detected on that camera.
- A red outline around the tile means an active tracked object is on that camera.
- A small label chip lists the object types currently detected (for example, Person, Car).
- A camera-name label appears when you have enabled always-on camera names, or when a camera is offline or disabled.
- A Stream Offline or Camera is off placeholder appears when no frames are being received or the camera has been turned off.
You can optionally overlay live streaming statistics (stream type, bandwidth, latency, and frame counts) on a tile to diagnose playback issues.
Streaming settings and the right-click menu
Right-clicking (or long-pressing) a camera tile opens a context menu with quick controls: an audio volume control for streams that support audio, Mute / Unmute all cameras, show or hide streaming statistics, the debug view, notification options, and, for admins, turning the camera on or off. If the audio control doesn't appear, see Audio Support. Audio requires go2rtc configured with a compatible codec.
A Low-bandwidth mode notice may also appear in the context menu with a Reset option when Frigate has fallen back to the lower-quality jsmpeg stream. See the Live view FAQ for why this happens.
For non-default groups, the context menu also exposes Streaming Settings for that camera, which let you choose:
- the stream to display (the dropdown lists the streams you configured under
live -> streams, and indicates whether audio is available), - the streaming method: No Streaming, Smart Streaming (recommended), or Continuous Streaming (higher bandwidth), and
- compatibility mode, for devices that have trouble rendering the default player.
These settings are saved per group and per device in your browser, not in your config file, and can be exported to a file and imported on another device.
The single-camera view
Clicking a camera tile opens its full-resolution single-camera view. The top bar provides:
- Back (also the
Esckey) to return to the dashboard, - History to jump to the recordings for this camera, starting about 30 seconds in the past,
- Fullscreen and Picture-in-Picture (if supported by your browser),
- Two-way talk (the microphone button, which requires a supported camera and WebRTC; keyboard shortcut
t), and - Camera audio muting (the speaker button; keyboard shortcut
m).
You can pinch or scroll to zoom into the feed. A settings gear provides a stream selector (with audio and two-way-talk availability indicators), Play in background, Show stats, and a Debug view that overlays Frigate's detection regions and bounding boxes.
:::tip
Two-way talk and camera audio have specific codec and port requirements. See Audio Support and WebRTC for setup details.
:::
Camera controls
Admins get a row of toggles in the single-camera view (a settings drawer on mobile) to turn camera features on and off in real time:
- Camera on/off,
- Object detection,
- Recording (only available when recording is enabled in the camera's config),
- Snapshots,
- Audio detection,
- Live audio transcription (when audio detection is enabled), and
- Autotracking (for autotracking-capable PTZ cameras).
These toggles change runtime behavior immediately. Whether a change persists across a restart depends on the feature. See the relevant configuration page.
On-demand recording and snapshots
The single-camera view can capture footage on demand:
- Start on-demand recording begins a manual recording based on the camera's recording retention settings (the button pulses while active). If recording is disabled for the camera, only a snapshot is saved. Use End on-demand recording to stop.
- Download instant snapshot saves a still image of the current frame.
See Recording and Snapshots for how retention is configured, and Exports for keeping a clip permanently.
PTZ controls
For ONVIF cameras that support it, a control panel provides pan/tilt arrows, zoom, focus, and saved presets. You can also enable a click-to-move / drag-to-zoom overlay: click a point in the frame to center the camera there, or drag a box to pan and zoom to that area (dragging top-left to bottom-right zooms in, the reverse zooms out).
For continuous, automatic tracking of a moving object, see Autotracking.