I thought the same thing, but I learned that apparently it is technically possible for an app to tell the phone (either iOS or Android) to use mobile data even when it is on Wi-Fi.
I don’t remember the reasons why this is allowed but there was some valid reason for it. As I recall, I think iPhones also use something called Wi-Fi Assist, and Android uses “Smart Network Switch” that allow using mobile data even when other apps are using WiFi. But apps can have their own settings (selectable or not) to use mobile data for certain tasks such as background data usage to ensure connection stability. I’m guessing this might be what is happening with the Wyze app, and it might accidentally be allowing some data use that is unintentional. I’m just speculating though.
In some cases it can be a network configuration issue that is resolved by restarting the phone or resetting network settings.
Some VPN’s or proxy settings are known to mess things up this way too. They may route certain traffic through mobile data instead of through WiFi.
Go to the account tab → Wyze Support → Submit a Log → Account and Services (the last one at the bottom of the list) → Other → Leave a description of the issue and click submit. → Post the log number here so we can get it to some employees.
I’ve never seen it happen but that doesn’t mean it isn’t possible. You’d think if it was common there would be some irate customers with overages. I’m guessing if it is possible, you have to specifically code it into the app which I’m guessing Wyze wouldn’t do.
However I have seen where even with the Wifi Assist/Network Switch disabled, if your wifi is up but has no connectivity (exclamation point on android, not sure about IOS) it will switch to mobile data. The wifi assist stuff in theory is only supposed to replace a weak but barely usable wifi signal with a better mobile network signal, but who knows exactly what parameters get used.
My guess is is comes back to overnight work by the ISP, but that’s me speculating now.
With VPN on my android you can tell it what to allow and what to bypass the VPN, but the overall rules of wifi vs mobile network still apply, there is nowhere to tell it to ignore wifi and use mobile data, but again, who knows about every combo of VPN, version, OS flavor etc.
I agree there is a lot that doesn’t add up, but at this point, there have been 3 reports, so it’s worth investigating because I’ve practically rarely to never seen any before now, and then just this month get 3? That’s a weird coincidence. So I am just trying to come up with some hypothesis.
That was my initial interpretation too. I can chalk that up to 1 or 2 posts, but I have a hard time thinking this is a normal misunderstanding after 3! Better to check and make sure.
Additional details in case this helps w/ troubleshooting:
We have a Cam Plus subscription for eight cameras.
We have an excellent WiFi signal throughout the house w/ WiFi extenders.
The data consumption issue started just recently (days/weeks?). It seems to occur only when we have the app open w/ a camera active on screen overnight (we use as a baby monitor in addition to security cameras). If not actively watching a camera, no data consumption.
If WiFi is off, data consumption occurs. If mobile data is off, no data consumption occurs. Consuming data on “Foreground” data as we have “Background” turned off. I turned mobile data off last night; no data usage. Turned it back on this AM, have a Wyze Cam up and it’s consuming “Foreground” data again.
Can’t say what happens overnight as we’re sleeping; if WiFi cuts off for some reason, it would change to mobile data unless it was turned off on phone. But I think WiFi would have to be out for hours to consume that much data??
Other settings in case it helps anything:
Hotspot off
Data Saver on
VPN by Google on
Private DNS on (automatic)
Adaptive connectivity off
Roughly, each cam would use 1GB per hour, so 5GB isn’t that much necessarily.
You may want to try disabling your VPN to test, possibly that has something to do with it.
So when both WIFI and Mobile Data are on, the issue happens, but if you turn off mobile data, it works fine all night on wifi? Certainly strange. Is it happening consistently every night?
Side note, are you leaving your phone screen on all night? Most phone screens are OLED and that’s going to cause a lot of wear and tear on the screen not to mention the phone battery. This might be a case where it makes more sense to just get a wireless baby monitor.
Sorry, what I meant is that the 5GB of use you saw was not surprising if a cam was streaming via mobile data for several hours. Not that it is reasonable to run all your cams via mobile data.
Very surprising that if you have both enabled, it is somehow using mobile data when your wifi is fine. I’m wondering if something on your phone is not able to connect via the VPN and thus your phone things wifi is not passing data. Who knows. I’m wondering if maybe this is an iOS glitch rather than a Wyze one, but if it started with the 3.0 app, who knows…
Got it. I’ll try turning off VPN and see if that helps. My wife and I have the same phone, same plan so I can text two variables nightly. Also, I’m on Android FYI. Thanks for your help.
