FPP Settings

The FPP Settings page (Status/Control → FPP Settings) is where you set up administrative functions and settings. The settings are organized into a row of tabs across the top of the page: Playback, Audio/Video, Localization, UI, Email, MQTT, Privacy, Input/Output, Logging, Services, Storage, System and Developer.

Note

The FPP Settings page displays differently depending on your UI Level, hardware and mode. Most settings save immediately; some prompt you to Restart FPPD or Reboot before they take effect.

UI Levels

FPP has several UI Levels that show more or fewer settings so that advanced options do not clutter the screen (set on the UI tab — see below). In addition, individual settings are tagged with an icon indicating the minimum level at which they appear:

• 🎓 Advanced Level Setting
• 🧪 Experimental Level Setting
• </> Developer Level Setting

Settings with no icon appear at all levels. Throughout this chapter, items marked (Advanced), (Experimental) or (Developer) are only visible at that UI Level or higher. If a setting described here is not visible, raise your UI Level.

Playback

Configures general playback behaviour.

• Send MultiSync Packets (Player mode only) – send MultiSync packets to remote devices (see MultiSync).
• Pause Background Effect Sequence during FSEQ playback – effect sequences normally take priority over FSEQ files; select this if you want the FSEQ file to take priority over a background effect sequence.
• Blank between sequences – send blanking data to turn the pixels off between items.
• Blank screen on startup – By default, FPP will display system data to the HDMI port when it boots up and will remain until other data is sent out to the HDMI port. The screen blanking will turn the text console off after one minute so that it does not remain on the monitor. If you are using this FPP to play video through the HDMI port, then you probably want to enable this setting. (This option is only available on Pi based FPP devices as the HDMI port is disabled on BeagleBone based systems)
• Inactivity timeout for screen blanking – when Blank screen on startup is enabled, blank the screen after this many minutes with no activity. (Developer.)
• Open/Start Delay – a delay (ms) before playback begins.
• Local Media/Sequence Offset – trims the synchronization between media and sequences on this device, in milliseconds. A positive value moves the media ahead, a negative value moves it back. Requires an FPPD restart. (Advanced.)
• Remote Media/Sequence Offset – the same trim applied to an FPP remote, in milliseconds. Requires an FPPD restart on the remote. (Advanced.)

Warning: Both offsets apply to every media file, not one at a time. If individual files need different offsets, fix the audio files or sequences themselves rather than using these settings.

• Ignore Media Sync Packets – on a remote, start and stop media when the player says so, but make no attempt to keep it in sync during playback. The media runs more smoothly but may drift away from the player. (Advanced.)

Scheduler sub‑settings:

• Disable Scheduler – globally turn scheduling off.
• Protect UI‑Started Playlists from Schedule Override – stop a scheduled item interrupting a playlist you started by hand.
• Scheduler max timeframe to schedule out – how far ahead the schedule is calculated (this governs the Status page's schedule Preview range).
• Granular Scheduling – finer‑grained schedule control.

Audio/Video

The Audio/Video tab is substantially expanded in FPP 10, which uses a PipeWire‑based audio/video pipeline (with GStreamer) for flexible routing.

• A/V Mode → Media Backend – selects the media backend. Simple Pipewire is the default setting for most systems. PipeWire (Advanced) enables the full routing capabilities but is an advanced concept. See PipeWire
• Audio Output Device – which device audio plays through: on‑board analogue audio, a Raspberry Pi's HDMI output, or a USB sound card. FPP stores the choice by the sound card's stable ALSA name rather than its index, so it survives cards being probed in a different order (for example a USB device being added or removed).
• Default Video Output Device – where video plays by defaul (Advanced)** enables the full routing capabilities below.
• Audio Output Device – which device audio plays through: on‑board analogue audio, a Raspberry Pi's HDMI output, or a USB sound card. FPP stores the choice by the sound card's stable ALSA name rather than its index, so it survives cards being probed in a different order (for example a USB device being added or removed).
• Default Video Output Device – where video plays by default. On every FPP system a video in a playlist can be shown on a Pixel Overlay model; on a Raspberry Pi it can also go to the HDMI or composite outputs.
• Audio Sample Rate – the rate PipeWire's audio graph runs at. The Default uses 44100 unless the selected sound card clocks at something else; 44100, 48000 and 96000 can be forced. The bit depth is not set here — FPP probes the card and uses the widest format that holds the rate. (Advanced.)
• Audio Period Size – how many samples PipeWire hands the sound card at a time (the graph quantum), from 1024 up to 8192. Smaller values lower latency; larger values are less likely to glitch on a busy player. (Advanced.)

