I don’t often search events, but in-app, I’ve previously been able to go to Events, click the magnifying glass at the top and search for “deer” or “dog” and see recorded events that include those critters.
Just a few days ago I tried to search and am seeing something different from the past (probably months since I searched). Now in the app when I click the magnifying glass, I’m only given the option to upgrade to Cam Unlimited Pro AI Video Search. Since I don’t want to do that, I click the X and it takes me back to the Events screen, trying again just gives me the same option of upgrading.
*I also had previously been able to click the little graphic to the right of the magnifying glass for a free AI search (I think that’s what it was) - and search for things from there. Now that also tries to get me to upgrade, to Cam Unlimited Pro Descriptive Alerts.
We already pay for Cam Unlimited Pro, we don’t want to pay extra for searching. Has the search functionality all been put behind another paywall now, or has it moved somewhere else? I’m not even able to search on the web view as it just says “no events found” when searching for “dog” - when I have a recording from an hour or so ago of a dog in my yard.
We have both V3’s and V4’s. Android phones with latest app updates. Windows 11 computer, going to the my.wyze.com/live page, then the Events tab and searching. None of my searches are working as they used to. What am I doing wrong?
I believe Wyze uses different search events for different versions of Wyze.
On Wyze Cam 3 where it says “View Playback” and gives a slider, I hate it as frequently recorded area too small to easily chose. Making it difficult to view.
On Wyze Pan Cam 3
where under “Recent Events” it has separate thumbnails that is much easier to click and view.
What it sounds like you’re describing is a search by each individual camera? But we don’t have SD cards in any of them since we’re paying for Cam unlimited.
We used to be able to search in the way I described - across all cameras easily. I’ve sometimes seen the app behave strangely and a phone restart or clearing the cache has sometimes fixed it, not this time. I’m really hoping it’s just a glitch as it’s helpful to search the way I used to.
Yes, because it’s a feature of that subscription tier now.
As far as I know, the only way to do that now is by upgrading to Cam Unlimited Pro, because those who were trying AI Video Search prior to that subscription’s launch lost access when (or shortly after) it was introduced. You just discovered that a few days ago because you hadn’t tried searching since you lost access to that feature.
You may very well be right. Although imho, a simple function like searching shouldn’t require us to pay more money. I think we’re already paying something like 99/yr and this would be an additional cost. It’s showing 259/yr which might “only” be an extra 150/yr? But for us - we just randomly want to see if there were any deer in our yard recently, or what kind of critter pooped in our yard. Sad that this is now behind a paywall.
I don’t know how “simple” it is, because it seems like a pretty complex feature that only two companies in this space (Wyze and Ring) are offering, as far as I know. Since it requires additional processing resources on the server side—not to mention the development resources necessary to create it in the first place—I’m not at all surprised that it’s a feature in a premium subscription tier.
I’m seeing the plan listed at $199.99/year.
You can still see the same events as before without the additional paywall, but without upgrading your subscription tier this requires the same manual searching and filtering that you had prior to August of last year.
Well, I don’t remember how I searched months ago because as I said, it’s not something I do a ton.
I just looked on the Wyze website and you’re correct about the pricing but there definitely seems to be a discrepancy. Here’s what the app is showing me when I try to search - I’m just assuming the 99/yr I already pay would be included in this:
I wonder if that price reflects Google’s “take” when purchasing subscriptions via the app and Google Play Store. I understand that Apple does the same thing and that Wyze subscriptions purchase via phone apps can’t be managed via the Wyze Portal/Web App (like if you login to Web View and navigate to Account there) and vice versa (subscriptions purchased via Wyze’s Web site can’t be managed directly within the phone app). I think buying directly from Wyze gets you a better price because they don’t have to account for Apple’s or Google’s markup and payment processing.
I’m not saying that you should or shouldn’t upgrade. I’m just trying to account for the different prices we’re seeing.
If by that you’re asking whether Cam Unlimited Pro includes all of the features that you already have with Cam Unlimited, then I think that question should be answered by the comparison chart I linked earlier:
Note: Cam Unlimited Pro is apparently incompatible with Home Monitoring Service.
