A Python based tool for backing up UniFi Protect event clips as they occur.
The idea for this project came after realising that if something were to happen, e.g. a fire, or a burglary
that meant I could no longer access my UDM, all the footage recorded by all my nice expensive UniFi cameras
would have been rather pointless. With this tool, all motion and smart detection clips are immediately
backed up to off-site storage thanks to rclone
, and kept for the configured
retention period.
- GitHub: https://github.com/ep1cman/unifi-protect-backup
- PyPI: https://pypi.org/project/unifi-protect-backup/
- Free software: MIT
- Listens to events in real-time via the Unifi Protect websocket API
- Supports uploading to a wide range of storage systems using
rclone
- Performs nightly pruning of old clips
- Python 3.9+
- Unifi Protect version 1.20 or higher (as per
pyunifiproect
) rclone
installed with at least one remote configured.
- Install
rclone
. Instructions for your platform can be found here: https://rclone.org/install/#quickstart - Configure the
rclone
remote you want to backup to. Instructions can be found here: https://rclone.org/docs/#configure pip install unifi-protect-backup
- Optional: Install
ffprobe
so thatunifi-protect-backup
can check the length of the clips it downloads
rclone-destination
, at midnight every day it will
delete any files older than retention
. It is best to give unifi-protect-backup
its own directory.
Usage: unifi-protect-backup [OPTIONS]
A Python based tool for backing up Unifi Protect event clips as they occur.
Options:
--version Show the version and exit.
--address TEXT Address of Unifi Protect instance
[required]
--port INTEGER Port of Unifi Protect instance [default:
443]
--username TEXT Username to login to Unifi Protect instance
[required]
--password TEXT Password for Unifi Protect user [required]
--verify-ssl / --no-verify-ssl Set if you do not have a valid HTTPS
Certificate for your instance [default:
verify-ssl]
--rclone-destination TEXT `rclone` destination path in the format
{rclone remote}:{path on remote}. E.g.
`gdrive:/backups/unifi_protect` [required]
--retention TEXT How long should event clips be backed up
for. Format as per the `--max-age` argument
of `rclone`
(https://rclone.org/filtering/#max-age-don-
t-transfer-any-file-older-than-this)
[default: 7d]
--rclone-args TEXT Optional extra arguments to pass to `rclone
rcat` directly. Common usage for this would
be to set a bandwidth limit, for example.
--detection-types TEXT A comma separated list of which types of
detections to backup. Valid options are:
`motion`, `person`, `vehicle`, `ring`
[default: motion,person,vehicle,ring]
--ignore-camera TEXT IDs of cameras for which events should not
be backed up. Use multiple times to ignore
multiple IDs. If being set as an environment
variable the IDs should be separated by
whitespace.
-v, --verbose How verbose the logging output should be.
None: Only log info messages created by
`unifi-protect-backup`, and all warnings
-v: Only log info & debug messages
created by `unifi-protect-backup`, and
all warnings
-vv: Log info & debug messages created
by `unifi-protect-backup`, command
output, and all warnings
-vvv Log debug messages created by
`unifi-protect-backup`, command output,
all info messages, and all warnings
-vvvv: Log debug messages created by
`unifi-protect-backup` command output,
all info messages, all warnings, and
websocket data
-vvvvv: Log websocket data, command
output, all debug messages, all info
messages and all warnings [x>=0]
--help Show this message and exit.
The following environment variables can also be used instead of command line arguments (note, CLI arguments always take priority over environment variables):
UFP_USERNAME
UFP_PASSWORD
UFP_ADDRESS
UFP_PORT
UFP_SSL_VERIFY
RCLONE_RETENTION
RCLONE_DESTINATION
RCLONE_ARGS
IGNORE_CAMERAS
DETECTION_TYPES
You can run this tool as a container if you prefer with the following command. Remember to change the variable to make your setup.
By default, if no rclone config is provided clips will be backed up to /data
.
docker run \
-e UFP_USERNAME='USERNAME' \
-e UFP_PASSWORD='PASSWORD' \
-e UFP_ADDRESS='UNIFI_PROTECT_IP' \
-e UFP_SSL_VERIFY='false' \
-v '/path/to/save/clips':'/data' \
ghcr.io/ep1cman/unifi-protect-backup
In order to backup to cloud storage you need to provide a rclone.conf
file.
If you do not already have a rclone.conf
file you can create one as follows:
$ docker run -it --rm -v $PWD:/root/.config/rclone rclone/rclone config
Follow the interactive configuration proceed, this will create a rclone.conf
file in your current directory.
Finally start the container:
docker run \
-e UFP_USERNAME='USERNAME' \
-e UFP_PASSWORD='PASSWORD' \
-e UFP_ADDRESS='UNIFI_PROTECT_IP' \
-e UFP_SSL_VERIFY='false' \
-e RCLONE_DESTINATION='my_remote:/unifi_protect_backup' \
-v '/path/to/save/clips':'/data' \
-v `/path/to/rclone.conf':'/config/rclone.conf'
ghcr.io/ep1cman/unifi-protect-backup
- Heavily utilises
pyunifiproect
by @briis - All the cloud functionality is provided by
rclone
- This package was created with Cookiecutter and the waynerv/cookiecutter-pypackage project template.