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ChannelWatch

Pushover

Pushover delivers push notifications to iOS, Android, and desktop devices. It’s the simplest provider to set up in ChannelWatch because it uses a direct API integration rather than a webhook URL.

What you need

Section titled “What you need”
  • A Pushover account (one-time $5 per platform after a 30-day trial)
  • Your User Key (identifies your account)
  • An API Token (identifies ChannelWatch as the sending application)

Both values are short alphanumeric strings. You’ll copy them from the Pushover dashboard and paste them into ChannelWatch’s web UI.

Step 1: Get your User Key

Section titled “Step 1: Get your User Key”

Your User Key is shown on the Pushover dashboard immediately after you log in. It appears in the top-right section of the page under your name. Copy it.

The User Key is tied to your account, not to any specific device. Notifications sent to your User Key reach all devices registered to that account unless you specify a device name.

Step 2: Create an API Token

Section titled “Step 2: Create an API Token”

Pushover requires each application to have its own API Token.

  1. Go to pushover.net/apps/build.
  2. Fill in the application name (e.g. ChannelWatch), type, and description. The icon is optional.
  3. Agree to the terms and click Create Application.
  4. Copy the API Token/Key shown on the confirmation page.

Step 3: Enter credentials in ChannelWatch

Section titled “Step 3: Enter credentials in ChannelWatch”
  1. Open the ChannelWatch web UI at http://your-server-ip:8501.
  2. Go to Settings > Notification Providers > Pushover.
  3. Paste your User Key into the User Key field.
  4. Paste your API Token into the API Token field.
  5. Click Save.

Step 4: Test delivery

Section titled “Step 4: Test delivery”

Send a test notification from Diagnostics > Alert Tests. Choose any alert type and click Send Test. The notification should arrive on your Pushover-registered devices within a few seconds.

You can also test from the command line:

Terminal window
docker exec -it channelwatch python -m channelwatch.main --test-alert ALERT_CHANNEL_WATCHING

What Pushover notifications look like

Section titled “What Pushover notifications look like”

Pushover renders ChannelWatch alerts as standard push notifications. The alert title becomes the notification title, and the alert body appears as the notification message. If the alert includes an image (channel logo or program artwork), it appears as a thumbnail attachment.

A Channel Watching alert on Pushover looks like:

📺 ABC
Channel: 7
Program: Good Morning America
Device: Living Room
IP: 192.168.1.101
Source: HDHR

Targeting a specific device

Section titled “Targeting a specific device”

By default, Pushover delivers to all devices on your account. To send only to one device, add the device name to the User Key field using the format user_key/device_name. Device names are shown in your Pushover account under Your Devices.

Troubleshooting

Section titled “Troubleshooting”

401 Unauthorized

The API Token or User Key is incorrect. Double-check both values in the Pushover dashboard. Tokens are case-sensitive and contain no spaces.

User key is invalid

The User Key field contains a typo or extra whitespace. Copy it directly from the Pushover dashboard rather than typing it manually.

Notification delivered but no image

Image attachments require a publicly reachable URL. If your Channels DVR server is on a private network and the image URL is not accessible from the internet, Pushover will receive the notification text but skip the image. This is expected behavior and does not affect text delivery.

Pushover rate limits

Free Pushover accounts are limited to 10,000 messages per month per API Token. ChannelWatch sends one notification per alert event, so this limit is rarely reached in normal home use. If you approach the limit, the Pushover dashboard shows your current usage.

No notifications after saving credentials

Confirm that at least one alert type is enabled in Settings > Alert Types. Pushover credentials can be valid but produce no notifications if all alert types are disabled.

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