Build a Raspberry Pi Webcam Server in Minutes

by Gus

Updated Nov 15, 2024

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This tutorial will take you through how to set up a webcam server on the Raspberry Pi. You can have your very own Webcam visible on a web page.

In this tutorial, we will be using a package called Motion. If you want to learn more about it, you can check out their website at Motion. This software will allow us to stream footage from a webcam connected to the Raspberry Pi. You will be able to view the stream via a web page in your favorite browser.

If you’re after more of a security-like system, check out the Raspberry Pi security camera tutorial as it features fully-fledged web streaming, motion detection, recording, and multi-camera functionality.

This tutorial is marked intermediate as it can be challenging to get it working, especially if you have hardware that differs to the versions used in this tutorial. If you can’t get this to work, the security camera solution linked above is much easier to get going.

Equipment

Below are some of the pieces of equipment that you will need to be able to complete this tutorial.

Optional

USB Keyboard ( Amazon )
USB Mouse ( Amazon )
HDMI Cable ( Amazon )

Setting up the Webcam Server on the Raspberry Pi

Firstly, we will need to install Raspberry Pi OS onto the Raspberry Pi. If you haven’t already done this, check out our guide on installing Raspberry Pi OS. It will take you through all the steps that you will need to do to get up and running.

1. We will be using the terminal, so open the terminal on the Pi or connect to it via SSH.

2. To begin, first, update the Raspberry Pi OS, so you’re running on the latest packages.

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade

3. Next, install the following packages. This command will work on the full and lite versions of Raspberry Pi OS.

sudo apt install autoconf automake build-essential pkgconf libtool git libzip-dev libjpeg-dev gettext libmicrohttpd-dev libavformat-dev libavcodec-dev libavutil-dev libswscale-dev libavdevice-dev default-libmysqlclient-dev libpq-dev libsqlite3-dev libwebp-dev libcamera-v4l2

4. Next, download the Motion deb file for Raspberry Pi OS from GitHub using the wget command and install it using the dpkg command. You can view all the releases for Motion over at their Github.

Run the two lines below to download and install Motion.

sudo wget https://github.com/Motion-Project/motion/releases/download/release-4.6.0/$(lsb_release -cs)_motion_4.6.0-1_$(dpkg --print-architecture).deb

sudo dpkg -i $(lsb_release -cs)_motion_4.6.0-1_$(dpkg --print-architecture).deb

That’s all you need to do before moving on to configuring Motion so that it will run on your Raspberry Pi.

Configuring Motion

1. We need to edit the configuration file, motion.conf. To do this, open the file in the nano text editor.

sudo nano /etc/motion/motion.conf

2. Find the following lines and ensure they are set to the values below.

daemon off
stream_localhost off

Note: Change the following two lines from on to off if you have issues with the stream freezing whenever motion occurs.

picture_output off
movie_output off

Optional (Don’t include the text after the #)

stream_maxrate 100 # This change will allow for real-time streaming but requires more bandwidth and resources. It needs to be added to the config file. Default is 1
framerate 100 # Changing this option will allow for 100 frames to be captured per second, allowing for smoother video. Default is 50
width 640 # This line changes the width of the image displayed. Default is 640
height 480 # This option changes the height of the image displayed. Default is 480

Altering these options can drastically affect the performance. You may need to tinker to get the best results.

3. Once done, save and exit by pressing CTRL + X then Y.

4. We need to enable the Motion service by running the command below.

This command will make Motion start when your Raspberry Pi powers on.

sudo systemctl enable motion

5. Ensure the camera is connected and run the following line.

sudo systemctl start motion

If you need to stop the service, run the following command.

sudo systemctl stop motion

6. You should be able to check out the webcam stream at the IP address of the Raspberry Pi. To get the IP address, use the hostname command.

hostname -I

7. In your browser, go to the IP address of your Raspberry Pi, followed by the port 8081.

192.168.1.121:8081

If you are using a Raspberry Pi camera, you will need to do a few extra steps, mentioned further down the page. You will see a grey box with an error if you do not do these steps.

8. If the web page isn’t loading, try restarting the service.

sudo systemctl restart motion

9. You should now have a fully working Raspberry Pi Webcam server that you can place wherever you would like (Given it is within Wi-Fi range) and be able to view the stream via the web browser.

If you want to allow external access to the camera, check out my instructions at the bottom of this tutorial.

Additional Steps for Using a Raspberry Pi Camera

If you want to use the Raspberry Pi camera module, you will need to do a few additional steps to set it up.

A Raspberry Pi 5 uses a different port, so you may need to acquire a ribbon cable (Amazon) designed to fit into the new ports.

1. First, go to the CSI (Camera Serial Interface) ribbon cable slot on the Pi and with two fingers on each side of the connector, pull up. This technique should now open the connector. This port is labeled CAM/DISP 0 on the Raspberry Pi 5.

2. Insert the ribbon cable with the metal leads facing away from the Ethernet Port. If you are using a Raspberry Pi 5, the metal leads must face toward the ethernet port.

