Cameres showing offline

I have two cameras installed. One showing as offline other online ln my app(android). But not able to see live view nor getting notifications . Does anyone know of a solution

I have had these issues in the past and sometimes have to deal with it. I have 12 cams (V3, pan, doorbell) and sometimes my v3ā€™s do this. I assume it is because of network issues where they have disconnected and not reconnected with the WiFi. It is also very common for them to do this after a firmware upgrade. A camera restart should fix it and force it to reconnect with the WiFi and the app. A simple unplug and replug should do it. Because this happens on more of a regular basis than I would like, and because several of my cams are inaccessible without a ladder, or because I was out of town, I installed a $5 smart plug on each cam. That way, I can cut off the power and turn it back on any time and anywhere I want from my smart home app on my phone. Since installing these, never have to go to a cam physically yet. Hope this helps.

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This is a very old problem affecting al the cameras. If you ignore the display showing the camera offline on the app and still select it, does it connect and display video? If no, then it could be a network issue. Check your DHCP server (usually your router) and see if the camera shows an IP assignment or does it show as connected to the WiFi.
It is common for the cameras to show off line, but actually will work fine if you connect to that camera. Sometimes that can be manually fixed with a power cycle of the camera, but very often the only solution is to wait for the camera and the Wyze servers to admit that they can talk to each other. I have seen that take anywhere from a few hours to several weeks. I have about 30 Wyze cameras and almost always have at least one camera in this condition. Itā€™s annoyingā€¦

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A smart plug sounds like a good solution but letā€™s be honest - networked devices, like phones, cameras, etc. should reconnect automatically. Wyze seems to have some software (as in coding) issues from what I have seen thus far.

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Sad that it is an old issue. I saw this exact problem earlier today where the camera (v3) seemed connected but nothing was detected. The only thing that fixed the problem was a power cycle. This should never be the case regardless what caused it. Devices must know how to recover and Wyze must learn to write more reliable code. :wink:

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Some??? We surpassed ā€˜someā€™ a LONG time ago. A brief look into the past 6 months will reveal that: Hub FW - botched (twice) - pulled, App update - Botched - pulled, Cam FW - botched, Doorbell FW - Botched, T-stat FW - Botched, Website update - Botchedā€¦ The list goes on, and on, and on.

I am SOOOO thankful they arenā€™t surgeons.

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Wellā€¦ being new around here I was trying to understate things. ::

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:+1: :scream: :rofl:

old thread BUT this is an old issue that I am really getting tired ofā€¦ i have 6 wyzecam v3s and they ALL do this ā€œofflineā€ in the app thing from time to time and i have to power cycle them. clearly this is a software bug somewhere, thankfully the camera still works

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I have the same problem with 5 Cams, all go at the same time offline, I go through all the steps and I bring them on for a day and then again see all them offline, frustrating and tired.
at the beginning all cams were working just fine, I considered to subscribe and pay the yearly fee, but I notice that these 5 cameras from my outside door -to down the stairs till my garage.
did not get a motion or person events from cam 1 - cam 5 from me walking down.
I think the WYZE Software is not working right it has a bug, or WYYE try to force customer to subscribe to CamPlusā€¦ but it will be worse frustrating to pay and see your cameras offline after a day or two.

I have CamPLUS ! so yes i am paying for junk basicallyā€¦ i need to unsubscribe ā€¦ i wish they would fix this problem !

The network connectivity of the cams is not in any way related to the userā€™s subscription status or lack thereof.

@ichefrain & @mrbluegrass, when the offline icon appears, can you still open the cam and load an active live view? If the answer is yes, Wyze has requested that users submit SD Card Logs so that they can pinpoint the cause of the issue. I can provide details if this is the case.

If, however, the cams cannot be reached and are truly offline, I would seriously recommend a network WiFi upgrade. Wyze cams require a very robust and persistent WiFi signal to operate. It has been shown here in the forums that many routers do not treat iOT devices as they need and regularly reassign IP addresses or drop devices thru prioritization or QOS protocols.

