Ubiquiti Protect Integration - Completely Broken?

Third party integrations
1

TL;DR: UniFi Protect integration: "Access Prohibited" on Integrations page even as Super Admin; Owner-only API key requirement blocking setup

Hi all — hoping someone has solved this. I've been stuck for several hours and want to make sure I'm not missing something obvious before assuming it's a bug.

Goal: Connect UniFi Protect to Home Assistant so I can use camera person-detection events to trigger Lutron Caséta lighting.

My setup:

  • UniFi UNVR running Protect 7.1.69, UniFi OS 5.1.12
  • UniFi Cloud Gateway (UCG Fiber) — separate device from the UNVR
  • 9 cameras + G4 Doorbell Pro + Smart Chime, all working fine in Protect itself
  • Home Assistant Green, freshly set up, latest version
  • HA UniFi Protect integration: latest as of today

What I've tried:

  1. Created a local user named homeassistant on the UNVR via Admins & Users. Gave it full Protect access. HA rejected the credentials with "Ubiquiti Cloud users are not supported. Please use a local user instead." — apparently the invite flow creates a cloud-linked user even when it looks local.

  2. Recreated the user via the gateway's /admins/ path with "Restrict to local access only" selected. Set role to Full Management for Protect. Same cloud-user rejection from HA.

  3. Tried to generate an API key while logged in as that local user at https://10.0.1.1/settings/control-plane/integrations — got "Access Prohibited / You are not authorized to access this page."

  4. Promoted the homeassistant user to Super Admin. Still "Access Prohibited" on the Integrations page.

  5. Logged in as the Owner account (the original Ubiquiti SSO account that set up the console). API key page is accessible from there; generated a key successfully. But when I plug owner email + password + that API key into HA's UniFi Protect setup form, it still fails.

The contradiction I can't resolve:

  • Only Owner accounts can create API keys (Super Admin gets "Access Prohibited")
  • Owner accounts are cloud-linked SSO accounts
  • HA's UniFi Protect integration rejects cloud users

Is there a current working path through this? Specifically:

  • Is there a way to grant API key creation permission to a non-Owner local user?
  • Is the Owner account actually supposed to work in HA's setup form despite being cloud-linked, and I'm hitting a different bug?
  • Is there a known-good combination of UniFi OS version + Protect version + HA integration version that doesn't have this issue?

Happy to provide additional logs, screenshots, or version info. Thanks in advance to anyone who's been through this.

2

Hello,

I have the same problem.
Have you managed to find a solution?

3

Unfortunately, have resorted to using IFTTT, which works, but has more delay than a direct local connection.

4

I’ve been using both Unifi Network and Unifi Protect integrations for a long time.
I’ve never had an issue connecting to a cloud key or a UNVR so I imagine any protect device should work. As per the documentation, the user MUST be a local user and MUST have full management permission in Protect. This is documented also UniFi Protect - Home Assistant
You also need to enable the RTSP feeds in Protect for each camera you want in Home Assistant. I’ve never had an issue, so I am not sure what to advise on this. I just wanted to let you know it is definitely not broken and works as documented.
The OP is correct in the assumption invite flow turns the user into a cloud user. Don’t use email and don’t use the invite. Neither are necessary for a local user. Local users do not need inviting. You create the user, make them local by not using email and clicking the admin option (not sure why UI have not corrected this but is the way to do it) and limit the user to local network access only, then set the permission for the user