I recently went into the app, and on one of the cameras that I had previously turned off, it displayed, as expected “This device has been turned off”. So I tap the power button icon, and the device comes on and displays live video. Okay so far. But then I happen to tap the “View Playback” button at the bottom, and to my surprise there is video recorded the whole time that the camera was supposed to be “off”. I have confirmed this on another Cam Pan (v2).
So, does “off” mean that the live stream is shut off and not the video recorded to the SD card?
I have a rule set to restart all my cameras at 1AM each morning.
If a camera is “off”, and it is restarted via a rule or shortcut in the app, it will indeed still appear to be “Off” (not streaming video in the app) after rebooting. But when it reboots it will resume recording to the SD card. I think this is a bug, as it is not remembering the recording state across a reboot.
I have confirmed this behavior on two Cam Pan (v2) cameras running the current firmware (4.49.3.2864). Wyze engineering needs to validate and confirm this (and for the Cam Pan v1 also) and put out a patch.
@PanCamJeff
They definitely should not be doing this. Thank you for finding this and bringing i up, I am sorry it is happening and I was able to reproduce it and am sending this info up right now so we can get this fixed. I will reply here when I get any more information.
The Wyze cams are “Really” never off-line, as the WiFi is always connected even when you select OFF. So the camera is really in a stand-by state then when a ON command is sent the camera comes out of stand-by.
The current consumption stays relatively the same when On or Off in the Wyze App which I measured with a inline USB test device.
The ONLY Real way to turn Off the camera is unplug it or have a Smart Socket (or other device) to disconnect the power from camera. All my Cameras can be turned OFF by a Smart Device not made by Wyze.
If I was going to have indoor cameras they would be turned OFF when home via power disconnect by a Smart Device.
Another BONUS of having the power to camera controlled by a Smart Device is the ability to be able to remotely power cycle camera if it locks up, the reset option in the Whyze App rarely works when needed usually when you are away from them.
Yeah, understand. But it’s kind of adjacent to the concern. Just need the “off” function to halt streaming AND recording when it says it’s “off”, and not resume recording after a reboot if it was set to “off”.
Not to put you on the spot ( ), but this is the response I got from Support on my ticket [2664591]. I don’t think it is correct. I don’t think Support understands the issue. When I created my Support Ticket, I included a link to this thread where you validated the issue. I’m not sure how I should respond to Support’s response. Now I’m afraid they are just going to close my ticket. What do you recommend?
@PanCamJeff
You are completely fine with ‘putting me on the spot’. I would guess that support was in fact not understanding the issue. I was able to recreate your issue personally on my camera and talked to the PM and sent him logs from my camera. It is an issue and they are looking into it, hopefully we will see the fix in the next firmware release. I am currently not sure where they are at on that portion.
They will probably close your ticket, but that is ok as I have the issue escalated from this side and will keep following up about it.
Jason,
This is good to know!
I have one V1 Pan that stays turned off, but plugged in, so it can run the old Wyze Sense controller add-on (for door sensors). It would be nice if they could add an option to turn off recording, but keep the sensor part working when in the “This device has been Turned Off” mode. Every now and then I could hear it click, so I knew it was doing something (I face the camera to the wall when not needed).
Thanks!
Wanted to test this for my own edification. I had already found this to be the case on the PanV1 but hadn’t tested it on other cams. I have all my cams on smart plugs power cycling on a cascade schedule every night. Only my PanV1 is powered off when that power cycle hits, so it is the only one I was testing for SD Recording after a Power Cycle when the cam is off. I just tested it on 3 other models.
I can now confirm that this is also occuring on PanV3, V3Pro, and V3.
If the cam is Off in the app and not recording to the SD Card, a power cycle returns it to the Off position in the app, but the cam starts recording to the SD Card.
One interesting thing with the PanV3, since it introduced the new “Privacy Mode”, is that when the cam is turned off in the app the cam enters Privacy Mode and displays this in the Live View. If the cam is then power cycled while in that state, the app shows it as still in Privacy Mode, however the cam is not pointed straight into the base. It returns to the set Home position and continues to record SD footage while it is supposed to be Off in Privacy Mode.
As the starter of this thread, I just happened to get two new Pan Cam v3s and had intended to also test the behavior on the v3s. Thanks to your verification on the V3, I don’t need to.
Fortunately, the new v3s are going to be installed where I won’t need to turn them off or use privacy mode. Since the behavior is the same across the v1, v2, and v3, a common fix in the code ought to catched them all in a firmware update. Along with reporting it in this thread, my support ticket appears to still be open.
IMO, this should be a priority for the next firmware update. But they need to take thier time and test, test, test to ensure any perspective fix doesn’t break something else. The logic of camera state for recording (& privacy mode) needs to be remembered between resets. Preferably on the camera, not in the cloud
Fully agree that if cams are set to ‘electronically’ off, they should retain that same stage even after a power cycling - be it via SW or via an actual disconnect/reconnect of external power.
I had a support ticket open with Wyze on this [2664591], but have not seen anything back on it in weeks. Maybe I’ll shake them again and see what falls out of the tree
), but this is the response I got from Support on my ticket [2664591]. I don’t think it is correct. I don’t think Support understands the issue. When I created my Support Ticket, I included a link to this thread where you validated the issue. I’m not sure how I should respond to Support’s response. Now I’m afraid they are just going to close my ticket. What do you recommend?
