Yoosee Home Assistant Setup Through ONVIF and RTSP

There is no dedicated Yoosee Home Assistant integration, but many Yoosee cameras can still be added because they expose a standard ONVIF or RTSP stream on your local network. The usual route is: give the camera a fixed local IP address, set a device password in the app, then add it in Home Assistant with the ONVIF integration or, if that fails, as a generic RTSP camera. Expect live video and often snapshots; app-only features such as push alerts, cloud playback and two-way talk usually stay in the Yoosee app.

This guide assumes the camera already works in the Yoosee app on your WiFi and that you have a working Home Assistant installation on the same network. It does not cover installing Home Assistant itself.

What carries over and what does not

Before you spend an evening on this, it helps to know what Home Assistant can and cannot get from the camera. The camera talks to Home Assistant through open standards, not through the Yoosee cloud, so anything that only exists in the app's own service does not come across.

Feature	Through ONVIF / RTSP	Notes
Live video	Usually yes	Main stream and a lower-quality sub stream on most models that support RTSP
Snapshots	Often yes	Via ONVIF, or generated from the stream
Pan and tilt	Sometimes	Only if the firmware exposes ONVIF PTZ commands
Motion events	Sometimes	Depends on ONVIF event support in your firmware
App push alerts	No	Stay in the Yoosee app
Memory card playback	No	Use the app to review the card
Two-way talk	Rarely	Generally app-only
Viewing away from home	Through Home Assistant	Home Assistant reaches the camera on the local network; view it remotely through Home Assistant's own remote access or a VPN, not by exposing the camera

Everything marked "sometimes" depends on the model and firmware, so check your manual or ask the seller. The camera keeps working in the Yoosee app alongside Home Assistant on most models, so you do not have to choose one or the other.

Step 1: confirm your model speaks ONVIF or RTSP

Look at the box, the manual or the product listing for your exact model and search for "ONVIF" or "RTSP". If neither appears, the camera may still have it, but you should treat it as unconfirmed.

The quickest real test is VLC on a computer. If you can open the camera's RTSP stream in VLC, Home Assistant can very likely display it too. The full method, including how to build the RTSP address and fix grey screens, is in our guide to opening a Yoosee IP camera in VLC. Do that test first: it separates "the camera has no stream" from "Home Assistant is set up wrong", which saves a lot of guessing later.

If the VLC test fails on every path and port your manual mentions, stop here. Home Assistant cannot create a stream the camera does not send.

Step 2: fix the camera's IP address

Home Assistant stores the camera by its IP address. If the router hands the camera a different address after a power cut, the camera entity goes unavailable and you will think the integration broke.

1. Open your router's admin page and find the list of connected devices (often called DHCP clients or client list).
2. Identify the camera by matching the MAC address on its label.
3. Create a DHCP reservation (also called address reservation or static lease) that ties that MAC address to its current IP.
4. Restart the camera once and confirm it comes back on the same address.

A reservation in the router is safer than typing a static IP into the camera, because a typo there can knock the camera off the network entirely. Write the IP down; you need it in every step below.

Step 3: set the device password in the app

Home Assistant logs in to the camera, not to your Yoosee account. On most models this uses the device password found in the camera's security settings in the app. Some app versions label it as an NVR or visitor password, and some have a separate switch to enable ONVIF. Menu names differ slightly by app version; our walk-through of every main app setting shows where the security and network pages usually sit.

• Use a long password made of letters and numbers. Symbols such as @ or : can break RTSP addresses.
• The username is model-specific; "admin" is common, but check your manual.
• Do not use your app account password here. It is a different credential.

Step 4: add the camera with the ONVIF integration

ONVIF is the better first try, because when it works Home Assistant discovers the stream paths, snapshots and any PTZ controls by itself.

1. In Home Assistant, go to Settings, then Devices and services.
2. If the camera was discovered automatically, you may see it under "Discovered". Otherwise click Add integration and search for ONVIF.
3. If asked, choose manual setup rather than auto-discovery when the scan finds nothing.
4. Enter a name, the camera's IP address, the ONVIF port, the username and the device password.
5. Submit. Home Assistant asks the camera for its profiles and creates one or more camera entities.

Which port to use

The ONVIF port is not the same thing as the RTSP port, and it varies by model. Your manual, or an ONVIF discovery tool on a PC that lists the port the camera answered on, will show the right one. Guessing ports one by one works, but it is slow and can trigger lockouts on some firmware after repeated wrong logins.

What the error messages usually mean

• "Could not connect" or a timeout: wrong IP, wrong ONVIF port, ONVIF switched off in the app, or Home Assistant on a different network segment.
• Authentication failed: wrong username or device password. Also check the camera's clock: some ONVIF logins fail when the camera's time is far off from Home Assistant's time. Set the correct time zone in the app.
• Added, but no picture: ONVIF works but the stream does not reach Home Assistant. Try the sub stream entity, or use the generic camera method below.

Step 5: the fallback, a generic RTSP camera

If ONVIF refuses to cooperate, you can add the stream directly using the RTSP address you tested in VLC.

