Cam v4 stolen, setting alerts?

Cameras
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1

I recently installed a Cam V4 in an office to watch a back door. This is an office that is unoccupied the majority of the time. I went on vacation and when I got back, we noticed that the entire camera had been stolen (well… it’s missing).

I tried to look at the footage, but apparently this happened more than 2 weeks ago.

So this begets a couple of new questions:

  1. How do I go about securing the camera to the wall so this can’t happen again? Obviously just using the magnet on the wall isn’t cutting it.
  2. Is there a way to setup alerts so that my phone gets notified when the camera picks up a person close to the camera (the camera is mounted about 9’ up a wall, so it will take effort to get to it)?

Or is a Cam v4 not good enough for what I’m trying to do? I chose it because it is cheap and does not have a monthly charge. There isn’t much in the room worth paying a high monthly charge for - this is mostly for peace of mind.

2

Without paying for Cam Plus or any other subscription you should stll be able to get a "Motion"alert, you won’t get “Person”. Also without a paid plan there will be a 5 min time period between event videos and notifications. All of my V4 cams are attached to the wood siding of my house with the provided screws. I sure if someone got a ladder and a screw driver or a baseball bat they could remove the cams but it hasn’t happened yet in over 5 years.
:grin:

3
  • A camera can only react to what is in its frame.
  • So if someone can unplug it without entering the frame then they can remove it from the wall without you knowing … doesn’t matter how it is attached to the wall.
  • One option to mitigate this is to install 2 cameras with each in the other’s frame.
  • Usually when you set up a camera, notifications are on by default but you have to allow Notifications from the Wyze App on your phone.
  • Without a subscription, a Motion Event will trigger a Notification and save a snapshot to the cloud but as you have found out these images are only kept for 14 days.
    • Note that without a subscription there is a 5 min cool-down period between Notifications/saving snapshots to the cloud.
    • Motion events could result from people, animals or even headlights shining through your office windows.
  • You probably only want notifications when the office is unoccupied. For this you can set up Automation Scripts with shortcuts on your WYZE App Home Screen vs going into the camera settings to turn Notification On/Off.

Hope this helps.

4

If you like the v4, maybe get a Wyze Camera Vase.