Cameras Repeatedly Offline

Seemingly all too often, all of my wise security cameras go offline. Today they all went offline at some point overnight and are still offline . . . it’s becoming increasingly frustrating. Does anyone have any ideas as to how this can be fixed. Is this a Wyze issue? Yes, I have given each a hard (power off, power on) reboot. Yes, I have restarted my router. This has happened a number of times so far this year . . . No one particular device, as they range from V2 to V4 - V3 Pro and OG . . . and two floodlights . . . Is because of being “tied” to Wyze with Cam Plus - when it has an issue, so do I . . . ?? At this point, these “economical” devices are becoming more of a bother than a help . . .

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That is wild. I am sure someone will chime in soon.

Personally, I haven’t seen this issue.

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Hi @miriamed, I have not had this kind of issue for “all” of my V3 cameras at the same time, but have experienced random outages on 3 of them, 1 or 2 or 3 times. However, I am a bit puzzled by the 4th, comparatively the most recent one added just over a year ago, which has now gone offline for no reason 3 or more times. In fact, when it went down exactly a year ago (while we were abroad on vacation), I had to replace the camera (yes, I had a spare)! Strangely, a couple of days ago this week, when I was checking all the cameras as part of my early AM routine, that camera showed offline. I have brought it indoors to confirm that it is working fine but it will not connect outdoors whereas I have no made any adjustments to my home WiFi setup! Another device in the area - a bird camera - works fine while it is over 20 feet away! I was thinking that my power device is somehow malfunctioning and plan on replacing it. Meanwhile, I wanted to post here about it and saw your more strange post!

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To the rescue…

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Seeing your description of the problem, especially if all of your cameras are going offline, makes me think of this recent topic, and I wonder if it’s related:

If you could provide some details about your setup and what you’re experiencing, particularly noting your ISP and/or gateway/router hardware, then that might help others with similar equipment and/or service providers to chime in with useful information.

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Don’t be too quick with that! I’m just asking some follow-up questions and wondering if this is another Rogers/Comcast/Xfinity-related issue. I appreciate the vote of confidence, though. :bowing_man:

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Greetings . . . and thanks for the response!

Well, as has happened each time, the cameras have all returned to Earth 1 and are once again operational . . . on their own!

I can see from the SD cards on each device, that they collectively “went south” @ 23:40hrs on the 2nd, returning at 16:17hrs today (the 3rd). That said, I would have expected the SD card(s) to continue to record, but there seemed to have been a complete “outage” . . . however(!), the two Floodlight Cams (both V2), did continue to record to the respective SD cards!

ISP: Telus
Modem: T3200M

Thoughts and guesses are welcomed!

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Did you notice any other issues with your internet during that time? It is possible that there was some ISP issue impacting only a small portion of the internet, and one of Wyze’s servers is on that portion, but usually something like that you’d notice something else somewhere being a bit off.

But more often than not, when all your cams stop working at once, it is going to be ISP related (assuming the cams are actually offline as it seems was the case for you, and not a phone/app issue).

What you describe really does seem more like an Internet service outage of some sort, especially with this happening to all of your cameras.

They do, and Wyze has acknowleged that Cam OG records to a different location on the microSD card if an outage lasts longer than 30 minutes, so that video is likely still on the card and available for you to retrieve it if it’s important to you:

Fellow Forum member @grapefruityoda has done some independent testing and reports that this issue affects other Wyze Cam models with certain firmware, as well:

I don’t know anything about your specific ISP or gateway, so I can’t give you a better answer at this time, but looking at Downdetector for Canada seems to indicate some spikes in outage reports over the last day:

That might be a good link to tuck away on your phone so that if you think you’re having an ISP issue, then you could still potentially check that site with a mobile data connection.

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I can’t guarantee this will fix your offline problems. But they do sound like a lot of what I have experienced - AND DON’T experience any more. What did I do? Two things. First thing seemed to make biggest difference, and I still maintain that the second thing is vital. If you doubt, go small before you do all. Wait for it…
Replace you power adapters. A few years ago, many of us had this issue and as I recall, those of us that did these two things made the most difference. So, you don’t hear those folks any complain. So, I say again.

  1. I have no proof, but I believe the 1 amp Wyze adapter is marginal. Barely enough power. I went on Amazon and bout first a few then swapped out everything for 2.3 amp adapters. The ones I bought have 2-3 ports, but I don’t use but 1 of those ports. Sort of defeats the purpose of buying a more powerful adapter then using it to for too many cameras. Which ones? Not important, look at a few reviews and if they are popular try them.
  2. Get some WiFi plugs that have a scheduling feature. Then turn your cameras off then back on, after midnight and before daylight. Might give them a few minutes to cool down too, won’t hurt - not a lot of help, but won’t hurt. Don’t use Wyze WiFi plugs. the too tend to drop offline more than the cameras. I use Sonoff RFR2 and RFR3 and the Sonoff S31. I like the RFR2 version, because I can also use a generic 433 MHz remote to turn them off and on. but I use those all over the house too. I like the Sonoff S31, because it stores the schedule locally, so it does not depend on the Internet clock to know when to shutdown and restart. It also has a “Last State” feature, so if power goes out, when power comes back the Last State setting tells the plug what to do, (turn back on and power the camera back up).
    And if you don’t use them with a scheduling feature, you can create an Alexa routine that cycles through each one off, then back on daily.
    Because the S31 stores the time off and on, locally, you can even use it to turn your router off and back on overnight to get a fresh connection - if you wish.
    Prime Day is next week, you can find some great deals on both.
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I never turn my cams off since most of them can see in the dark, but it sounds like a good idea. I power down everything else to mostly clear out memory and reset everything.

Might have to reactivate Prime.

Thanks!

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Thanks for the response dave27 . . . between Alexa, alarm panel, and the usual Web based activities, no, there were no indications of any Internet (wired or WiFi) disruptions . . .

Thanks Sam_Barn for the response! I will ponder the adapter notion, perhaps experimenting with one for the more accessible cameras! Regarding the idea of powering devices on and off, I actually believe that is a good idea for most items every now and then and have been doing so with the router once per month for several years now . . . that said, I will have a gander at some of the options on a camera or three and keep an eye on the situation . . . ironically, the flood lights which are hardwired, are the ones that kept recording to the SD cards while the feed was not available . . .

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Thanks Crease for the response! will keep downdetector in mind!

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I soft reboot my cams (using an automation in the Wyze app) once a week just for good measure, but I’ve never had to hard power cycle them on a regular basis (or even irregular, I have ones that have been running over a year with no hard power cycle). I’m using the stock adapters too.

If a cam needs to be physically rebooted frequently, something else is going on and that’s essentially just a workaround. Hard cycling the cams daily could eventually lead to issues as well, electronics don’t typically like having that done frequently.

OP’s issue sounds more internet/router/connectivity related than anything else, since it is impacting all cams.

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Still seems likely it is internet related, the wyze cams use various protocols and servers on the internet to function and we know certain ISPs have had problems and even actively blocked some of those things. If you had like one or two cams that were doing it, that brings other things into the equation, but all of them being down really points to internet connectivity issue.

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