Axis Camera Home Assistant Integration Not Working?

Integrating Your Axis Camera with Home Assistant

Axis Communications produces high-quality, professional-grade network cameras that are popular among smart home enthusiasts for their reliability and advanced features. Integrating an Axis camera into Home Assistant can unlock powerful automation possibilities, allowing you to use camera events to trigger lights, notifications, and other smart devices.

However, setting up the integration is not always straightforward. You might encounter issues with device discovery, authentication, or getting the video stream to appear in your dashboard. This guide will walk you through the most common problems and how to solve them.

## Prerequisite: Create a Dedicated User in the Axis Web Interface

Before you even attempt to add the camera to Home Assistant, it's best practice to create a specific user account for it. Do not use your main 'root' administrator account. This can cause authentication issues and is poor security practice.

1. Navigate to your camera's IP address in a web browser.
2. Log in as an administrator.
3. Go to System > Users.
4. Click Add user to create a new account.
5. Set a username (e.g., "homeassistant") and a strong password.
6. Assign the user to the Viewer or Operator user group. "Viewer" is usually sufficient if you only need to view the stream and receive events. "Operator" may be needed for PTZ controls.
7. Save the new user.

You will use these credentials when setting up the Axis integration in Home Assistant.

## Problem 1: The Camera is Not Discovered

Home Assistant is usually very good at automatically discovering Axis cameras on your local network. If it doesn't, here are the likely reasons:

• Different Subnets: Your Home Assistant instance and the Axis camera must be on the same network subnet (e.g., both having IP addresses like 192.168.1.x). If they are on different VLANs without proper configuration, discovery will fail.
• Network Restrictions: Firewalls or other network security measures may be blocking the discovery protocols (Bonjour/mDNS).

### Solution: Add the Integration Manually

If discovery fails, manual setup is easy.

1. In Home Assistant, go to Settings > Devices & Services.
2. Click Add Integration and search for Axis.
3. When prompted, enter the IP address of your camera.
4. Enter the username and password for the dedicated user you created earlier.
5. Home Assistant will then attempt to connect and set up the device.

## Problem 2: Authentication Failed

If you receive an "Invalid authentication" or similar error during setup, check the following:

• Incorrect Credentials: Double-check that you have entered the username and password for the dedicated Home Assistant user correctly.
• User Group Permissions: Ensure the user is in the correct group ("Viewer" or "Operator"). Some older firmware might require a different level of access.
• Special Characters: If your password contains special characters, try enclosing it in quotes when entering it, or try changing it to a simpler alphanumeric password temporarily to see if that is the cause.

## Problem 3: Camera Stream is Not Loading

You've added the camera, but the entity shows a broken image or a perpetually loading stream.

### Solution: Check Stream Profiles and Network

• Verify User Access: Log in to the camera's web interface as the Home Assistant user to confirm that this user account can actually view the live video feed.
• Network Issues: A weak or congested network can prevent the stream from loading properly. Ensure both your camera (especially if on Wi-Fi) and your Home Assistant server have a strong network connection.
• Specify a Stream Profile: By default, Home Assistant may try to pull the highest quality stream. This can fail on a slow network. You can often configure the integration to use a specific, lower-resolution stream profile that you have set up in the Axis interface.

## Problem 4: Events (Motion Detection) Not Working

One of the best features is using the camera's built-in analytics to trigger automations.

• Enable Events: Ensure that you have configured and enabled event streaming in the camera's web interface. For motion detection, you typically need to set up AXIS Video Motion Detection (VMD).
• Check Entities: Once the integration is set up, go to the device page in Home Assistant. You should see separate binary sensor entities for events like "Motion," "PIR," or "Sound." It is these entities that you will use as triggers in your automations, not the main camera entity itself.
• Re-configure Integration: If you set up the events on the camera after adding it to Home Assistant, you may need to reload the integration (from the integrations page) for the new sensor entities to appear.