I’ve had this happen several times now, but the most recent a few days ago was interesting.
Many times, I’ll be scrubbing thru footage on the SD card, or looking at 9 cams at once on the Web Live, or trying to view a live feed on my phone while adjusting the camera angle…and poof. Everything goes offline for a few minutes. Plugs, bulbs, cams, everything. Maddening.
A couple days ago, I was adding two v4 cams to the app and it did it again. Everything was offline for 6-7 minutes. However, after I came back online, I saw that I was still recording motion events on the cams that were down.
I’ve read several times that when everything goes down “it’s your wifi”. “Move your router.” “Upgrade.” This only happens with Wyze. Not my phone, tv, or anything else using the signal. It sure sounds like a bug, not my wifi, Especially since I was still recording while they were “offline”. It acts like a local-network Wyze crash and reboot. Not sure if other experience the same.
The reason I asked is that I have noticed the same behaviour when my upload speeds fluctuate and can’t keep up with the demand. However your speed seems adequate and I have no idea why you are experiencing the issue.
When the problem occurs, does closing (and possibly force quitting) the wyze app then reopening it make it become responsive again? The symptoms sound like an app or phone issue, especially given your upload bandwidth is plenty sufficient, and it is only affecting Wyze devices.
I tried restarting the app in the past and it doesn’t help. I just have to wait for everything to come back. It’s pretty frustrating 5 minutes into scrubbing the SD card and seconds away from what I need to see…or standing on a ladder adjusting the angle of a cam…and zap. It’s done. It’s not every time, but seemingly every time I really need to see something.
Instead of just restarting the app, I’m assuming Apple has the equivalent of “force close” somewhere, if so, try that.
And also try rebooting your router. If you happen to have another device to try it with (and/or access to web view if you have a subscription) try those too.
Just to see if you can narrow down where the problem is actually happening. It does not seem to be a cam itself as they wouldn’t all freeze up at the same time.
Although I think everyone is making salient points, I think you may be underestimating the impact of all those Wyze devices doing what you ask and requesting heaving attention from your Wifi router at the same time. More than 4 cameras streaming at once without ever dropping is worth checking – if that works, I’d try upgrading to something like a modern eero or recent Netgear Orbi. Alterntaively, you can change your Wifi router to simply be a Wifi access point (AP mode) if you have the ability to offload DHCP, NAT, and other network admin to another device like a router w/ firewall.
Even high end, expensive wifi routers sold 5 years ago can’t keep up with the needs of a modern smarthome with all the devices. These high end routers might only have a single core CPU and 512 MB of RAM running some weird variant of chopped up OEM linux to distribute IP addresses, handle routing and blocking, manage the wifi, etc. It’s a lot when you ask it to handle all that and you need something recent with a multicore CPU and more RAM if you want a single router-based Wifi device. If you’re using something provided by your ISP, it’s likely even worse than I’m describing.
I agree 100% with @spkc. The way I test my network/cameras is how many can I stream simultaneously with repeatability and accuracy. As suggested try only streaming 4 or back off 1 at a time until you hit the sweet spot. Give it a few days as environmental issues, other bandwidth hogs coming online, etc can effect the sweet spot. Just lurking on this forum I have seen posters saying 4 is the max all the way to 10’s (@carverofchoice).
Then decide if you need to upgrade the infrastructure. Keep in mind that there are big differences in performance if you only have 9 cams online vs 9 cams plus another 30 IOT devices (as many of us on this forum have). As an aside I no longer allow any new 2.4 band devices on my network. I know the band is maxed out. To Wyzes credit it looks like they are starting to add the 5 band to some of the newer products.
Haha, yeah, I’m kind of an anomaly. I have over 50 Wyze cams, and well over 100 devices connected to my WiFi (many of them constantly uploading events). Additionally, I do regularly stream 13-20 Wyze cameras at a time through the internet with their webview., and sometimes I’ll do some other local streaming stuff too.
But I do have a really strong Wi-Fi system through Ubiquity UniFi with a Dream Machine Special Edition and 4 U7Pro APs running 1gbps fiber. So I definitely don’t have a stock ISP router that most people use. Like you said, a lot of people might have much smaller limitations depending on their system. I can confirm that it’s definitely possible to use tons of Wyze cameras at a time just fine. The limitations are usually a person’s own environment and network.
Surprised you haven’t been tempted to try out their cameras. The setup with the Cloud Gateway Max or Fiber and the cams is pretty slick. Though it does sort of fall into an “in between” space of a Wyze type cloud cam and a true hardwired closed circuit system. I have Unifi stuff too and if I was going to go that way would probably just skip right to a “real” system. Still, I’ve considered trying a couple from time to time.
My only complaint is that all of their Wifi 7 APs only have 2 streams/antennas for 2.4ghz. Even though I don’t need Wifi 7, as my old ones go EOL I want something with the same coverage. Cloud Gateway Ultra and U7 Lite ($229 total) is a pretty tough value to beat other than that one gripe. Of course, without trying one, I can’t say it is actually a problem or not. The slight improvement in 2.4Ghz on 6 and 7 might balance out the less antennas.