1. Go to Settings, then Devices and services, then Add integration, and search for Generic Camera.
2. In the stream source field, paste the RTSP address, for example rtsp://CAMERA-IP:554/onvif1. The path /onvif1 is often reported for the main stream on these cameras and /onvif2 for the sub stream, but confirm it with your own VLC test.
3. Enter the username and device password in their own fields rather than inside the address.
4. Set the RTSP transport to TCP if the option is offered. Many cameras on WiFi are more stable over TCP.
5. Leave the still image field empty unless your camera has a snapshot address; Home Assistant can grab stills from the stream.
6. Preview, confirm the picture appears, then finish.

A generic camera gives you video only. PTZ and events need ONVIF, so you lose those on this route.

Step 6: make the stream reliable

Once the camera shows up, a few settings decide whether it is pleasant to use or frustrating:

• Use the sub stream on dashboards. Small dashboard tiles do not need the full-resolution stream, and the lower-quality stream loads faster and puts less load on WiFi and on the Home Assistant machine.
• Expect a short delay. RTSP live view in a browser is rarely instant. A delay of a few seconds is normal; a picture that never loads is not.
• Check the codec. Some models may send H.265 video, which some browsers cannot play directly. If the stream works in VLC but shows a black tile in Home Assistant, switch the camera's video setting in the app to H.264 if your model offers that option.
• Improve WiFi at the camera. Streams that keep dropping usually point to weak signal at the camera, not to Home Assistant.
• Keep the camera off the internet. Do not port forward the camera to reach it from outside. Use Home Assistant's own remote access or a VPN into your home network, and keep the Yoosee app for viewing on the go.

Pan and tilt in Home Assistant

If your camera pans and tilts in the app, it does not automatically follow that it will in Home Assistant. PTZ works only when the firmware answers ONVIF PTZ commands.

When it does, the ONVIF integration exposes PTZ as an action you can call from a dashboard button or an automation, with directions such as left, right, up and down. Test each direction once. On some cameras the directions are mirrored, which usually means the camera was mounted upside down and the image flip setting in the app does not match.

If PTZ does nothing in Home Assistant, check that it still works in the app first. If it fails there too, the problem is the camera, not the integration, and the pan and tilt troubleshooting guide walks through the causes in order. If it works in the app but not in Home Assistant, your firmware probably does not expose ONVIF PTZ, and no setting in Home Assistant will change that.

Motion events and automations

Some firmware sends ONVIF motion events, which Home Assistant turns into a motion sensor you can use in automations, for example turning on a porch light when the camera sees movement at night.

• If a motion sensor entity appears after adding the camera, walk in front of it and watch whether the state changes.
• If no sensor appears, or it never changes, your model does not publish ONVIF events. Detection still works in the app and still sends push alerts there.
• Do not rely on the camera alone for anything safety-critical. Treat an ONVIF motion sensor as a convenience, and keep the app alerts switched on as well.

Home Assistant, an NVR, or both

Home Assistant is good for showing cameras next to lights, locks and sensors. It is not a dedicated recorder. If what you really want is continuous recording of several cameras, an NVR is often the simpler tool, and the same ONVIF setup applies; our NVR setup guide covers it. You can usually connect a camera to both, but each extra stream adds load, so give one of them the sub stream.

The camera's own memory card normally keeps recording on its schedule regardless of what Home Assistant does, so the app's playback remains a backup.

When to get help

Ask the seller or installer if your manual does not mention ONVIF or RTSP and the VLC test fails: they can confirm for your exact model and batch whether a stream exists, and on which port and path. Ask your network administrator before changing router settings on a shared or office network. If you need to move or rewire a camera to improve signal, switch off power first, and leave mains wiring, ladders and roof work to a qualified electrician.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need the Yoosee app at all once the camera is in Home Assistant?

Yes, keep it. The app is where you set the device password, update firmware, change video settings, receive push alerts and play back the memory card. Home Assistant only uses the local video stream, plus PTZ and events if your model supports them.

Why does my Yoosee camera show as unavailable in Home Assistant after a power cut?

Most often the router gave the camera a new IP address when everything restarted. Check the router's device list, update the address in Home Assistant if needed, and create a DHCP reservation so it does not happen again.

Can Home Assistant see my camera if it is at another house?

Not directly. Home Assistant connects to the camera's local IP, which only exists on the camera's own network. You would need a VPN between the two sites or a separate Home Assistant at the other location; port forwarding the camera is not recommended.

Is ONVIF the same as RTSP?

No. RTSP is the protocol that carries the video. ONVIF is a standard that lets software discover the camera, find its stream addresses and send commands such as pan and tilt. Many cameras support both, but a camera can have RTSP without full ONVIF support, which is why the generic camera route sometimes works when ONVIF does not.

Will adding the camera to Home Assistant slow down the Yoosee app?

It can on weak WiFi, because every viewer pulls its own stream from the camera. Using the sub stream in Home Assistant and improving signal at the camera usually solves it. If the app becomes unreliable only while Home Assistant is running, try the lower-quality stream first.