FAQ

FAQ

Do I need Immich? For the photos, yes: HomeCanvas shows your own Immich library. The dashboard, music and timers work without it, and you can skip the Immich step when installing.

Does it send my photos or data anywhere? No. Photos come straight from your Immich server, and there are no accounts or analytics. A widget contacts a public service only when you add one that needs it: Open-Meteo for the weather, Realtime Trains for departures, and so on. Privacy lists them.

Will it run on a Pi 4? On a normal PC? Yes to both, on 64-bit Raspberry Pi OS or any 64-bit Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora, Arch or openSUSE. It's developed on a Pi 5.

How do I type things in? There's no keyboard. Anything long (addresses, keys, tokens) is easiest at a computer: the installer asks for your Immich details, the dashboard editor runs in your phone's browser, and everything else is in ~/.config/homecanvas/config.json, which you can edit over SSH.

How do I get to the editor? http://homecanvas.local from any browser at home. If that doesn't open, try http://homecanvas.local:8090, or the IP address shown on the panel. See Troubleshooting.

Why does the installer ask about Home Assistant and port 80? The editor likes port 80, so its address needs no number. If Home Assistant's Alexa bridge (emulated_hue) already has port 80, the installer asks before sharing it: the bridge moves to another port, and HomeCanvas passes Alexa's requests on to it. Say no and nothing changes; the editor stays on :8090. Undo it with bash ~/homecanvas/scripts/setup-port-80.sh --undo. Details.

Can I use my own sound for the timers? Yes. In the editor, select a Timers widget, and under Sound when done use ＋ Upload MP3. WAV and Ogg work too, up to 5 MB.

How do I change the Immich server? Run bash ~/homecanvas/install.sh, answer no to updating, and change it at the Immich step. Or use Settings → Photos.

How do I update? See Updating: run the installer again.

How do I remove it? systemctl --user disable --now homecanvas, then delete ~/homecanvas, ~/.config/homecanvas and ~/.cache/homecanvas. If you let the installer share port 80 with Home Assistant, run bash ~/homecanvas/scripts/setup-port-80.sh --undo first.