Sorry thought you originally said Wifi Assist but I see it was Adaptive Connectivity (Android). Makes it even stranger then, on my Android 14 I’ve never seen anything use the network when Wifi is good.
Maybe it is the VPN, one thing I’m thinking is if the google VPN uses IPv6 (which most cellular networks use but not as common on wifi) that could potentially cause it to use the network even when wifi is up and running fine. That also causes your video feed to loop through the Wyze servers, where if the VPN is off, the cam and your phone can communicate directly without looping out to the internet.
I haven’t used Google’s VPN but does it allow you to add exceptions for certain apps to not use the VPN?
Yes, I can exempt certain apps from the VPN. I’ll leave VPN on, block Wyze from the VPN and leave mobile data on tonight to see how that goes. Thanks for your help.
Most VPNs allow in and out of tunnel traffic. Found out when connecting to work and wanted to do non-work stuff. Even my Norton VPN allows that. You might need your bank not on VPN to work properly.
Yeah “split tunneling” as they call it. For decades no company I ever worked for allowed it, but they’ve now realized they can keep a lot of traffic off their network, especially with email being hosted externally. So now they use profiles to allow certain traffic to bypass the tunnel (Office365, Teams, etc) and they also kindly allow your network card’s subnet too so you can use your network printer.
But yeah most VPNs for home users should have that feature in them, just wasn’t sure about the Android one, I use Windscribe on my Android and it does allow both app and IP bypasses (same with the PC version).
As a bonus, I get a good laugh out of their advertising and newsletters too.
I know a Wyze employee that also uses Windscribe.
A lot of people don’t know who Windscribe is because they refuse to join in the on the pay to play fake review scamming culture that currently goes on with all the VPN’s where they have to pay more money to a review website to rank them higher on their fake review list. They decided they’ll just go based on viral word of mouth instead and let their 3rd party testing, etc speak for itself.
I bought a lifetime pro license through them. I’ve been tempted to consider using their new Control-D DNS service. Looks exceptional. Just don’t want to pay another subscription when I can self-host my own DNS if I want, even though theirs looks better than what I could host.
I was late to the party, started maybe 5 years ago. Too late to get the 50GB free plan, so I’m on the 10GB one. The 10GB does require you to receive emails from them but I hardly ever do.
I don’t often have a use for it, when I travel for work and want to use hotel wifi, or inside Home Depot where signal always sucks and I need to use their wifi for their app to work, I’ll fire it up for that. And at home the occasional cough file download that my ISP wouldn’t like.
I used to run my own DNS, including authoritative name servers for my own domains (with dyn.org as a backup) and recursive for my home internet. But it got to the point where I could outsource my email, web, dns, etc hosting for far less than the electricity and increased internet charges for business internet with static IP, so moved to that probably 6 or 7 years ago. I do miss the control and visibility of having my own servers, but the cost was just getting out of control.
I’ve tried various recursive DNS servers out there with malware blocking and the like, but the response time is significantly slower than my ISP’s DNS, and I have other layers of protection for malware (and practice good internet hygiene anyway, which is the primary line of defense). For my own remote access to my house (dynamic DNS) and my domains, I use Cloudflare’s DNS service, it is free, and they even do domain registration at cost, so I moved that there also. Their recursive DNS is one of the better performers too, but still slower than my ISP’s servers.
Oh yeah, that’s how they got me hooked. I started with the free account for limited GB per month, and LOVED IT. When they had a blackfriday offer for a lifetime unlimited pro plan, I jumped on that. They don’t allow lifetime plans anymore, but they’re exploding in growth. The free plan is great because unlike other free VPNs, they don’t abuse it with tracking/logging/selling your data like other “free” VPNs do…they just get enough other people to love it and sign up that it’s worth it to them. 10GB is sufficient for most people. Just use it when you are traveling or on public WiFi to protect and encrypt your data. That’s more than enough for most.
Yup, that’s exactly what I use it for (well, and that other thing). My phone plan is only 5 gigs a month and I hardly even use 1 most months, but when I travel for work I can burn through a gig a day easily. When in the office, I’m satisfied that our wifi is secure so I don’t usually use Windscribe on that, but in the hotel and other public wifi I do. So that way I essentially get 15GB a month on my phone when travelling.
Of course Mint’s 15GB plan is only $5 more a month so I’m just being cheap, but if I only use more than 5 a few months out of the year, why waste 60 bucks? If I had less reliable internet at home and needed to use hotspot more (I get over 100M up and down with Mint’s hotspot at home) the 15GB plan would make sense though, since you can use it all for hotspot if you want.
