Bridged and Unbridged Mode

These are technical terms describing how a device is added to HomeKit via a Homebridge plugin.

Bridged

Bridged devices are bundled with all other bridged devices in one Homebridge instance. You only need to add the Homebridge bridge in HomeKit, and all bridged devices appear automatically.

Downside: If one device is slow to respond (e.g., a camera taking a snapshot), it blocks all other bridged devices from communicating with HomeKit until the request completes.

Unbridged

Unbridged devices are decoupled from other devices. They don't block each other, but you must add each one manually in HomeKit ('Add Device' → scan the same 8-digit code used by your Homebridge instance).

Child Bridge

Child bridges (Homebridge >=1.3.0) decouple an entire plugin instance from the main Homebridge process. The child bridge can itself contain bridged devices. See the Homebridge wiki for details.

We recommend running this plugin as a child bridge and unbridging individual cameras for the best stability.

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Having trouble adding a device after switching between bridged and unbridged mode? See Common Issues — Unable to add device.