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Clients

Crumb's server is the recorder. You watch live video, scrub the timeline, and manage cameras through a client. There are five, covering six platforms:

ClientPlatformHow you get it
Web adminany browsernothing to install, served by the server itself
DesktopWindows 10/11installer from Releases
DesktopLinuxbuild from source
Apple desktopmacOS 13+zip from Releases
Apple mobileiOS 16+not yet distributable, see iOS
AndroidAndroid 8.0+.apk from Releases

Honest status. The web console is production-ready. The Windows desktop and Android clients are the daily-driver, most-tested paths. macOS and iOS both work and are ready to try, but are rougher. None of the native clients have a signed installer or app-store listing yet, so installing one means sideloading and getting past your OS's warning about an unrecognized app. That's expected for a self-hosted project without a release budget behind it yet, not a sign of anything wrong with the build.

Before installing any native client

You need three things:

  1. A running Crumb server on your LAN, or reachable over your own VPN. See Install with Docker Compose.
  2. An account, your admin login or one an admin created for you.
  3. The server reachable on port 8080 (HTTP) or 8443 (HTTPS). Native clients can auto-discover it with "Find my server," which scans your subnet, or you can type the address in by hand.

Live video needs one server-side setting. For native clients to play live RTSP, an admin sets the server's reachable streaming address once, in the console under Server & streaming. If native clients connect and list cameras but live panes stay black, this is almost always why; see Server settings.

Connecting any native client

Every native client asks for your server on first run. "Find my server" scans your local subnet and lists what it finds, easiest on a normal home network. "Enter manually" takes http://<server-host>:8080 (or https://…:8443 with TLS set up), the path to use over a VPN or when discovery is blocked by client isolation on your Wi-Fi.

What you can see and do afterward, which cameras, whether you can play back, export, or use PTZ, follows the role your account was assigned. A limited account may only see some cameras, or only live view, by design.

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