3. Once you have lined it up, gently press the connector back down, and the cable will lock in place.

4. Since the Raspberry Pi camera relies on a library called libcamera we will need to edit the service file. To do this, enter the following line.

sudo nano /lib/systemd/system/motion.service

5. In this file, find the line that contains the following text.

ExecStart=/usr/bin/motion

Update the line to the following text.

ExecStart=/usr/bin/libcamerify /usr/bin/motion

Once done, exit the file by pressing CRTL + X and then Y.

6. Since we just changed the source service file, we will need to reload the systemctl daemon. You can do this by running the following command.

sudo systemctl daemon-reload

7. Lastly, restart the motion service to ensure our changes have taken effect.

sudo systemctl restart motion

8. You should now be able to access the Raspberry Pi webcam stream by going to the Pi’s IP address on port 8081.

192.168.1.121:8081

You should now have a fully working Raspberry Pi camera server accessible within your local network. If you want to allow external access to the camera, please follow my instructions below.

Saving Motion Footage and Photos

By default, you will likely have permission problems when saving the photos and video triggered by motion. I go through the steps below on how to set this up to work correctly.

1. Firstly, let’s make a new directory for our photos and videos.

sudo mkdir /motion

2. Next, we need to change the group of the motion folder so motion can write into it. After that, we give the group; read, write, and execute permissions using the chmod command.

sudo chgrp motion /motion 
sudo chmod g+rwx /motion

3. We need to go back into the motion configuration file and change the target_dir to our new directory. First, open up the file with the nano text editor.

sudo nano /etc/motion/motion.conf

4. Update the target_dir line so it looks like the one below. Ensure you remove the ; from the start of the line.

target_dir /motion

5. Next, restart the motion service to load the configuration correctly.

sudo systemctl restart motion

6. When the camera detects motion, it will be saved into the specified folder. You can check this by running the following command.

ls /motion

Check out our Linux permissions guide for more information on setting permissions correctly.

Setting Up External Access

To enable external access to the Raspberry Pi webcam server, we will need to change some settings on the router. However, all routers are designed differently, so you may need to look up instructions for your router brand.

Please note that opening ports to the internet comes with a security risk. Please use strong security measures to prevent unauthorized access to your local network.

If you need a more in-depth guide, be sure to look at my guide on how to set up Raspberry Pi port forwarding and dynamic DNS.

If you’re unable to connect outside your local network, then you can try the following.

Check your router settings and confirm they are correct.
Check your IP hasn’t changed. Some internet service providers will provide you with a dynamic IP rather than a static IP. You can set up dynamic DNS to counter this.
Ensure that the port mapping matches correctly with the motion port. For example, the internal port must be set to 8081.
Restart the router.

Conclusion

I hope you enjoyed this tutorial on how to build a Raspberry Pi webcam server. You should now be able to view your camera stream using a web browser.

If you want more projects, please check out all our Raspberry Pi projects. We are always working on more, so be sure to check back in the future or stay up to date by signing up to our newsletter.

Please feel free to use the comment section below to provide feedback for this tutorial.

300 Comments

John Jennings on September 16, 2023 at 4:26 am

Really excellent guide. Thanks.

Reply
armen on April 19, 2021 at 6:56 am

Thanks for this guide. I’ve used it successfully a few times now.

Reply
Raymond Stewart on January 25, 2020 at 5:25 am

I am getting a string of broken dependencies. Motion cannot install. Raspian 9.11 stretch.

Reply
1. Emmet on January 25, 2020 at 9:39 pm
  
  Editor
  
  Hi Raymond,
  
  Raspbian Stretch is out of date. As stated in the tutorial you should be running Raspbian Buster for this tutorial to work.
  
  You can either upgrade from Raspbian stretch to buster, or create a new installation using the Raspbian Buster image.
  
  Cheers,
  Emmet
  
  Reply
Gregor on January 11, 2020 at 8:06 am

Hi, I tried that. Everything works fine although at the beginning I faced the trouble with the dependencies… just go again to the update or try “sudo apt –fix-broken install”. However, the view is upside down. Any idea how to flip it?

Reply
1. Gregor on January 11, 2020 at 9:27 am
  
  never mind, I’ve got it 🙂
  in motion.conf add “rotate 180”
  
  Reply
Garth on December 29, 2019 at 12:13 pm

Thanks for the previous response, new question. I’m having issues downloading some of the dependant packages. Example is it says: Unable to locate package libmariab3. There are a few other packages it could not locate.

Reply
1. Emmet on December 30, 2019 at 11:13 am
  
  Editor
  
  Hi Garth,
  
  I just tried on a fresh installation of Raspbian Buster and all the packages installed successfully.
  
  Try running sudo apt update again before installing the packages.
  
  Cheers,
  Emmet
  
  Reply
2. Garth on January 1, 2020 at 2:02 am
  
  I figured it out that the mirror repository that I was downloading packages from was down so I changed the repository I was downloading from. Thanks.
  
