[Beta Support]: mqtt frigate/available topic doesn't post offline message at shutdown

[hacsjalano]

Describe the problem you are having

the mqtt topic for frigate/available does not post an offline message when it shuts down like it used to. I'm not sure when this started happening, but I do recall it working in the 0.16.0 days, because I have scripts which monitor this state.

It does post the "online" message when it starts up correctly.

Beta Version

0.17.0-rc1

Issue Category

Other

Frigate config file

auth:
  enabled: true
  failed_login_rate_limit: 1/second;5/minute;20/hour
  # 604800 = 1 week
  session_length: 604800
  refresh_time: 345600
logger:
  # normal is info
  default: warning
tls:
  enabled: false
face_recognition:
  enabled: false
mqtt:
  host: homeassistant.local
  port: 1883
  user: '{FRIGATE_MQTT_USER}'
  password: '{FRIGATE_MQTT_PASSWORD}'
  stats_interval: 60
#detectors:
#  coral:
#    type: edgetpu
#    device: usb
detectors:
  coral1:
    type: edgetpu
    device: usb:0
  coral2:
    type: edgetpu
    device: usb:1
birdseye:
  enabled: true
  mode: motion
  inactivity_threshold: 15
ui:
  timezone: America/Los_Angeles
  time_format: browser
review:
  alerts:
    labels:
      - car
      - motorcycle
      - bicycle
      - cat
      - dog
      - bear
      - bird
      - raccoon
      - fox
      - squirrel
      - rabbit
      - person
record:
  enabled: true
  # BEGIN section to retain all recordings
  alerts:
    retain:
      days: 30
    pre_capture: 15
    post_capture: 15
  detections:
    retain:
      days: 30
    pre_capture: 15
    post_capture: 15
  continuous:
    days: 0
  motion:
    days: 0
snapshots:
  # Optional: Enable writing jpg snapshot to /media/frigate/clips (default: shown below)
  # This value can be set via MQTT and will be updated in startup based on retained value
  enabled: true
  # Optional: save a clean PNG copy of the snapshot image
  clean_copy: true
  bounding_box: true
  timestamp: false
  crop: false
  # Optional: height to resize the snapshot to (default: original size)
  height: 175

objects:
  # Optional: list of objects to track from labelmap.txt (default: shown below)
  track:
    - car
    - motorcycle
    - bicycle
    - cat
    - dog
    - bear
    - bird
    - raccoon
    - fox
    - squirrel
    - rabbit
    - person
  # Optional: filters to reduce false positives for specific object types
  filters:
    person:
      # Optional: minimum width*height of the bounding box for the detected object (default: 0)
      min_area: 0
      # Optional: maximum width*height of the bounding box for the detected object (default: 24000000)
      # max_area: 90000
      # Optional: minimum score for the object to initiate tracking (default: shown below) - 0.8 is good
      min_score: 0.80
      # Optional: minimum decimal percentage for tracked object's computed score to be considered a true positive (default: shown below) - good is 0.85
      threshold: 0.85
      # look for vertical rectangles only (width/height ratio)
      # min_ratio: 0.20
      # max_ratio: 1.00
    car:
      min_score: 0.8
      threshold: 0.9
    dog:
      #min_score: 0.70
      #threshold: 0.85
      min_score: 0.60
      threshold: 0.75
    cat:
      #min_score: 0.70
      #threshold: 0.85
      min_score: 0.60
      threshold: 0.75
    bear:
      min_score: 0.50
      threshold: 0.70
    bird:
      # min_score: 0.50
      min_score: 0.60
      threshold: 0.75
    raccoon:
      #min_score: 0.70
      #threshold: 0.85
      min_score: 0.60
      threshold: 0.75
    squirrel:
      #min_score: 0.70
      #threshold: 0.85
      min_score: 0.50
      threshold: 0.70
    rabbit:
      #min_score: 0.70
      #threshold: 0.85
      min_score: 0.50
      threshold: 0.70
    skunk:
      #min_score: 0.70
      #threshold: 0.85
      min_score: 0.50
      threshold: 0.70
ffmpeg:
  # path: "5.0"
  hwaccel_args: preset-vaapi
model:
  # Base Model 2026.0 - edgetpu
  path: plus://xxxxxx

