ONVIF Camera App: Discovery, Users and PTZ on iPhone and iPad

What happens when you tap Scan

IP Camera Viewer sends a WS-Discovery probe to the local network's multicast address, and every ONVIF device that hears it answers with its address. For cameras that stay quiet, the app also checks the ports ONVIF commonly runs on (80, 8000, 2020, 8080, 8899 and 5000, plus 443 and 8443 for HTTPS) across your subnet.

Once you enter the login, the app asks the camera for its media profiles and the RTSP address of each one, sorts them into main and sub-stream, and reads the manufacturer and model to name the camera. A recorder (NVR) comes back with one entry per channel, so each camera behind it appears separately. Self-signed HTTPS certificates, which most cameras use, are accepted.

Why a camera does not appear

• Local Network access is off. iOS asks once. If you declined, turn it on in Settings → Privacy & Security → Local Network.
• The phone is on a different network. Guest Wi-Fi, a separate IoT VLAN or a mesh node with client isolation stops discovery. Multicast does not cross subnets.
• ONVIF is disabled. Hikvision ships with it off, Reolink's recent firmware switches it off, and Tapo answers only after you create a Camera Account.
• The camera does not speak ONVIF. Wyze, Eufy and cloud-only brands never appear in a scan. Add RTSP-only cameras by address instead.

If you know the camera's IP address, adding it manually is often quicker than chasing a discovery problem. The app can still use ONVIF for controls once it knows where the camera is.

ONVIF users and passwords

A login that works in the camera's web page can still be refused over ONVIF, because several brands keep a separate ONVIF user list:

• Hikvision: enable ONVIF under Integration Protocol and add an ONVIF user there. Give it Operator rights if you want pan and tilt.
• Dahua and Amcrest: ONVIF login uses the device accounts, but some firmware requires the account to have ONVIF permission.
• Tapo: the Camera Account created in the Tapo app is the only login ONVIF accepts.
• Axis: ONVIF users are managed in their own section of the camera's settings.

The camera's clock matters

ONVIF logins are stamped with the time. If the camera's clock is far from the phone's, the camera rejects the login even when the password is right, and the app reports a failed authentication. Cameras lose the time after a power cut when they cannot reach a time server, which is common on networks that block cameras from the internet.

Set the camera to use NTP, or point it at your router if the router offers a time service, and check that the time zone is correct. This one setting fixes a surprising share of "wrong password" reports.

PTZ and night mode over ONVIF

Pan, tilt and zoom go through ONVIF, so they work on any PTZ camera that exposes ONVIF PTZ, whatever the brand. IP Camera Viewer sends continuous moves and falls back to relative or absolute moves for cameras that only support those. On cameras that expose the ONVIF imaging service, you can also set the infrared night mode to Auto, On or Off. Both are part of Pro. Saved presets are not supported yet.

Digital zoom does not need ONVIF: pinch any live view to zoom up to 20×.

Profiles S, T and G

ONVIF groups features into profiles. Profile S covers live video, audio and PTZ, and is all a live viewer needs. Profile T adds H.265, imaging settings and richer events. Profile G covers recording and playback on the device. IP Camera Viewer is a live viewer, so a camera with Profile S or T works with it. Browsing recordings stored on the camera or recorder still happens in the manufacturer's app.

ONVIF ports and stream paths by brand

For brands without a guide of their own. Discovery fills these in automatically; they are here for manual setup and troubleshooting.

Reolink uses ONVIF port 8000 and Tapo 2020; see their guides for details.