  Reply
3. Mike Sims on January 7, 2020 at 4:27 pm
  
  I was having the same issue even after running all of the updates, so what I did was I first purged the failed install attempt:
  
  *sudo dpkg -P motion*
  
  Then I just did a full install of whatever the most recent version, which will also make sure that all of the dependencies are installed. HOWEVER, when you do this, note that the settings in the file motion.conf will not match these instructions exactly. For example, *picture_output* is now *output_picture* … so I recommend just going through the config file and change the settings that make sense for your desired config. In my case, I just needed to stream my logitech USB cam over the local network, so I turned off *stream_localhost*, increased the streaming framerate to 50 and I changed the image size to 640×480. I’m only using this to monitor my 3D printer during print jobs.
  
  Here is the command to do a full clean install of the most recent version:
  
  *sudo apt-get install motion*
  
  Good Luck!
  
  Reply
Garth on December 29, 2019 at 6:25 am

Hi do you know if this will work for raspbian jessie or will I have to upgrade to buster?

Reply
1. Emmet on December 29, 2019 at 10:33 am
  
  Editor
  
  Hi Garth,
  
  To use the latest version of the motion server software you will need to be running Raspbian Buster.
  
  Cheers,
  Emmet
  
  Reply
Jim on November 23, 2019 at 1:21 pm

On 11-22-2019 I used this page to set up motion on Pi3b.

“For this tutorial, we will be installing Motion for Raspbian Stretch.
If you’re not already on it then I highly recommend that you upgrade.”
<<<< I loaded stretch on card.

Step 3 shows command for Buster but not for stretch Raspbian Buster.

sudo apt install autoconf automake build-essential pkgconf libtool git libzip-dev libjpeg-dev gettext libmicrohttpd-dev
libavformat-dev libavcodec-dev libavutil-dev libswscale-dev libavdevice-dev default-libmysqlclient-dev libpq-dev
libsqlite3-dev libwebp-dev " <<<< this command fails and I cannot find what will work with stretch

I loaded SD with stretch and did update and upgrade (long time). Since I couldn't for command for stretch I used
the buster command above. Failed. Should I just reload card with buster?

[SNIP, PACKAGES NOT FOUND, SNIP]

Reply
1. Emmet on November 23, 2019 at 1:29 pm
  
  Editor
  
  Hi Jim,
  
  Sorry about that, the tutorial should of been updated to mention that we are installing Motion for Raspbian Buster isntead of Stretch.
  
  I have now corrected this.
  
  We recommend upgrading your Raspbian image to Buster then trying the tutorial again.
  
  Cheers,
  Emmet
  
  Reply
Branson on October 22, 2019 at 3:33 pm

How to make it run script on startup? Would adding service motion start to the end of /etc/rc.local work?

Reply
1. Emmet on October 22, 2019 at 10:26 pm
  
  Editor
  Hi Branson,
  
  Try running the following command.
  
  sudo systemctl enable motion
  
  This command should allow the service manager to handle it automatically for you.
  
  Cheers,
  Emmet
  
  Reply
Aron Kertesz on October 18, 2019 at 11:01 pm

Hi,

I just got a new Pi4b and tried to go through the installation. It has Raspbian GNU/Linux 10 (buster) and it complains that the libmariadbclient18 cannot be found and installed.
Now, I have an older Pi3 with Raspbian GNU/Linux 8 (jessie) and there it seems to work.
Is this a release issue? Some incompatibility? Should I try to install Jessie on the new one as well?

thanks,

aron

Reply
1. Emmet on October 20, 2019 at 2:26 pm
  
  Editor
  Hi Aron,
  
  I took a quick look into this and it looks like some of the packages changed in Debian Buster.
  
  We have updated the package list so it should now work fine.
  
  The updated command is the following one.
  
  sudo apt install autoconf automake build-essential pkgconf libtool git libzip-dev libjpeg-dev gettext libmicrohttpd-dev libavformat-dev libavcodec-dev libavutil-dev libswscale-dev libavdevice-dev default-libmysqlclient-dev libpq-dev libsqlite3-dev libwebp-dev
  
  Cheers,
  Emmet
  
  Reply
2. Aron Kertesz on October 20, 2019 at 7:22 pm
  
  Thanks a lot! I will check it now.
  
  Reply
John Tempest on September 17, 2019 at 11:48 pm

cheers Emmet I will try that

Reply
John Tempest on September 17, 2019 at 4:15 pm

I am now using raspbian Buster. Do I just alter the stretch to Buster in
“sudo dpkg -i pi_stretch_motion_4.2.1-1_armhf.deb”

Reply
1. Emmet on September 17, 2019 at 11:13 pm
  
  Editor
  Hi John,
  
  We have gone ahead and updated the tutorial so that it points to the new buster version of Motion.
  
  You should be able to run the following two commands.
  
  sudo wget https://github.com/Motion-Project/motion/releases/download/release-4.2.2/pi_buster_motion_4.2.2-1_armhf.deb sudo dpkg -i pi_buster_motion_4.2.2-1_armhf.deb
  
  Cheers,
  Emmet
  
  Reply