## BEGIN Cameras and re-stream section
go2rtc:
  ffmpeg:
    foscam: -avoid_negative_ts make_zero -fflags +genpts+discardcorrupt
      -rtsp_transport tcp -timeout 5000000 -use_wallclock_as_timestamps 1
    # loryta: -avoid_negative_ts make_zero -fflags nobuffer -flags low_delay -fflags +genpts+discardcorrupt -rw_timeout 5000000 -use_wallclock_as_timestamps 1
    # same as preset-rtsp-generic, but with shorter -timeout flag
    loryta: -avoid_negative_ts make_zero -fflags +genpts+discardcorrupt
      -rtsp_transport tcp -timeout 5 -use_wallclock_as_timestamps 1
  streams:
    front_door:
      rtsp://{FRIGATE_RTSP_USER}:{FRIGATE_RTSP_PASSWORD}@192.168.1.74:554/cam/realmonitor?channel=1&subtype=0#loryta
    front_door_rec:
      ffmpeg:rtsp://{FRIGATE_RTSP_USER}:{FRIGATE_RTSP_PASSWORD}@192.168.1.74:554/cam/realmonitor?channel=1&subtype=0

cameras:
  front_door:
    # enabled: False
    ui:
      order: 0
    ffmpeg:
      # this camera supports AAC audio
      output_args:
        record: preset-record-generic-audio-aac
      inputs:
        # Substream 1 - 704x480
        - path:
            rtsp://{FRIGATE_RTSP_USER}:{FRIGATE_RTSP_PASSWORD}@192.168.1.74:554/cam/realmonitor?channel=1&subtype=1
          input_args: preset-rtsp-generic
          roles:
            - detect
        - path: rtsp://127.0.0.1:8554/front_door_rec
          input_args: preset-rtsp-restream
          roles:
            - record
    motion:
      # default is 30.  Lower numbers means smaller objects detectable.
      # set to 10 to try to see skunks and cats.
      contour_area: 10
    detect:
      width: 480
      height: 704
      fps: 3
    objects:
      track:
        - person
        - dog
        - cat
        - bear
        - deer
        - bird
        - raccoon
        - squirrel
        - skunk
        - rabbit
      filters:
        person:
          min_area: 350
version: 0.17-0
detect:
  enabled: true