Note

In PipeWire (Advanced) mode these two are set per card in the PipeWire Audio Groups settings instead — see PipeWire Audio & Video Pipeline

• Force Audio Card ID – override the card ID that FPP normally reads from the sound card's id file. Occasionally that ID is wrong; setting it by hand can clear the error "Could not open audio device — ALSA: Couldn't open audio device: Invalid argument". (Experimental.)
• Hardware Decoding – use the hardware video decoder. Turning it off greatly increases CPU use but can give finer control over the video output. (Advanced.)
• Force HDMI Display – force a Raspberry Pi to treat HDMI as the default display. Sometimes needed when the display is not detected properly, or is not powered on when the Pi boots. While this is on, the Pi's composite output cannot be used.
• Force HDMI Resolution (and Force Port 2 HDMI Resolution on a Pi with two HDMI ports) – pin the output to a given resolution instead of whatever the monitor reports at boot.
• General Audio – master audio behaviour, including Global Audio/Sequence Offset (a fine sync trim in ms) and Disable Volume Slider. Configure Sound Card Aliases gives friendly names to audio devices.
• WLED Sound Reactive – drives sound‑reactive effects on WLED devices from FPP's audio:
  • WLED Sound Reactive Source – where the sound‑reactive data comes from; the default is the media FPP is currently playing. (Advanced.)
  • WLED Audio Sync Address – where sync packets are sent, and in receive mode the multicast group to join. 239.0.0.1 is WLED's default multicast group; use a unicast address (e.g. 192.168.1.70) or a broadcast address (e.g. 192.168.1.255) on networks where multicast is filtered. (Advanced.)
  • WLED Audio Sync Port – the UDP port, default 11988. Only change it if you have reconfigured your WLED devices. (Experimental.)
• Suspend Audio Device When Idle – lets PipeWire suspend the sound card while nothing is playing. Left on (the default), it saves roughly 4–5% of a CPU core on single‑core boards, because the audio graph would otherwise run continuously and keep the card clocked. Turn it off if your sound card does not resume cleanly when playback starts. (Advanced; requires a reboot.)
• PipeWire Routing – Open Routing Matrix to patch audio sources to outputs, and Visualise Current Pipeline to see a live PipeWire graph.
• PipeWire Audio – Configure Input Mixing (Mix Buses) and Configure Output Audio Groups to combine and split audio across multiple outputs.
• PipeWire Network Streams – AES67 Audio‑over‑IP and Opus RTP Audio Streaming for sending/receiving audio over the network. The AES67 page also holds the device‑wide PTP clock settings (enable, interface, domain and clock role), and both pages show live per‑stream status.
• PipeWire Video – Configure Video Input Sources and Configure Video Output Groups for HDMI/video routing and video‑to‑pixel mapping.

Note

Each of these buttons opens a dedicated configuration page with substantial functionality of its own. The whole pipeline — sound card aliases, audio output groups (delay/EQ per card), input mixing, the routing matrix, the live pipeline graph, AES67 and Opus RTP audio streaming, and video input/output groups — is documented in its own chapter, The PipeWire Audio & Video Pipeline, which immediately follows this one. (It replaces the simpler Audio/Video settings of FPP 9.x.)

Localization

Configures time and location. For playlists to start automatically at scheduled times, the scheduling FPP (not the remotes) must keep accurate time. Without internet access you can set the date and time manually, but without a Real‑Time Clock (RTC) or internet the time resets on reboot.

