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How to use Set-Inform to adopt Unifi Access Point

By April 25, 2023June 27th, 2023No Comments

Unifi Access points are great devices, most of the time when you connect a new Access Point they will find the controller within a minute. But what if your new access point isn’t showing up in your controller?

When the status led of your new access point is steady white (or steady amber for older access points) then it’s waiting for adoption. But sometimes the device won’t show up in the controller.

In this article, I will explain how you can use the Set-Inform command on an Unifi Access Point.

Use Set-Inform on Unifi Access Point

The Set-Inform URL tells the Unifi Access Point where the controller is located. By default, the access point will search the network for the controller, using the default DNS name unifi. This doesn’t always work, so we need to tell the access point the correct address of the Unifi Controller.

To set the inform URL we need to connect over SSH to the Unifi access point. You don’t need an SSH client for this, we can simply use PowerShell for this, which is installed by default on all Windows 10 and 11 computers.

The default SSH username and password are ubnt. If you have changed it, then you can look it up in the controller under System > Application Configuration > Device SSH Authentication.

Note: The default inform url is http://unifi:8080/inform. Unifi is the internal DNS name of your Unifi Controller. This doesn’t always work, better is to use the IP Address of the controller, for example: http://192.168.1.1:8080/inform

We also need to know the IP Address of the access point. You can use the Ubiquiti Discovery Tool for this or Advanced Ip Scanner.

  1. Open PowerShell
    We first need to connect the access point over SSH. To do this we are going to use PowerShell.

    1. Press Windows key + X (or right-click your start menu)
    2. Choose Windows PowerShell
  2. Connect SSH
    Type:  ssh ubnt@192.168.1.142 (replace 192.168.1.142 with the IP Address of your access point)

    Enter the default password ubnt (or lookup the SSH details in your controller)

3. Set-Inform URL


The inform URL is the IP Address of your controller followed by the port number: 8080/inform.

So if the IP Address of your controller is 192.168.1.1, then the inform URL is :

http://192.168.1.1:8080/inform

Type the following command and press enter:

set-inform http://192.168.1.1:8080/inform

4. Complete the adoption in the controller


You should now see the access point in the controller, ready for adoption.

If the access point still doesn’t show up in the controller, then check if the settings are applied correctly. Type info and press enter to see the status of the access point:

1. UAP-AC-Lite-BZ.5.43.36# info<font></font>
2. <font></font>
3. Model:       UAP-AC-Lite<font></font>
4. Version:     5.43.36.12724<font></font>
5. MAC Address: f0:9f:c2:f6:d1:fd<font></font>
6. IP Address:  192.168.1.142<font></font>
7. Hostname:    UAP-AC-Lite<font></font>
8. Uptime:      633 seconds<font></font>
9. <font></font>
10. Status:      Not Adopted (http://192.168.1.1:8080/inform)<font></font>
11. UAP-AC-Lite-BZ.5.43.36#

As you can see in the results above, the inform URL is set correctly, but the device is still waiting for adoption.

Wrapping Up

If you are still unable the adopt the Access Point, then follow this article where we are going to solve the adoption failed error.

If you have any questions, just drop a comment below.

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