Resolving Reolink Camera Unavailability Issues in Home Assistant

Home Assistant users have recently reported an issue with their Reolink cameras and sensors intermittently becoming unavailable. This problem has been affecting both NVR-based setups and standalone cameras, causing frustration among smart home enthusiasts. The issue seems to have emerged within the last couple of months, coinciding with recent updates to either Home Assistant Core or the Reolink integration.

The main issue reported by users is that Reolink cameras and their associated sensors in Home Assistant randomly go into an "Unavailable" state for approximately 1 minute and 15 seconds before returning to their normal state. During these outages, camera video feeds remain visible in the Home Assistant dashboard, but sensors become unresponsive. This problem occurs at unpredictable intervals, sometimes happening every few hours and other times every 5 minutes.

Several potential causes have been identified: 1. Integration polling issues: The Reolink integration polls devices every 60 seconds, which could lead to temporary unavailability if a single update fails. 2. ONVIF subscription problems: Some users reported issues with ONVIF push notifications, causing the integration to fall back to less efficient polling methods. 3. Network configuration: Improper network settings in Home Assistant or the use of global SSL certificates may prevent proper communication between devices. 4. Firmware updates: Recent NVR firmware updates have changed how passwords are managed, potentially affecting connectivity.

Users experiencing this issue can try the following troubleshooting steps: 1. Enable debug logging for the Reolink integration to gather more information about the errors. 2. Check and adjust network settings in Home Assistant, ensuring the local HTTP address is correctly configured. 3. Consider using NGINX as a reverse proxy instead of global SSL certificates to improve local network communication. 4. Reduce the number of enabled sensors and video streams in Home Assistant to decrease the load on cameras. 5. Verify that ONVIF push notifications are working correctly by checking the diagnostics data in Home Assistant.

The developer of the Reolink integration, @starkillerOG, has acknowledged the issue and implemented several fixes in the upstream library. These improvements were included in Home Assistant Core version 2024.2.3. The changes aimed to better handle connection drops and improve overall stability. Additionally, the developer has updated the Reolink documentation with more detailed troubleshooting steps for users experiencing connection issues.

Some users have reported success in resolving the issue by: 1. Disabling unnecessary sensors and using external video management systems like AgentDVR. 2. Configuring NGINX as a reverse proxy and removing global SSL configurations. 3. Ensuring that the local network address of Home Assistant is correctly set up in the network configuration. 4. Updating to the latest version of Home Assistant Core and the Reolink integration.

While the Reolink integration unavailability issue has been a source of frustration for many Home Assistant users, recent updates and community-driven solutions have helped alleviate the problem for some. However, it's clear that the issue is complex and may have multiple contributing factors. Users are encouraged to stay up-to-date with the latest Home Assistant releases, follow the official troubleshooting guide, and contribute their experiences to help further improve the integration's stability and performance.