Time Config:

• Current System Time – the current date, time and configured time zone.
• Set Date / Set Time – set these manually when there is no network.
• Real Time Clock – if a cape/hat with an RTC is attached, select it from the list (FPP tries to detect it), reboot, then set the time here.
• Use NTP Server from DHCP – let your DHCP server supply the time server, overriding the one configured below. Off by default, in which case only the configured NTP server is used. (Advanced.)
• Override default NTP Server – normally left blank; enter a different time server's IP only in special cases. (Advanced.)
• Time Zone – required so an NTP‑synced clock shows the correct local time.
• Lookup Time Zone – detect your time zone (requires internet).

Regional Settings:

• Locale – country‑specific settings such as Holidays used in the Scheduler.
• Date Format / Time Format – how dates and times are displayed.
• Temperature Display Units – Fahrenheit or Celsius.
• Latitude / Longitude – required for sunrise/sunset scheduling. Use Lookup Location (verify with Show on Map), or obtain coordinates from LatLong.net or Google Maps (in Google Maps they follow the @ in the address bar, latitude first; keep any minus sign).

UI

Changes the appearance and behaviour of the web interface.

User Interface:

• Temporary User Interface Level – shown when you are at the Basic level. The Change to Advanced UI for 15 Minutes button raises the interface to Advanced for the rest of your browser session, without permanently changing your UI Level — useful when you need to reach one Advanced setting and would rather not leave the extra clutter switched on. While the override is active an unlock icon appears in the page header showing roughly how many minutes are left; click it, or Exit Advanced Mode here, to return to Basic immediately. The override is per‑browser and expires by itself.
• User Interface Level – four levels that tailor how much is shown:
  • Basic – all the settings most users need; the recommended setting.
  • Advanced – extra features/settings for unusual configurations.
  • Experimental – settings still in testing; changes may not work correctly until fully tested.
  • Developer – settings used by developers for testing; changing these can cause problems if misconfigured.
• Display all hardware options/settings – show settings for all devices, even those not detected. Enabling this lets you change settings that could cause problems. (Advanced.)
• Disable restart/reboot UI Warnings – for developer testing; you may then not be warned when a reboot/restart is required. (Developer.)
• File Manager Thumbnail size – size of image thumbnails in the File Manager. (Advanced.)
• File Manager Enable Filter – toggle the File Manager's sort/filter header to free up screen space.
• Theme – controls the web interface's appearance. System Default follows your browser or operating system's dark‑mode preference; Light and Dark override it and always use that theme.
• Disable UI Popover Event Alerts – suppress the alert popovers that appear at the top right when an event fires. These alerts are useful feedback, so turn them off only for special cases such as a kiosk or a display screen. (Advanced.)

UI Password:

• UI Password – by default no password is required (the UI is only reachable from your local network). Setting one is for advanced users, as it can disable some FPP functionality without extra configuration. The password must be at least 8 characters; once set, log in with username admin and your password. (Defaults: username admin, password falcon.)

UI Colors:

• Header Background Color – colour the header to tell devices apart at a glance.
• Color Pairs – the colours used in tables such as the Schedule Preview, making scheduling problems easier to spot.

Email

Lets FPP send email (via FPP commands or a script).

• SMTP Server Hostname / Port – your mail server and port (587 is most common; 465 and 25 are also used).
• SMTP Server Login / Password – credentials for the sending account.
• From Email Address / From Name – the sender shown on the email (the From Name could be the FPP host name).
• Default TO Address – the default recipient.
• Configure Email saves the settings; Send Test Email tests them.

Note

Some providers (e.g. Gmail, Yahoo) block third‑party clients by default; you may need to adjust their security settings to allow FPP to send.

MQTT

Connects FPP to an MQTT broker for automation (e.g. a home‑automation system).