It's important to note that upgrading to Cam Unlimited Pro apparently cancels subscriptions to Home Monitoring Service. I don't recall seeing your mentioning this, so I don't know if it's something that would affect you, but it's apparently affected a lot of users who have upgraded, and you can find plenty of Forum complaints about this.
Looking back at your earlier posts, I see this:
There seems to be a discrepancy there, too.
If you do decide to upgrade, then I’d consider contacting Wyze Support to find out how best to do that. The timing of your Cam Unlimited subscription renewal (annual) and whether or not it was purchased via Google Play Store might be complicating factors, and if Wyze can apply whatever’s left on your Cam Unlimited subscription as credit toward an upgrade purchase, then I’d want you to be able to maximize your value for that.
Again, I’m not suggesting you do one thing or the other. I’m just trying to think through the problem with you.
It really isn’t the search that you have to pay for, it is the AI that generates the description that you can search. If there is no description (from the subscription AI service) then there is no search possible.
Same with being able to filter by “people” or whatever - if you don’t have the service or a camera that supports that, you can’t filter on it as nothing is tagged.
You are correct, I mis-typed what we have now. We have Cam Unlimited, NOT Pro
It’s funny how these things seem to all add up though, I guess that’s my underlying frustration. People are doing so much with their cams, but we’re only using our 6 cams (1 is a doorbell) to look at wildlife, grandkids, see if a package is on our front step, and not a lot more. We don’t need smart alerts or face detection, I just want to search once in a while - but I’m bummed we have to pay more to do that. Although if the AI detection works WELL, it would be interesting to see if it says “a dog is pooping” since there’s a slight issue with that happening around my neighborhood and people not picking it up.
We don’t renew until fall so I might do the trial and then upgrade. Or maybe not… but thanks for replying & updating me; I don’t read the forum often enough to realize this was how things work now.
I do understand this, however before the Pro version was available, it would at least identify pet/person etc so you’d think (at least I would, but then I’m not a programmer) that I could easily search for any pets my cameras have recorded.
But I get it. Kind of. And if the new AI does a better job I might not mind paying more.
I’m not sure about the search function as I don’t have a subscription, but for pet, person, vehicle you should be able to just use the “filter” for that if search doesn’t do it.
When I had access to this feature during the test, I actually did get Descriptive Alerts to that effect, though I don’t remember exactly how the AI-engine phrased it. I think it may have said “relieving itself”. It totally captured the dog in the backyard doing that, though.
You’re welcome! I probably spend too much time here.
Yeah I hear you, Wyze has sort of been all over the place with hardware and subscription stuff. Then they gave some people a preview of that AI feature for a limited time which is even more confusing.
Obviously the subscription model is where everyone is going and what Wyze is focused on (they make nothing or even lose a bit on most of the camera sales). I’ve heard similar frustrations from friends and neighbors with other brands too. Heck I’m even getting annoyed that my computer is constantly trying to force install Copilot AI and get me to buy the Pro version (have finally managed to block all that). Now my Android phone is prompting me to replace Google Assistant with Gemini AI. But I never use the assistant so I could care less.
I think everyone is getting tired of this “AI” garbage (there is even a term called “AI Washing” where companies use that term to describe stuff that really is not AI just to seem relevant).
I’m guessing maybe the search would show you multiple days, where the events tab shows you one day at a time - once you filter you can tap the different days to see more stuff?
The events tab also only loads a certain number, then you have to scroll down and hold it until it loads more, so that could be part of it too.
That’s true, or at least that was my experience. I liked being in the pilot because I could search for the mail truck (I think using a query like “USPS truck” or something) and know if it had passed the house already that day. IIRC, the results were returned in order of “relevance” and spanned multiple days (because the truck typically goes by once per day), and there was no apparent facility for sorting results by reverse chronology, which is what I think would’ve been the most convenient use in that case. Hopefully they’ve improved it since then, but I lost access months ago.
Note: Cam Unlimited Pro is apparently incompatible with Home Monitoring Service.
