Four steps and you're done.
Your equipment is installed and running. The only thing left is connecting your phone to it. Each step below has its own section in this guide.
UniFi Protect
Your camera system. Live views, recorded footage, and motion alerts on your phone. This is the app you'll open most.
UniFi Network
Your WiFi and wired network. You'll rarely need it, but it's where your WiFi password lives and where you can see every connected device.
The path
- Create your UI accountOne free account at account.ui.com runs everything. Two minutes.
- Accept your invitationWe send an invite to your email. Accepting it links your new system to your account.
- Set up the UniFi Protect appDownload, sign in, and your cameras appear. Live view and playback from anywhere.
- Tune your notificationsDecide what's worth a ping: people, vehicles, packages, or nothing at all.
Nothing here can break your system. Everything in this guide is view-and-notify level. Recording schedules, camera settings, and network configuration are locked behind admin access that we manage for you.
Create your UI account
One account controls your cameras and your network, from any phone or browser. It's free and takes about two minutes.
- Go to account.ui.comOn your phone or computer, open a browser and visit account.ui.com and tap Sign Up.
- Use your everyday emailPick the email address you actually check. Invitations and alerts go there. Tell us which one you used so our invite matches.
- Set a strong passwordThis account can see inside your home or business. Treat the password like a bank password, and don't reuse one from another site.
- Verify your emailUbiquiti sends a confirmation code. Enter it and your account is live.
Turn on multi-factor authentication. In account settings, enable MFA with an authenticator app or push approval. It's the single best thing you can do to keep strangers out of your cameras. We won't skip this during handoff.
Accept your invitation
Once your account exists, we invite it to your system. The invite arrives by email from Ubiquiti and takes one tap to accept.
- Watch your inboxThe email comes from Ubiquiti (ui.com), not from us. Subject line mentions an invitation to UniFi. Check spam if it hasn't landed within a few minutes of us sending it.
- Tap Accept InvitationSign in with the account from Step 1 if asked. The system gets added to your account automatically.
- Confirm you're inVisit unifi.ui.com in a browser and sign in. You should see your console listed. That same login now works in the mobile apps.
Invite didn't arrive? Nine times out of ten the invite went to a different address than the account. Call or text us with the email you signed up with and we'll resend it to the right place.
What your access includes
Live camera views, recorded footage, clip exports, and notification controls. Admin-level settings stay with us, so a mis-tap can't take your system down. Want full admin access instead? Just ask, it's your equipment.
Set up the UniFi Protect app
This is your daily driver: every camera, live, in one grid. Download it, sign in, done.
- Download the appSearch UniFi Protect in the App Store (iPhone) or Google Play (Android). The icon is a dark square with a camera mark.
- Sign inUse the UI account from Step 1. No extra setup; your system is already linked from Step 2.
- Pick your consoleIf the app asks, choose your console from the list. Your cameras load into a live grid.
- Try the basicsTap any camera for full screen. Pinch to zoom. On cameras with a speaker, the microphone button lets you talk through it.
Also works in a browser
Everything in the app is also at unifi.ui.com from any computer. Handy for watching footage on a bigger screen.
Finding and saving footage
Your system records around the clock and bookmarks anything it detects. Scrub back in time or jump straight to an event.
Scrub the timeline
Open a camera, then drag the timeline at the bottom. Blue markers are detections. Drag past them or tap one to jump straight to the action.
Jump by event
The Events tab lists every detection with a thumbnail. Filter by camera or by type (person, vehicle, package) to find a moment fast.
Save a clip
Found what you need? Tap the export or share icon to save the clip to your phone, then text or email it like any other video.
Tune your notifications
The difference between a security system you love and one you mute forever is what it pings you about. Five minutes here pays off daily.
- Open notification settingsIn the Protect app, go to Settings and open Notifications. Toggles there only affect your phone, not anyone else's.
- Pick smart detections over raw motionPerson, vehicle, package, and animal alerts are accurate and rare. Raw motion fires on shadows and branches. Most clients run smart detections only.
- Set it per cameraA person at the front door matters. A person walking past a street-facing camera may not. Each camera gets its own rules.
- Optional: only when you're awayLocation-based notifications can stay quiet while you're home and switch on when you leave, or when everyone leaves.
Getting spammed? Don't mute the app. Tell us which camera is too chatty and we'll adjust its detection zones from our side. Muting everything is how packages get missed.
Your network, when you need it
The Network app manages your WiFi and wired network. Day to day it runs itself. Here's the ten percent you'll actually use.
- Get the appSearch UniFi in the App Store or Google Play and sign in with the same UI account. Your network shows up alongside Protect.
- Find your WiFi passwordOpen Settings, then WiFi, and tap your network name. The password is right there, with a share option for handing it to guests.
- See what's connectedThe Clients list shows every device on your network, wired and wireless, with names where UniFi can identify them. Good first stop when some gadget won't connect.
Leave the rest to us
Settings beyond WiFi passwords (ports, VLANs, firewall rules, device adoption) are part of what we maintain. If something in there looks tempting, call us first. It's cheaper than the second call.
Keep it healthy
UniFi gear is dependable when it's left plugged in and powered. Almost every problem we see traces back to one of the items below.
Do
- Keep the console and cameras plugged in. They recover from power loss on their own.
- Use the app's export feature when you need footage for police or insurance. Do it soon; storage overwrites the oldest video first.
- Add family members or staff properly. We'll send each person their own invite. No shared logins.
- Call us when something seems off. Most fixes are remote and take minutes.
Don't
- Don't press the reset pinhole on any device. It wipes the configuration, and the system goes down until we rebuild it.
- Don't unplug the console to "reboot" it during a problem. Recordings stop, and the real cause gets harder to find.
- Don't share your UI account password. Anyone with it can watch your cameras.
- Don't approve login or MFA prompts you didn't trigger. Decline, then call us.
Setup help, new user invites, notification tuning, or anything that looks wrong. Call or text first; most issues never need a truck roll.