• Broker Host / Port – the broker's address and TCP port.
• Client ID – left blank, the broker assigns one.
• Topic Prefix – prefix used when publishing messages.
• Username / Password – broker authentication.
• CA File – optional CA to validate the broker's certificate (only for SSL with self‑signed certificates).
• Publish Playlist Frequency – how often, in seconds, to publish playlist status to the broker. 0 means it is not published on a timer, but is still available on demand.
• Publish FPPD Status Frequency – how often, in seconds, to publish the FPPD status JSON. 0 disables periodic publishing.
• Publish Port Status Frequency – how often, in seconds, to publish port monitoring status JSON (on capes that report it). 0 disables it.
• Subscribe Topics – one or more additional topics to subscribe to. Use # on its own to subscribe to everything the broker publishes, a prefix filter such as smartthings/# for a whole tree, or an exact topic for just one. Separate several with a semicolon (;).

Tip

Anything received on a subscribed topic shows up on the Variables page under MQTT Read‑only Variables, so you can act on it with an If command — see Variables.

Privacy

FPP's developers are cautious about privacy and let you customise what is shared.

• Email Address – if you share crash data, this lets developers contact you for more information.
• Share Statistics – anonymous usage statistics (SBC type, installed plugins, FPP version, etc.) with no personally identifying information; click Preview Statistics to see exactly what is sent. Options: Enabled (recommended), Disabled, or Banner (prompt on the Status page).
• Share Crash Data with FPP Developers – choose what, if anything, is sent to help diagnose crashes. The default Include settings and configurations is recommended. FPP 10 also keeps crash reports on the device even when you choose not to send them, so you can inspect one yourself or attach it to a support bundle. The reports carry more useful detail than before — the context around the crash, the versions of any installed plugins, and stack addresses resolved to file and line on the device itself.
• Fetch cape logos from vendors – a vendor logo shown in the header must be downloaded from the vendor, which exposes your IP to them (usually low risk).
• Send Cape serial numbers to vendors – could identify you from purchase history (usually not a security issue), but you can disable it.

Input/Output

Global input/output settings (Advanced UI Level or higher).

Input Control:

• Disable Network Bridge Monitoring – disable bridge monitoring (useful when developing your own bridge listener). (Advanced.)

• Bridge Data Priority – how FPP treats incoming bridge data versus local playback:

  • Warn if Sequence is running – warn but keep playing the local sequence.
  • Prioritize Bridge – incoming bridge data overrides local sequences.
  • Prioritize Sequence – local sequences override bridge data; bridge data is used only when nothing is playing (usually what you want during show season, so bridging does not interrupt the show).

• Bridge Input Source Priority – when several senders transmit to the same input universe, lock onto one source and suppress the others. For E1.31 the priority byte in the packet header is honoured, so a higher‑priority source always wins; for ArtNet, which has no priority field, the first source seen wins. In both cases, if the active source stops sending for longer than the input timeout, the next packet from any source takes over. DDP is unaffected. (Advanced.)

• Hide Cape Controlled GPIO Pins – on by default. Hides GPIO pins the fitted cape is already using from the GPIO pin control page, so you cannot change a pin the cape depends on by accident. (Advanced.)

Output Control (Advanced):

• Automatically turn on/off outputs – for controllers that can cut output power when idle.
• Efuse Retry count / interval – automatically reset tripped eFuses (good for intermittent trips, especially at startup), and the wait between retries.
• Always transmit channel data – force output whenever FPP is running (FPP normally transmits only when a sequence plays or an overlay model is enabled). Use only for older controllers that go into test mode without data.
• E1.31 Bridging Transmit Interval – timing interval in bridge mode (default 50 ms, recommended; some devices only support 50 ms).
• Disable Colorlight outputs on link down – by default FPP disables ColorLight outputs when the link is down, below 1 Gbps, or no receiver is detected (a restart re‑enables it). Disabling this keeps the output active but you still get the warnings.
• Colorlight Firmware Version – manually select the ColorLight receiver firmware version if FPP cannot detect it.

Logging

Sets the logging criteria for the device. FPP creates several logs that help with troubleshooting. Normally leave this at Info unless the development team asks otherwise or you are an advanced user.

You can set the level per subsystem. The subsystems include ChannelData (serial and LOR output), ChannelOut (channel testing and overlays), E131Bridge (E1.31 and DDP input bridging), MediaOut (audio and video output), and others covering the scheduler, playlists, plugins and MultiSync.

