The main window

Main menu
Use this button to reveal a menu that allows you to access the Settings command along with other important functions placed here for your convenience.

UI layout
These buttons allow you to toggle the visibility of several important views:

Toggle the Clips list along with the clip layout and filter options. The clips list provides a table representation of either files, alerts, or flagged items.

Toggle the Timeline view and associated timeline controls. The timeline view provide a chronological, track-based representation of your video and alerts.

Toggle the PTZ bar for camera movement and control. Along with basic Pan, Tilt and Zoom, this is where you will find controls for brightness, contrast, IR lights and more.

Status window
The status window is a separate “floating” desktop window which provides views of the message log, web server connections, camera statistics, clip storage statistics, as well as remote management status.

Shield, profile, and schedule

Shows and allows you to set the active schedule

Shows and allows you to set the active profile

Shows normal profile/schedule operation. A red stop icon or yellow pause icon may also be displayed.

When green, the shield icon shows protected status. The shield may also be red or yellow in transition states.

Please see the Shield, Profiles and Schedules chapter for more discussion on these icons and their functions.

Remote management

Shown when the local cameras are active in the main window UI. If remote servers are have been added on the Remote Management page in Status, you may select one to become the active server.

Shown when a remote Blue Iris server is active in the main window UI.

Main window controls

Standard Windows minimize function—software is shown in the task bar only. An option to minimize to the “system tray” instead is available on the Startup page in Settings.

Standard Windows maximize function—the software will occupy the entire screen.

When maximized, this icon will “restore” the main window to its previous size and position.

Close the main window UI. If you are running as a service, the software continues to operate in the background.

Live camera window and controls

Play or mute live camera audio. Mute status and volume level should persist as the software is closed and restarted.

Full-screen video for the live cameras window. Main window UI elements are hidden, unlike the Windows maximize button. It’s possible to start up each time with full screen video with an option on the Startup page in Settings.

Pause live video. This may come in handy when using remote desktop where the constant drawing of video consumes all available bandwidth.

Selected camera controls
Select a camera by clicking on its window. Currently, there is ever only one selected camera, whether it is located in the main window or in a desktop frame. The selected camera will have a thicker, brighter border than the others.

It’s always possible to de-select all cameras by clicking anywhere in the live camera window not occupied by a camera window.

Open Camera Settings. Please see the Cameras chapter for detailed discussion on the many pages and settings available here.

Snapshot saved to the database/clips list. Hold Shift before clicking to save a JPEG image to an arbitrary file location. Hold Control before clicking to immediately mark the snapshot as flagged, which may also include protected (read-only) status.

Manual video record start/stop.

Manual trigger. The alert image is marked as an External trigger in the alerts list.

Reset the camera connection. This is not the same as sending a reset signal to the camera, which may be done for some network cameras using an option on the PTZ/ control menu.

Start/stop live audio. If this option is unavailable, you may have enabled the automatic management of live audio from the selected camera on the Cameras page in Settings.

Hold down to send audio from the PC microphone to the camera. This feature must be developed on a per-camera basis as there is far from an industry standard for how this is implemented. If the “talk” feature is not available for your particular make/ model camera selection, the audio will be played from the PC speakers. This does provide you with a way to communicate with cameras/users in close proximity to the Blue Iris PC.

Selected group and controls

Shows and allows you to change the displayed camera group. The clips and timeline views are always filtered to only show items relevant to the selected camera group. Cameras are added to groups on their General pages in Camera Settings.

Layout slider. Quickly adjust the relative size of the camera/s in the top-left position relative to the others. It’s also possible to bring either 1, 2, or 4 cameras into larger size windows at the top-left of the live video window—this requires an option on the right-click menu in the live video window under “layout.”

Open group settings. Please see the Groups topic in the Cameras chapter for more detail on this window.

Single-camera or “solo” the selected camera. When in this mode, use the arrow keys on the keyboard to rotate between other cameras in the selected group.

Auto-cycle cameras in the selected group. There are setting on the Cameras page in Settings to Always solo the selected camera (which is typically the desired behavior). There’s also an option on that page to Only cycle when in full-screen video. The remainder of settings which affect auto-cycle may be found on the Group Settings page for the displayed group—most importantly the “dwell” time.

PTZ controls
Here you find the many controls for camera position—PTZ (Pan, Tilt, Zoom) and Preset position chief among them.

When selecting a camera make/model from the Video page in camera settings, the PTZ protocol is normally selected automatically on the PTZ page as well.

The majority of network cameras support diagonal PTZ movement, but this is not universal. The center square button serves as “stop” in case the camera misses the mouse-up event for some reason and is stuck moving in one direction continuously.

