[Config Support]: changing/renaming config strings , breaks references

[we-sell-bags]

Describe the problem you are having

if you name a camera then build a zone with that camera in
changing the camera name breaks the zone display or any items using that camera original name.

generally for config files a UID is used that is connected to a name string.
if the name is changed the UID still functions. as the link. (only time the UID is changed is to delete or add it)

Either that or it makes the web front end or the manual config more complex ,in that the validation scripts have to search for and replace any instances of the item that is re-named.

Version

16.0

Frigate config file

N/A

Relevant Frigate log output

N/A

Relevant go2rtc log output

N/A

Frigate stats

N/A

Operating system

Debian

Install method

Docker Compose

docker-compose file or Docker CLI command

N/A

Object Detector

Coral

Screenshots of the Frigate UI's System metrics pages

N/A

Any other information that may be helpful

No response

[inkeep-ai-assistant[bot]]

You're experiencing a known limitation with Frigate's configuration system. When you rename a camera in the config file, you need to update all references to that camera name throughout your configuration(1).

Based on the documentation, zones are defined under each camera section and cannot have the same name as a camera(2). If you have zones configured for a specific camera, changing the camera name will break those zone references because Frigate uses the camera name as the identifier.

The configuration structure requires zones to be defined under the specific camera:

cameras:
  name_of_your_camera:
    zones:
      zone_name:
        coordinates: ...

(2)

When you rename a camera, you must also update:

• Any zone configurations under that camera
• Any references to that camera in other parts of the configuration
• Go2rtc stream configurations that reference the camera name(1)

The documentation shows that zones can include multiple cameras if they have the same zone name, but each zone is still tied to its parent camera configuration(2).

Unfortunately, Frigate doesn't currently use UIDs for configuration references - it relies on string-based camera names throughout the configuration. This means manual updates are required when renaming cameras, as there's no automated search-and-replace functionality built into the configuration system.

📚 Sources:

1. [Config Support]: Camera offline after changing its name in the config file
2. Zones

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