The five levels are:

• Errors Only – only items identified as errors.
• Warn – only warnings.
• Info – basic information suitable for most troubleshooting (recommended for production systems).
• Debug – Info plus debug messages; use only when requested.
• Excessive – everything; can create very large log files and impact performance — use only when requested.

Note

Buttons at the bottom let you change all sections at once (except Channel Data).

Services

Configures optional system services; options depend on the SBC.

OS Services:

• Enable rsync – allow this device to receive files from other FPP devices (e.g. from the MultiSync page).
• Enable Samba/CIFS – access the media folder over SMB (e.g. Windows File Explorer). (Advanced.)
• Enable FTP – transfer files with an FTP client. (Advanced.)
• Enable Local MQTT Broker – run a local MQTT broker. (Advanced.)

Kiosk Mode (Pi only, Advanced) – for a fully standalone device with a connected touchscreen (an advanced configuration; not all touchscreens are supported):

• Kiosk Start URL – the page shown at startup (default: the Status page).
• Kiosk Screen DPMS Timeout – seconds before the display sleeps.
• Rotate Kiosk – tick this if you are using the Raspberry Pi Touch Display 2 (7 inch), which needs the output rotated to appear the right way up.
• Enable Kiosk installs and enables Kiosk mode.

Storage

Configures where sequences and media are stored, and manages the device's storage media (Advanced UI Level or higher).

Flash FPP to Another Device:

FPP 10 replaced the old platform-specific eMMC/USB flashing pages with one flow that works on Raspberry Pi, BeagleBone and BeagleBone 64 alike. Each detected target device is listed with its own buttons:

• Create – write a clean FPP install to the target, leaving your media, sequences and settings behind.
• Copy – the same, but bring your media, sequences and settings along.
• Create (BTRFS) – as Create, using BTRFS, which compresses the file system but may slow the device slightly.

Either way the copy is given its own SSH host keys, so it can safely run as a separate player alongside this one.

Warning

Flashing erases everything currently on the target device. Check you have selected the right one — the confirmation dialog names the device and its /dev/ path.

Storage Device:

Selects which device holds the media directory (sequences, audio, video, images, logs). A device that is not yet mounted can be formatted from here, and when you change the location FPP offers to copy all existing files across.

Warning

On a Raspberry Pi 4 or 5, moving storage to a USB or NVMe device is strongly discouraged. It can introduce network lag, packet drops, audio clicks and pops, high CPU usage and longer boot times, and many advanced features and several capes/hats are known not to work with USB storage. It is also far less tested, so even patch upgrades carry a higher risk. Prefer an SD partition.

Note

A Raspberry Pi 5 limits its USB ports to 600 mA in total unless it detects a 5 A (27 W) supply, which matters if you are powering storage from the USB ports.

Mounted USB Device Actions:

• Force Unmount – unmount a USB device that is still mounted. If files are open on it, FPP lists the processes holding them so you can see what is in the way.

System

System‑wide settings; the page varies with the SBC and its hardware (there are separate Raspberry Pi and BeagleBone variants).

• GPIO 14 Fan Control – PWM fan control on GPIO 14. (Pi only, Advanced.)
• Fan On Temperature – the temperature above which that cooling fan switches on (default 70 C). Fan state is reported on the System Health Check page. (Advanced.)
• Disable IP announcement – during boot FPP announces its IP addresses over the audio output. Turn this off for production use, when the audio output feeds an FM transmitter or your show speakers.
• Override UUID – set the UUID FPP uses for FPP Connect de‑duplication, stats and services, instead of deriving it from the board's serial number. Only needed when two devices end up reporting the same identity. (Advanced.)
• Status Display – configure an OLED screen on the I2C bus (usually auto‑detected at boot); it shows IP addresses, status and the playing sequence. Select your OLED model here.
• FPPD Boot Delay – delay FPP's startup, useful if you power everything on together and want routers/switches to initialise first. The Auto setting waits for a valid time source before booting (falling back to internal time after 10 minutes).
• Enable HDMI Display – enable the HDMI port on a BeagleBone. (BeagleBone only, Advanced.)