Quick access is provided for preset numbers 1-10. For other preset positions, first select it from the list and then use the location/bubble icon. Hold down this icon or one of the numbered buttons to “set” the preset. The “set” functionality is supported for many, but not all cameras—in many cases you will need to set presets via the camera’s own browser interface.

Preset cycle on/off. The software will automatically move between PTZ preset positions which have been selected to participate in this function on the Presets page from the PTZ page in camera settings.

Not all cameras support the following functions:

Move to the preset “home” position.

Zoom in. There is a corresponding zoom out button.

Focus in (near). There is a corresponding focus out (far) button.

Select the brightness level from a pop-up menu.

Select the contrast level from a pop-up menu.

Enable/disable the camera’s IR LEDs and/or “night mode.” Hold-down this icon to enable the automatic IR LED function (if supported).

Clip list, layout and filters

The “clips list” may show either actual files, or it may show the “alerts list,” also called triggered “alert images.”

Fold/unfold the clips list. When unfolded, the live video is hidden and the clips list occupies the entire main window UI above the timeline view.

Show triggered alert images. An alert image is captured by default when a camera is triggered and lives only as a postage stamp in the database. It is a “bookmark” into an actual clip video file. When you open an alert image, the corresponding video file is opened at the appropriate time of the triggered alert. Alert images may have corresponding JPEG files, but only when an option is set on the Record page in camera settings.

Show clips, which are actual video files and JPEG snapshots. By default, “all” clips are shown. You can select from a folder list to display only files in a particular folder (that is, New, Stored, etc., as configured on the Clips page in Settings). Also, if one of these folders has subfolders, you may continue to “drill down” into the file structure.

Show flagged items. Flagged items may include a combination of clips (files) and triggered alert images. Flagged items are marked with purple flags in both the clips list and the timeline view.

Use the Calendar icon to filter the clips list to display only items from one particular day. Click it again and use the Cancel button to return to the display of all items.

Use the Solo icon to filter the clips list to display only items from one particular camera—the selected camera. If you are using the live view’s camera solo function, the clips list will already be filtered, and it is unnecessary to use this option as well.

Toggle the sort order—either newest first, or oldest first.

The clips list is discussed further in the Recording and Clips chapter.

Timeline view and controls
The timeline view shows a horizontal time-based view of both clips and alerts together. “Tracks” are created based on camera colors. As a clip may contain many video start/ positions, a timeline rectangle represents the entire time covered by one clip, but this does not indicate continuous recording over the period represented. However, triggered alerts are represented by a lightning bolt icon above the tracks and a yellow band beneath the tracks to represent the time during which the camera was triggered. If you are recording only when triggered, these yellow bands therefore will represent times during which video was actually captured.

Adjust the zoom level. You may display a scale in minutes or several days. When zoomed in at the highest levels, alert images are displayed overlaid on the tracks.

Use the calendar icon to jump immediately to a date of interest.

Use the time icon force the timeline view to always display the current time at the right-hand edge.

The timeline view is discussed further in the Timeline playback section of the Recording and Clips chapter.

Tool tip help
As you hover over the various icons in the software, a basic description of the function is displayed here in the lower-left of the main window UI.

Storage status
The software will display basic storage details here, such as the number and size of clips under management. If there’s a problem with the storage configuration or if you are in danger of running out of disc space (due to over allocation, not necessary low space), you will see a warning in yellow with !! double exclamation points. This warning should not be ignored to prevent an issue with missed recordings.

System status
Your system’s vital signs.

Status icons
There are many icons which may you may see displayed in the lower-right corner of the main window UI. Here are their descriptions:


DB maintenance is running—deleting or moving files between folders as configured on the Clips page in Settings. By default, clip maintenance runs each 5 minutes as necessary.

The Messages page in Status contains one or more error condition messages.

The Messages page in Status contains one or more warning messages or one or more cameras has an error condition or warning, such as low frame rate or a push webcasting error.

One or more connections has been made on the Connections page in Status.

One or more camera is in the triggered state.

One or more cameras is detecting motion.

One or more cameras is actively recording video.

One or more alert actions is sending an email message.

One or more alert actions is playing a sound alert.

One or more alert actions is sending an SMS, sending a push notification, or making a TAPI phone call.

One or more alert actions is uploading a file, or FTP is occurring for another reason, such as clip backup configured on the Clips page in Settings.

One or more alert actions is executing a program or script.

The software is being updated.

One or more alert actions is setting DIO output bits.

A remote system is connected and active in the main window UI.