Camera Bridge

Appearance

HomeKit Secure Video ​

HomeKit Secure Video (HSV) lets you record clips 24/7 to iCloud and use AI detection to find people, animals, and vehicles in your footage.

Requirements ​

To use HomeKit Secure Video, you need:

  • iCloud+ subscription (50 GB, 200 GB, or 2 TB plan) — includes unlimited camera recording for HomeKit cameras
  • Home Hub (Apple TV 4K, HomePod mini, or HomePod) — serves as the hub that receives clips from cameras and uploads them to iCloud
  • Camera in Apple Home — added through Camera Bridge

All clips are encrypted end-to-end, so iCloud can't see them.

Turning On Recording ​

  1. Open the Home app
  2. Go to Home Settings › Cameras
  3. For each camera, toggle Recording on
  4. The Home app will ask which type of activity to record (available types depend on your camera and iCloud+ plan)

What Gets Recorded ​

HomeKit Secure Video records:

  • Always: Every motion event (or continuous if your plan supports it)
  • AI Detection (with iCloud+): People, animals, vehicles, doorbell presses
  • Timeline: Clips appear in Home's timeline for 10 days

The Home hub processes the video locally — Apple's servers never see your video, only encrypted metadata about what was detected.

Camera Settings for Good Clips ​

For HomeKit Secure Video to work well:

  1. Run Optimize for HomeKit in Camera Bridge
  2. Pay special attention to:
    • Keyframe interval: 1–2 seconds is ideal. If it's longer, clips may start late
    • Video codec: H.264 works best; H.265 is converted, using more of your Mac
    • Resolution: Make sure the main stream is at least 720p

See Camera Compatibility for recommended settings.

Why Clips Go Missing ​

If HomeKit Secure Video isn't recording:

  1. Check recording is on in Home Settings › Cameras › Recording
  2. Home hub is connected — see Troubleshooting: Recording Problems
  3. Keyframe interval — this is the most common reason clips are late or missing. See Optimize for HomeKit
  4. iCloud+ is active — your subscription must not be expired
  5. Enough iCloud storage — if you're out of space, recording stops
  6. Network access — Camera Bridge needs to reach your home hub

Viewing Clips ​

In the Home app:

  1. Tap a camera tile
  2. Scroll to see the Timeline of recent clips
  3. Tap a clip to watch it
  4. Use the timeline scrubber to jump to a specific time

You can also:

  • Favorite clips: Tap the heart to save them (they don't auto-delete)
  • Share clips: Tap the share button to send a clip to someone
  • Delete clips: Swipe left and choose delete (this removes them from your Home, not from iCloud)

Activity Zones ​

If your camera sees an area you don't care about (like a street or neighbor's property), set up an Activity Zone:

  1. In Home, tap the camera
  2. Tap Edit › Activity Zones
  3. Draw zones where you want detection turned on or off
  4. Save your zones

Detection now ignores activity outside your zones.

Storage and Expiration ​

  • Timeline: Clips appear for 10 days, then are archived
  • Favorites: Starred clips keep indefinitely
  • Archival: Clips are kept on iCloud but don't appear in the timeline
  • Deletion: You can manually delete clips at any time

iCloud+ plans include unlimited camera recording, so you won't run out of space for videos.

Troubleshooting ​

Clips aren't recording?

Clips are choppy or pixelated?

  • This usually means the camera's bitrate is too low or the network is congested
  • See Performance

AI detection isn't working?

  • Make sure your Home hub has an internet connection (it processes AI locally but validates with Apple's servers)
  • Check that your iCloud+ plan includes AI detection

Learn More ​