Yeah, one of my friends has UniFi cams. They’re really great in a lot of ways, but fairly pricey too, and for that cost, I’d kind of prefer getting something fully built to work primarily with Home Assistant. But I do hear a ton of positive stuff about their resolution, bitrate, not killing everything with compression, etc.
In which case again the dedicated system makes more sense as you can load an NVR up with tens of terabytes of storage for relatively cheap - where with the Ubiquiti solutions you’re looking at much more expensive NVMe or USB attached storage, which you’re generally not going to find a multi bay RAID enclosure for (at least not a decent one that can keep up).
Yeah not really my cup of tea. A nice monitor and a control board is where I’d be at, but obviously some VPN access and a client with digital controls when you’re not physically there.
Yeah, I already have a Synology NAS running though. If I recall correctly, my Dream Machine Special Edition includes UniFi Protect and will let me use up to 24 RTSP cameras free with the free version of UniFi Protect to save video the the local harddrive (up to 24TB). But my Synology is a 4 bay, so I can go even bigger there with a RAID system if desired.
I have used both systems to store Wyze camera footage while using Docker Wyze Bridge from time to time.
But yeah, Wyze cameras can work pretty well with large systems, but as was said by multiple people above…most people don’t have systems that can handle high demand use without choking.
Wow, a Dream Machine is quite the home setup! I am jelly.
With the current Father’s Day sale going on at Wyze, it’s basically BOGO for their Routers. Two 6 or 6E routers for under $100 makes me wonder if I should set up a wifi network specifically for my home devices. My older orbi is getting close to the limit of how much simultaneous wifi traffic is can handle.
Fathers day. Dream machine$ divided by 4 kids/3 grandkids. Hmmm. The math might work.
Dreamer, you know you are a dreamer
Well can you put your hands in your head, oh no!
I said dreamer, you’re nothing but a dreamer
Well can you put your hands in your head, oh no!
Oh no!
Honestly, I wouldn’t buy the Wyze routers/wifi. That is not their main point of focus, probably just rebranding someone else’s stuff.
If you find the Ubiquiti stuff interesting, the Cloud Gateway Ultra at $129 is an excellent little router (upgrade to the Max at like $189 if you want >1G capability). Though you do need to provide your own wifi, you can use something like their U7 Lite ($100) or plug any AP you want into it.
They do have one with integrated wifi but if you’re going to get into that realm, I would stick with the two separate pieces.
With a setup like that, it is very easy to create separate wifi networks in separate VLANs and have your stuff segmented off. I have all my cams and other IOT devices on their own wifi and VLAN. Overall my network is segmented into 4 VLANs, but that may be overkill for many, 2-3 is typically going to be enough (Trusted, Guest, IOT).
Realistically, a good Asus (for example) router with VLAN and expert guest stuff is going to run you $200 to $300, and for around the same price you can get the UCG Ultra and one or two of the Ubiquiti APs. And have miles more control and functionality/features.
The TP Link Omada stuff is also very good and a bit cheaper depending on the features you want, but I’m used to Ubiquiti so I stick with that.
I have seven V3 Cameras and two Cam Pan cameras, the unlimited subscription. I monitor my nine cameras using Wyze Web Live on my Chromebook. Within recent months, at times, cameras will show “Reconnect”. Often when I attempt to reconnect they indicate that the cameras are off line. I have a Euro Mesh network, I routine check the Euro network speeds, and they indicate high uploads and download speeds even when I am seeing issues with keeping the cameras connected. The cameras that show “Reconnect” are not the same each time. It appears to me to be bandwidth issues at Wyze. It is becoming extremely frustrating when I am attempting to monitor activity on my cameras. Anyone else experiencing this problem?
Web view has its limits. 9 at the same time may be pushing it.
The Eero speed test is your internet connection, not your wifi. Most times your internet will be faster than your wifi (especially the 2.4ghz band that these cams use). So it could be web view limitation, could be that 9-15 megabits constant is too much for your wifi, or a combination of the two.
If you regularly want to monitor a large number of cams for long periods, may want to check out Tiny Cam. It won’t help if your wifi speed is the issue, but it does seem to handle large numbers of cams better when the bandwidth isn’t the issue.
Yes, I see this with certain cameras, but not with others.
If I pick the right cameras, I can steam 20 at time for days on end without any of them stopping or needing to “reconnect,” while other cameras, if I add them, they will stop streaming after a certain number of hours. It could even have something to do with connectivity, including location, distance, cord length, signal interference, etc. IDK, I haven’t paid close attention.
I haven’t figured out why the issue is camera specific. It might even be model specific. All I know for sure is that it does happen to me sometimes but only with some specific cameras and not at all with others.
).