Home Assistant: Get Camera Snapshots & Find Your ID

Oct 29, 2025 by Admin 52 views

Hey everyone! 👋 If you're anything like me, you're always tinkering with your smart home setup, and Home Assistant is the heart of it all. I know some of you are probably scratching your heads trying to figure out how to grab those camera snapshots or thumbnails, so I'm here to walk you through it. I'll also help you with finding your camera ID, which is super important! We'll be focusing on the Unifi Protect integration, since that's what the original request was about, but the general principles apply to most camera integrations.

Understanding the Challenge: Grabbing Camera Snapshots

Okay, so the deal is, you've got your fancy camera integrated into Home Assistant, and you want to see a quick snapshot, maybe in your dashboard or as part of an automation. Easy, right? Well, sometimes it's not as straightforward as it seems. Home Assistant is powerful, but you need to know how to talk its language. The main hurdle is getting the correct camera ID and understanding how the integration exposes the snapshot functionality. Don't worry, we'll break it down step by step.

Many of you have Unifi Protect cameras, and you want to quickly display an image from those cameras. The Unifi Protect integration in Home Assistant is awesome, but it can be a little tricky to set up at first. It's really useful for monitoring your home, getting alerts, and seeing what's happening in real-time. The initial setup can be a bit of a pain, though. First, you have to connect your Unifi Protect system to Home Assistant, then you need to figure out the right camera IDs to make sure everything works smoothly. This means digging into the configuration, making sure the network settings are correct, and possibly doing some troubleshooting if things aren't working right away. But once you get past that, it's smooth sailing, and you can start using all the cool features, like taking snapshots. This is what we are going to do together. Also, the integration is constantly being updated. Make sure you are on the latest version of the integration, so you have the latest features and bug fixes. Now, let's dive into the specifics of how to do this for Unifi Protect cameras, and then look at how to apply this more generally to other cameras.

I want to create a few use cases to help you to achieve your goal. First, you could want a snapshot on your dashboard. Second, you could want a snapshot to be sent to you when a motion is detected. Third, you could want to have a snapshot on demand, maybe through a button, to take an immediate image of the camera.

Now, let's find that camera ID!

Finding Your Camera ID in Home Assistant

Okay, before we get to the snapshots, you absolutely need your camera ID. This ID is how Home Assistant knows which camera you're talking about. The method for finding it varies slightly depending on your integration. I'll show you how to find the ID, for Unifi Protect.

Unifi Protect Camera ID

For the Unifi Protect integration, here's how to find the camera ID. This is critical for everything else.

Go to the Home Assistant UI: Open your Home Assistant instance through your web browser or the mobile app.
Navigate to the Integrations Page: Go to Settings -> Devices & Services.
Find Your Unifi Protect Integration: Look for the Unifi Protect integration in the list of your configured integrations. If you don't see it, make sure you've already set it up (instructions are on the Home Assistant website).
Click on the Integration: Click on the Unifi Protect integration to view its details.
Identify Your Cameras: You should see a list of your Unifi Protect cameras. Each camera will have a name, and often, an entity ID. The entity ID is the important part! It usually looks something like camera.your_camera_name.
Note the Entity ID: Write down the entity ID for the camera you want to use. This is what you'll need for your automations and dashboard cards. For example: camera.front_door.

General Camera ID Tips

If you're using a different camera integration, the process might be slightly different. Here are some general tips:

Check the Integration Documentation: The best place to start is always the Home Assistant documentation for your specific camera integration. It will usually tell you how to find the entity IDs.
Look in Developer Tools: Go to Developer Tools -> States. Search for your camera's name or a related keyword. This will often show you the entity ID.
Inspect the Entities: In Settings -> Devices & Services, you can click on your camera device. This should show you all the available entities, including the camera entity with its ID.

Now that you know how to find your camera ID, let's get to the good stuff: snapshots!

Getting a Snapshot/Thumbnail from Your Camera

Alright, now you've got your camera ID. It's time to get a snapshot. This is usually done using a service call. Here's how it works:

Using the `camera.snapshot` Service

Home Assistant provides a service called camera.snapshot. You can use this service to take a snapshot of your camera. Here's how to use it, and some important points:

Service Call: In your automations or dashboard configuration, you'll use the camera.snapshot service.
Service Data: You'll need to provide the following data:
- entity_id: This is the entity ID of your camera (e.g., camera.front_door).
- filename: The full path and filename where you want to save the snapshot. This is important! Make sure the directory exists, or the service call will fail. This can be stored locally, or in a shared drive accessible by Home Assistant.
Example Configuration: Here's a basic example in YAML, which you can use in an automation or a script:
```
service: camera.snapshot
data:
  entity_id: camera.front_door
  filename: /config/www/snapshots/front_door.jpg # change to your path
```
- Important: the /config/www/ directory is where you typically store images that you want to display in your dashboards. You can access it through the Home Assistant file editor, or by connecting to your Home Assistant instance using a file-sharing protocol like Samba or SSH.

Displaying the Snapshot in Your Dashboard

Once you've taken a snapshot, you'll want to display it in your Home Assistant dashboard. Here's how:

Create a Picture Card: Add a Picture Card to your dashboard.
Specify the Image URL: In the picture card configuration, you'll need to provide the URL of the image. This URL is based on the filename you specified in the camera.snapshot service call.
Example: If your snapshot is saved in /config/www/snapshots/front_door.jpg, the URL in your picture card would be /local/snapshots/front_door.jpg. You can access this URL because your snapshots folder is inside /config/www/. The /local path is a shortcut to this folder.
Refresh: After the first snapshot, sometimes you might need to refresh your browser cache to see the image in the picture card. If you change the image, you might need to clear the cache again.

Automating Snapshots: Use Cases

Let's get practical. Here are some use cases to get you started, making your smart home even smarter!

Snapshot on Motion Detection

Here's how to create an automation to take a snapshot when motion is detected by your camera. This is super useful for security and peace of mind.

Trigger: Use the motion sensor of the camera as a trigger. The entity ID of this sensor will likely start with binary_sensor. You can find the entity id following the steps to find the Camera ID, checking the Devices & Services page.
Condition (Optional): You can add conditions, such as the time of day, to control when the automation runs.
Action: Use the camera.snapshot service call as described above. Set the filename to something unique, like motion_detected_{{ now().strftime('%Y%m%d_%H%M%S') }}.jpg. This will create a new filename for each snapshot, based on the current date and time.

Notification (Optional): Add a notification action to send the snapshot to your phone, using the notify.mobile_app_your_phone_name service. You will need to install the Home Assistant mobile app to use this feature.

alias: Take Snapshot on Motion
description: Takes a snapshot when motion is detected.
trigger:
  platform: state
  entity_id: binary_sensor.front_door_motion
  to: 'on'
condition:
  - condition: state
    entity_id: input_boolean.motion_alert
    state: 'on'
action:
  - service: camera.snapshot
    data:
      entity_id: camera.front_door
      filename: /config/www/snapshots/motion_detected_{{ now().strftime('%Y%m%d_%H%M%S') }}.jpg
  - service: notify.mobile_app_your_phone_name # replace with your device
    data:
      message: Motion detected at the front door!
      data:
        attachment:
          content_type: image/jpeg
          fileurl: /local/snapshots/motion_detected_{{ now().strftime('%Y%m%d_%H%M%S') }}.jpg
mode: single

Snapshot on Demand (Button)

Want to take a snapshot with a button? Here's how:

Input Button (helper): Create a Helper of type Button in Home Assistant. Name it something like