I experienced these same issues when I started with Wyze cams years ago and kept adding devices. Then I upgraded to a better router with an extender and I got a 90% improvement. Only my distant cams were dropping. Last year, I upgraded again to a dual node full mesh built for iOT. Have not experienced a single offline since and have 90+ devices on the network.

@SlabSlayer yes i can see live video even though the app says it is offline.
i did send in logs multiple times and i get the ā€œreset this and thatā€ answer every timeā€¦
here is the last one i did: Your log ID number isā€¦

934834.

my cameras report good wifi signal strength and i have a good ASUS router and a 1Gbps fiber link. butā€¦interesting

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The logs that are submitted thru the app are not the logs they want to investigate this issue. They are requesting microSD Card Logs:

Ok soooā€¦ I take out the microSD card wait and put it back ? how do i get the log from that ?

as we speak I have 2 V3 cams ā€œofflineā€ in the app but they do not have microSD cards. the only way to rectify that is power cycle them.

when it happens to one of my other 4 cams with microSD cards I will take it out and look at it on my laptop and send it in.

I have to believe the developers have known about this issue for a very long time nowā€¦ and its easy to duplicate

thanks
Mark

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Yes. You will hear a ding chime when reinserted while the cam is fully powered. This confirms that a log as been written. The log is only written when the card is inserted while already powered up. Do not power cycle them before inserting the card. They need data from the last operational period since the last restart. Also, pulling a card and reading it when it goes offline without reinserting it will not have the log file or will have the last log file from the last time a powered insert was done.

The log file will have to be retrieved from the card on an external SD Card Reader either in a computer or OTR Card Reader capable device and then emailed with the information requested.

You shouldnā€™t power cycle them to get the logs. They want the logs while it is showing as offline. You can use the same SD Card. Get the log for cam #1, copy it to your device\computer for email, wipe the card and insert into offline cam #2. Repeat for all cams affected.

As you can see by the date of the instructional post, it has been a known issue for some time. However it has not been reproducible in testing because testers and devs are on some seriously robust industrial strength network routers specifically configured for a massive number of cams and devices and donā€™t experience the issue at all. it is extremely difficult to fix an issue of unknown origin if it canā€™t be reproduced in a controlled environment. That is precisely why they need users to help and email the logs. Unfortunately, there are even less users who are affected who are willing to help find a solution.

@SlabSlayer ok got it. I will do this when the next cam goes ā€œofflineā€ if i catch it soon enough. I have a total of 6 with 4 of them having microSD cards. Also i always powered them off then on when it happened so didnā€™t know about that but i have seen the xxxxxx.log.txt files on the cards before.

As for reproducing it, seems like a good idea to set up a test bed with ā€˜typical home userā€™ setup of less than 10 cams and off-the shelf routers. I have to believe that is the most common use case but maybe wrong about that. also i would like to know what is telling the phone app it is offline anyways - the Wyze servers? the camera itself? somebody is telling the app the wrong thing even though live video is available. Maybe the Wyze servers have that info, Just wondering.
Im sure i will have a camera go offline at some point in the near futureā€¦
thanks

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I would say that is the most common use case and the users who would be valuable to the Beta Program. However Beta testing is a voluntary program. Those who do participate though, tend to be more advanced users, with more advanced equipment and networks, who donā€™t mind dealing with bugs and who are comfortable and experienced with troubleshooting, reversion, side loading, and work-arounds.

Exactly the question the Wyze developers reading those logs are asking. Why is it indicating offline when it is not? All app info on the cam comes from the server, but the live stream is a P2P stream that is only initiated by the server. Why is one working but not the other? :man_shrugging:

@SlabSlayer ok im a retired EE with many years background in firmware hardware WiFi and networking and would be more than happy to help out as beta tester is i am not already, at one time i thought i signed up for that but let me know what i can do

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and as matter of factā€¦ one of my v3 cams is showing offline and it has a microSD card in it so i will perform that procedure now

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