Warning

Enabling the BeagleBone's HDMI port disables many GPIO pins, which will stop most capes working. Only turn it on if you are not using a cape.

• BeagleBone LEDs – control or disable the five on‑board LEDs (commonly disabled if distracting; defaults recommended). (BeagleBone only.)
• Reboot If USB WiFi Adapter Fails – on by default. Some USB Wi‑Fi adapters intermittently lose their USB connection while booting: the adapter is detected and the interface appears, but the radio never connects, leaving FPP running normally yet unreachable over the network. When FPP detects this specific failure it reboots to recover. It will only do so when USB errors are present and no other connection has an IP address — so an access point being switched off or out of range will not trigger one — and it gives up after two attempts so it can never boot‑loop. (Advanced.)
• OS Password – the password for SSH and similar access; the default falcon is recommended.
• SSH Keys – configure SSH keys to authenticate with a key instead of a password. (Advanced.)
• Reset FPP Config – reset FPP to factory settings, either all options or selected areas — useful if a configuration or an xLights upload has gone wrong. See The Reset FPP Config dialog below.

Warning

Take an FPP Backup before Reset FPP Config (see Backup and Restore).

The Reset FPP Config dialog

Reset FPP Config opens a dialog where you choose exactly what to clear, rather than resetting everything blindly.

Three shortcut buttons set the tick boxes for you: Everything (everything below except network), Common (sequences, media and playlists), and Nothing (clears all the boxes so you can pick your own). The areas are:

• Configuration – Configuration Files, Network Config Files, Channel Outputs, EEPROM / String Config, Settings, Schedule.
• Content – Sequences, Media, Effects, Playlists.
• Plugins – Installed Plugins, Plugin Config Files.
• OS / System Files – Logs, Backups, Uploads, Caches, Scripts, Root/FPP User Files (ssh keys, history), Audio Backend (PipeWire).

Click Reset to apply, or Close to back out.

Note

Network Config Files is deliberately excluded from Everything, so a reset cannot cut off your own access to the device. Tick it explicitly if you really do want the network configuration cleared — and note that any DHCP server leases this device has issued are then cleared on the next reboot, not immediately.

Developer

Only shown at the Developer UI Level; useful for switching FPP versions or developer testing.

• UI Platform Masq – display settings for a different platform than the one detected (for plugin/feature development). Take care, as changes can adversely affect your device.
• Git Remote Repository – which git remote branch selection uses: origin is the main FPP repository, newfeatures is for new‑feature testing.
• Git Branch – choose which FPP version/branch to run, e.g. Master for the latest improvements ahead of release. Note that some upgrades require an OS rebuild to get all benefits (see Final Configuration and Updating).
• Reset Local Changes – revert any manual code changes to the original code.
• Git Status – show the status of your local FPP version.
• FPP Rebuild – recompile all FPP files (useful after an interrupted install or corrupted files).
• GitHub User Name and GitHub Personal Access Token – credentials used to install or upgrade plugins hosted in private GitHub repositories. The token needs read access to those repositories and is stored locally in /home/fpp/media/settings. They are only used when Use Credentials is selected on the Plugins page.
• Distributed Compile – hand FPP's source compiles to a helper host to speed up a full rebuild, such as after switching branch. The options are Off, distcc, distcc + zeroconf, nocc and nocc + mdns. distcc preprocesses locally then compiles on the helper; nocc does not preprocess locally, which makes it far faster on slow single‑core boards such as a BeagleBone Black or Pi Zero. The zeroconf/mdns variants discover helpers on the LAN automatically. The helper must run the same major compiler version — set one up with scripts/setup_distcc_host.sh or scripts/setup_nocc_host.sh. Any distributed mode disables the precompiled header.
• Compile Hosts – the space‑separated list of helper hosts to compile on. For distcc use host[:port][/jobs][,options], e.g. fpppi5:3632/6,lzo; for nocc use host[:port] (default port 43210), e.g. fpppi5. Leave it empty for the zeroconf / mdns modes, which discover their helpers automatically.