Unifi Protect App over VPN

1

Has anyone been able to use the Unifi Protect App (Android) over VPN (OpenVPN)?

The Unifi Forums and Reddit seem to be all over the place - many say it doesn’t work but some saying it does. I saw one poster saying you need to be on the same Subnet which didn’t work either. The Web UI works fine so I know it’s reachable. Some additional info:

  • I’m using a Local Account (not signed into UI.com)
  • pfSense is my Router
  • Phone is Android running latest version of the Protect App v3.3.1
  • I am able to connect the Unifi Network Server via the App on VPN
  • If I have the feed open in the Protect App, then turn on VPN, I get an error message about using VPNs: “Some VPN networks may cause connectivity issues. Please disable VPN and try again”

This feels like Unifi forcing users to use their Cloud Accounts w/remote access…

2

Been a minute since I tested it but I don’t see any reason it would not work. You do need the UniFi Protect system (or the subnet it is on) to be accessible via the VPN. Can you get to that web interface via the web browse on your phone?

3

Yep; Unifi NVR Web UI loads on my phone, while on VPN. But it’s a suboptimal UX on mobile.

4

Then it should work with the app, what is the error message?

5

When I open the app, there is no error shown; the NVR is just grayed out and un-clickable (see screenshot)

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But the Web UI is accessible:

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6

Hmm, the next step might be to do some packer capture to see if it is even sending data.

7

Can confirm that local access to Protect over VPN still works. I do use it with a UDM pro max instead of pfsense, but that shouldn’t make much of a difference. It is all tied to a local account.

Maybe try to use the local IP instead of the DNS name, in the Protect app.

1 Like
8

@Samuel I assume when you say “…access Protect” you are referring to the App? Is that on Android or iOS? Which VPN server are you using?

Using an IP is interesting idea. One thing I forgot to mention (or perhaps didn’t think was relevant) is that my UNVR does not show up in my Unifi Network Server (haven’t upgraded to Unifi OS Server yet); is that an issue?

When I added the UNVR to my network, it did not show up in my UniFi Network Server Console so I went looking for the CLI via SSH and found that there was no adopt CLI tool on the UNVR. I then noticed it had its own UniFi OS Server accessible via HTTPS so I assumed they are not dependent upon each other. However, since adding the UniFi App to my Android, the Protect App now redirects me to the UniFi App when I click on Setup a UniFi Console. This has me thinking that there is a dependency between the two. Is this relevant?

9

Yes, I’m referring to the Protect app on Android. I’m using wireguard in a different subnet but with the appropriate firewall rules in place (running on the UDM pro max too).

Since it all works without the vpn, and you can access the web interface with the vpn, my first guess would be a DNS problem. You browser might have cached it, but the app might try to resolve it and fails.

But that’s met guess.