Live camera streams black in Homey Android app – working correctly in Chrome

Questions & Help
1

Hi,

I’m experiencing an issue with live camera streams from my UniFi Protect cameras in the Homey Android app. I’ve done quite extensive troubleshooting and the problem seems to be specifically related to live video playback in the Homey Android app.

Setup

  • Homey Pro
  • Homey Android app 10.1.1
  • UniFi Protect
  • Cameras include a UniFi G6 Turret
  • UniFi Protect NVR/controller: 192.168.1.90
  • Example camera (“Camera Oprit”): 192.168.1.211
  • Samsung Galaxy Tab A8 SM-X200, Android 14 / One UI 6.1
  • I also reproduced the same problem on a recent Lenovo Android tablet which is less than six months old

Problem

In the Homey Dashboard, and also when opening the camera directly through:

Devices → Camera → Video

the live video stream remains black.

Sometimes a video frame appears very briefly, or I get a heavily corrupted/distorted image for a moment, after which the video turns black again.

Sometimes Homey eventually displays “Video stopped”.

The camera snapshot/still image works correctly.

Important Chrome test

I can reproduce the following behaviour consistently on the Samsung tablet:

  1. Completely close the Homey Android app.
  2. Open my.homey.app in Chrome.
  3. Open Camera → Video.
  4. The live video stream works correctly in Chrome.
  5. Then open the Homey Android app.
  6. Live video in the Homey app remains black.
  7. While the Homey Android app is still running, the same live camera stream in Chrome also becomes black.
  8. Completely close the Homey Android app.
  9. Return to Chrome and the live camera stream works again.

This behaviour is reproducible.

This is probably the most interesting result of all my testing: simply having the Homey Android app running appears to affect live video playback on the tablet, including playback in Chrome. As soon as the Homey app is completely closed, Chrome can play the stream again.

Second Android tablet

I tested this on a recent Lenovo Android tablet as well.

The live camera stream in the Homey app is also black on that tablet.

This therefore doesn’t appear to be specific to the Samsung Galaxy Tab A8.

Android phone

The exact same UniFi camera live stream does work correctly in the Homey app on my Android phone.

Network troubleshooting performed

I have also tested the following:

  • Restarted Homey Pro → no difference
  • Restarted UniFi Gateway → no difference
  • Restarted UniFi Protect/NVR → no difference
  • Completely restarted the Samsung tablet → no lasting improvement
  • Connected the tablet to a mobile 5G hotspot instead of my home Wi-Fi → same problem

The 5G hotspot test bypasses my normal home internet/Wi-Fi network, but the problem remains.

Therefore, the issue doesn’t appear to be specifically caused by my local Wi-Fi, UniFi Gateway, ISP connection or NAT configuration.

UniFi Protect settings checked

For the test camera:

  • Secure RTSPS Output: enabled
  • High Resolution RTSPS: enabled
  • Medium Resolution RTSPS: enabled
  • Low Resolution RTSPS: enabled
  • Camera resolution: 4K (3840×2160)
  • 20 FPS
  • Encoding: Standard

I also performed an additional test with the RTSPS streams.

When I temporarily disabled the High Resolution RTSPS stream, live video stopped working on both the tablet and the phone, displaying “Video stopped”.

After enabling High Resolution again and restarting the UniFi Protect app on Homey, live video immediately started working again on the phone.

The Android tablets, however, still showed a black live video.

So the UniFi/Homey stream itself appears to be functioning.

Homey Android app troubleshooting

On the Samsung tablet I also tried:

  • Clearing the Homey app cache → no difference
  • Completely clearing the Homey app data and signing in again → no difference
  • Updating Google Chrome → no solution for playback inside the Homey app
  • Restarting the tablet after updating Chrome

Samsung tablet software:

  • Galaxy Tab A8 SM-X200
  • Android 14
  • One UI 6.1
  • Build X200XXS6DYG6
  • Security patch: August 1, 2025
  • Samsung reports that the tablet software is up to date

Current conclusion

The same camera and live stream work:

UniFi Protect → works
Homey app on Android phone → works
Chrome/my.homey.app on tablet with Homey app closed → works

But:

Homey Android app on Samsung tablet → black video
Homey Android app on recent Lenovo tablet → black video

And, most interestingly:

Starting the Homey Android app on the Samsung tablet also causes the previously working live stream in Chrome to become black. Completely closing the Homey app allows Chrome to play the stream again.

Snapshots continue to work throughout these tests.

I’ve also submitted all this information to Homey Support.

I’m interested to know if other users can reproduce this, especially with UniFi Protect cameras and Android tablets.

2

5G does not always work well with P2P connections, which is what Homey (and basically every other security camera app) uses. But unlike most security camera apps, Athom doesn’t host a TURN server for in case a direct connection can’t be established. This might be the cause

Also if you use network segmentation, in some rare cases (with very restrictive firewalls) it wouldn’t work even on your home Wi-Fi.