Relevant Frigate log output

Gracefully Stopping... press Ctrl+C again to force
Container frigate Stopping
frigate  | s6-rc: info: service legacy-services: stopping
frigate  | s6-rc: info: service legacy-services successfully stopped
frigate  | s6-rc: info: service go2rtc-healthcheck: stopping
frigate  | s6-rc: info: service certsync: stopping
frigate  | 2026-02-07 17:36:26.174129469  [INFO] The go2rtc-healthcheck service exited with code 256 (by signal 15)
frigate  | s6-rc: info: service go2rtc-healthcheck successfully stopped
frigate  | 2026-02-07 17:36:26.178311679  [INFO] Service CERTSYNC exited with code 256 (by signal 15)
frigate  | s6-rc: info: service certsync successfully stopped
frigate  | s6-rc: info: service nginx: stopping
frigate  | s6-rc: info: service certsync-log: stopping
frigate  | s6-rc: info: service certsync-log successfully stopped
frigate  | 2026-02-07 17:36:26.233659003  [INFO] Service NGINX exited with code 0 (by signal 0)
frigate  | s6-rc: info: service nginx successfully stopped
frigate  | s6-rc: info: service nginx-log: stopping
frigate  | s6-rc: info: service frigate: stopping
frigate  | s6-rc: info: service nginx-log successfully stopped
frigate  | 2026-02-07 17:36:28.608928207  [2026-02-07 17:36:28] frigate.comms.mqtt             ERROR   : MQTT disconnected
frigate  | 2026-02-07 17:36:29.018044978  Exception in thread camera_processor:
frigate  | 2026-02-07 17:36:29.018772996  Traceback (most recent call last):
frigate  | 2026-02-07 17:36:29.018776133    File "/usr/lib/python3.11/threading.py", line 1038, in _bootstrap_inner
frigate  | 2026-02-07 17:36:29.018778246      self.run()
frigate  | 2026-02-07 17:36:29.018781481    File "/opt/frigate/frigate/camera/maintainer.py", line 222, in run
frigate  | 2026-02-07 17:36:29.018783304      self.__stop_camera_process(camera)
frigate  | 2026-02-07 17:36:29.018784722    File "/opt/frigate/frigate/camera/maintainer.py", line 186, in __stop_camera_process
frigate  | 2026-02-07 17:36:29.018809005      empty_and_close_queue(self.camera_metrics[camera].frame_queue)
frigate  | 2026-02-07 17:36:29.018810849                            ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^^^^^^^
frigate  | 2026-02-07 17:36:29.018812002    File "<string>", line 2, in __getitem__
frigate  | 2026-02-07 17:36:29.018813273    File "/usr/lib/python3.11/multiprocessing/managers.py", line 821, in _callmethod
frigate  | 2026-02-07 17:36:29.018863763      conn.send((self._id, methodname, args, kwds))
frigate  | 2026-02-07 17:36:29.021396448    File "/usr/lib/python3.11/multiprocessing/connection.py", line 205, in send
frigate  | 2026-02-07 17:36:29.021398785      self._send_bytes(_ForkingPickler.dumps(obj))
frigate  | 2026-02-07 17:36:29.021400181    File "/usr/lib/python3.11/multiprocessing/connection.py", line 410, in _send_bytes
frigate  | 2026-02-07 17:36:29.021401116      self._send(header + buf)
frigate  | 2026-02-07 17:36:29.021402241    File "/usr/lib/python3.11/multiprocessing/connection.py", line 367, in _send
frigate  | 2026-02-07 17:36:29.021403124      n = write(self._handle, buf)
frigate  | 2026-02-07 17:36:29.021403998          ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
frigate  | 2026-02-07 17:36:29.021404832  BrokenPipeError: [Errno 32] Broken pipe
frigate  | 2026-02-07 17:36:29.517417581  /usr/lib/python3.11/multiprocessing/resource_tracker.py:224: UserWarning: resource_tracker: There appear to be 9 leaked semaphore objects to clean up at shutdown
frigate  | 2026-02-07 17:36:29.517420685    warnings.warn('resource_tracker: There appear to be %d '
frigate  | 2026-02-07 17:36:29.518878631  [INFO] Service Frigate exited with code 0 (by signal 0)
frigate  | s6-rc: info: service frigate successfully stopped
frigate  | s6-rc: info: service go2rtc: stopping
frigate  | s6-rc: info: service frigate-log: stopping
frigate  | s6-rc: info: service frigate-log successfully stopped
frigate  | 2026-02-07 17:36:29.535297107  exit with signal: terminated
frigate  | 2026-02-07 17:36:29.541259185  [INFO] The go2rtc service exited with code 0 (by signal 0)
frigate  | s6-rc: info: service go2rtc successfully stopped
frigate  | s6-rc: info: service prepare: stopping
frigate  | s6-rc: info: service go2rtc-log: stopping
frigate  | s6-rc: info: service prepare successfully stopped
frigate  | s6-rc: info: service go2rtc-log successfully stopped
frigate  | s6-rc: info: service log-prepare: stopping
frigate  | s6-rc: info: service s6rc-fdholder: stopping
frigate  | s6-rc: info: service s6rc-fdholder successfully stopped
frigate  | s6-rc: info: service log-prepare successfully stopped
frigate  | s6-rc: info: service legacy-cont-init: stopping
frigate  | s6-rc: info: service legacy-cont-init successfully stopped
frigate  | s6-rc: info: service fix-attrs: stopping
frigate  | s6-rc: info: service fix-attrs successfully stopped
frigate  | s6-rc: info: service s6rc-oneshot-runner: stopping
frigate  | s6-rc: info: service s6rc-oneshot-runner successfully stopped
Container frigate Stopped
frigate exited with code 143

Relevant go2rtc log output (if applicable)

No response

Install method

Docker Compose

docker-compose file or Docker CLI command

services:
  frigate:
    container_name: frigate
    # only so GPU stats can be seen
    privileged: true
    restart: unless-stopped
    image: ghcr.io/blakeblackshear/frigate:0.17.0-rc1

    shm_size: "2048mb" # update for your cameras if needed.  See shm_cameras.txt
    network_mode: "host"
    devices:
      - /dev/bus/usb:/dev/bus/usb
      - /dev/dri/renderD128 # for intel hwaccel, needs to be updated for your hardware
    volumes:
      - /etc/localtime:/etc/localtime:ro
      - /frigate/config/:/config/
      - /frigate/media:/media/frigate
      - type: tmpfs # Optional: 1GB of memory, reduces SSD/SD Card wear
        target: /tmp/cache
        tmpfs:
          size: 1073741824
    environment:
      FRIGATE_MQTT_USER: "mqtt"
      FRIGATE_MQTT_PASSWORD: "xxxx"
      FRIGATE_RTSP_USER: "rtspuser"
      FRIGATE_RTSP_PASSWORD: "xxxx"
      PLUS_API_KEY: "xxxx"

Operating system

Debian

CPU / GPU / Hardware

Intel(R) N100

Screenshots

No response

Steps to reproduce

run:
docker compose up

The mqtt message for frigate/available/online appears.

Ctrl-C (to stop the docker instance)
mqtt message frigate/available/online persists (it's a retained message); no "offline" replaces it after the frigate docker instance has stopped running

Any other information that may be helpful

No response

[hacsjalano]

The error seems to indicate the frigate is getting disconnected from the mqtt server before it is able to sucessfully publish the "offline" message. I'm using the mqtt server (mosquito) that is suggested for home assistant.

[hawkeye217]

The "offline" payload is published by your MQTT broker itself, not Frigate. This is part of MQTT's "last will and testament" when:

• The client disconnects unexpectedly (e.g., due to a network failure or crash)
• The client fails to communicate with the broker within the keep-alive interval

So if Frigate restarts, reconnects, and sends an online message before the keep-alive interval defined in your broker is set, you'll never see the offline payload.

This particular code in Frigate to tell your broker to publish offline is here, and has not changed in a long time:

frigate/frigate/comms/mqtt.py

Line 205 in 6accc38

self.client.will_set(

See this discussion: #13382

[hacsjalano]

Thank you for linking to the discussion, it's helpful to understand the background of the problem. I believe I'm still having the same issue as @bchhabra who was struggling in 2024 about how to determine when Frigate has been restarted within Home Assistant. Right now I have an MQTT binary_sensor configured in Home Assistant to watch for when frigate/available goes from online to offline or vice versa; when that happens I check certain conditions and toggle certain cameras on or off.

For some reason, this used to work for me and now it does not. If the code in Frigate has not changed, the only other option is the Home Assistant Mosquitto broker defaults must have changed. According to that discussion, it was never possible to have the keep-alive set to lower than 15 seconds, but I believe I have restarted my Frigate instance many times in periods shorter than that and it got triggered correctly.

I'm still puzzled though, because I do not see anywhere to configure the Mosquitto Broker to set the keep-alive value. And any discussions I find on that refer to the client library being the place where this keep-alive value is set.

So should I open a separate request to ask how to monitor when frigate gets restarted instead of using frigate/available?

[NickM-27]

my recommendation is to just look at the value directly for unavailable status. For example, the switch that you are going to toggle in the automation

[hacsjalano]

Thanks for the suggestion - I tried this out, but unfortunately Home Assistant still thinks these entities are available until the frigate/availability topic switches from online to offline. If I manually publish an offline message this works, but that kind of defeats the purpose of watching the other entities.

For now, my work-around is I have mosquitto_pub push the "offline" message as soon as it sees the docker instance shut down.

[NickM-27]

that's definitely not the case, I use this to make sure my office camera is turned off after restart, and it works reliably every time I restart Frigate

[hacsjalano]

Glad to hear it, but it sadly it doesn't work for me. I'm out of ideas, so I guess I'd classify this as a "me" problem and I'll find a work-around some other way if Frigate is working as expected.

Thank you for your help and I'll close this ticket out.