I’m new Wyze user with four v4 cams running Micro SD microsd cards in free basic version – I am happy with this setup and do not even need CamPlus for reliable 24/7 Continuous Recording video to my SD card and Play Back.
I decided to add the free CAM PLUS subscription to one of my cams for the 5-minute Cool Down recording delay between Events (which I don’t even get running the SD card in Continuous).
After about 30 minutes exploring the camera settings – and a call to tech support where the initial agent didn’t understand the concept of “Cloud Storage” and passed me up to 2nd level who helped me IMMEDIATELY cancel the subscription at various points in the app and on his end – so my video clips would not continue to upload to the Wyze Cloud servers – I thought the problem was solved.
But today I added another v4 cam – and the cam setup got to a claim your free 30-day Cam Plus page that I couldn’t back out of so not wanting to start the process over – I clicked forward and instantly got a successful my cam was added to my plan, despite nothing on the page (I couldn’t back out of) alerting me of the new contract.
Further, I confirmed in Events and Monitoring tabs my video clips from the new cam were indeed uploading to the Wyze Cloud servers.
I went back to iPhone iOS and Canceled my Subscription renewals again.
I DON’T WANT THE CLOUD STORAGE FOR VARIOUS REASONS and was disappointed to FIRST discover there is no way on my local app to disable that Cloud uploads of my clips.
SECOND, that Wyze did not give me a backup on the setup process – and when I did click through they instantly reinstated a Cloud service I specifically told them I did not want.
MY POINT:
I need to request Wyze Billing delete my Credit Card information so it can’t happen again.
A CHECKLIST TO HOW TO CANCEL CAM PLUS IN THE FAQ would be greatly appreciated…
I have not setup a new Wyze camera in quite some time. You use to be able to close the Wyze App when you get to the CamPlus trial. Restart the App to continue setting up the camera and no longer be asked about the free trial.
still didn’t stop my new CamPlus from activating – and my motion Event clips are still going to the Cloud…
StevenA >> You use to be able to close the Wyze App when you get to the CamPlus trial. Restart the App to continue setting up the camera and no longer be asked about the free trial.
Yep, that’s the way (I did it setting up my Wyze other v4 cams) – there should be a functional Back option or better yet a No Thanks or Skip option to move forward
commonsense would suggest Wyze has my CC on file and used it (edit added): to authenticate their agreement because users cannot enroll in Wyze’s CamPlus service without a CC to auto bill after their free 30 day trial ends
I will call them Monday and pose the question to their billing dept…
Typically new cams come with a 14 day trial that will cancel itself automatically without ever charging. If the trial is 1 month or more it means it came bundled with a full charging license that had x amount of time waived or credited (and don’t cancel themselves automatically like the 2 week trials do).
I’m not sure how the cameras were ordered in this case, but I do know that some cameras come bundled with x months of full Cam Plus included. Sometimes it’s selected on the website at checkout and in some cases (such as some that are bought at the home Depot, or sometimes online on the website too) they have included a full cam plus license for 1 month or 3 months or 6 months or 12 months included with the camera, and that promotion is tied to the camera’s Mac address, so it automatically subscribes when you first activate the camera. For these, it’s usually not related to Wyze having your credit card or anything, it’s simply that You either left it checked during checkout that you wanted 30 days of cam plus with each camera, or bought a camera that had cam plus tied to the MAC address. In these cases, you can’t tell wyze to never add cam plus to your account, because you either told them to do it when you checked out, or you bought a camera that has a license already tied to the camera Mac address. So in these cases where you get a cam plus license that is one month or longer, the only option is to manually go and cancel cam plus after you activate the camera. You can’t tell anybody to just not add it anymore because it’s tied to the camera, not necessarily the account.
For most cameras that are set up, should just add a 2-week trial, which isn’t a full license and will automatically cancel itself. If the free trial is one month or longer, it’s actually a full license that has a temporary credit and these have to be actively canceled. You also sometimes can’t tell it to not add the full license because it’s linked to the Mac address.
I’ve had several of both kinds. Of course, things do change over time. So it’s always possible things have or will change.
Sorry, I know that’s not necessarily the answer everybody wanted to hear. I’m just trying to explain how it works. Don’t shoot the messenger.
If you purchase a cam from the WYZE web site remove the default check mark in the box for Cam Plus which I think is total
If not read the fine print: This is from the V4 purchase page
I purchased my v4 cams from amazon-com in Nov 2024
I do not recall seeing opt in/out check boxes for the free 30-day Cam Plus offer that came with each of my cams
when i set up each cam in the app, I carefully avoided Cam Plus – specifically because I wanted to see how the app worked – the app actually does everything I need with a microsd card in continuous video recording
and i don’t want my stuff on a cloud server for any number of reasons
but in learning the app – and seeing how the unit works with an SD card – i worked through a lot of confusion with the 5-minute Cool Down after a motion alert, for example – the required Cam Plus to unlock features was coming across to me as a big sell for the Cam Plus
on my third v4 cam – I took the free 30-day tryout offer through the app after I had three cams running – but quickly cancelled it (via phone support and the app) when I learned I could not turn off Cloud recording (a deal breaker)
further – when I took the free Cam Plus deal on my 3rd cam through the app – I had to provide my credit card and authorize automatic monthly billing at the end of the free 30-day period (cancel anytime after that)
i will add sometimes those deals are hard and time consuming to actually cancel and stop the auto billing from reoccurring
NOW MY ORIGINAL QUESTION WAS TWO FOLD
1) a step-by-step process in the app to CANCEL the Cam Plus contract – level two support had me checking boxes in several places and he even checked a few on his end to try and stop my video from uploading to Wyze servers – it appeared to work until I couldn’t get past (or back out of) the Cam Plus deal during the initial setup of my 4th cam which StevenA explained above (and the way I did it on my first three set ups)
2) delete my CC information from my account – which tc10 explained above – except wyze billing appears to have entered me into a new Cam Plus contract on a CC i had deleted from my account about a week ago – this is concerning
i like these cameras – i just want to move on and know my information remains exclusive on my local drives
excuse me for repeating myself, i’m trying to stay on track
Not something us fellow users can answer. You’d need to contact Wyze billing/support. However if you have no payment method on file, you’re just in your initial free trial period, it will cancel itself or you can go into your account and delete the cam. The “plus” trial for the cam will expire at the end of the term but in the meantime nothing will upload.
The only option here is to just cancel the subscription after activation because the camera has it built in to include the subscription automatically. It’s part of the bundle. Since it is part of the selected bundle, it is forced to activate it (see the disclaimer that says “Activation Required, Cancel Anytime”. But it can be canceled manually. It will only do this the first time you set it up.
So in this case it’s less of a Cam Plus “Trial” than it is “Cam Plus Included” with the first month free.
>> the camera has it built in to include the subscription automatically.
i dont think thats correct
the subscription doesnt activate until i click an agree button AND provide billing information – it is easy to opt out of the 30-day Cam Plus offer – just dont give wyze your billing info
and don’t get caught in a set-up trap you cant back out of or move forward – just quit the app and restart it
>> So in this case it’s less of a Cam Plus “Trial” than it is “Cam Plus Included” with the first month free.
>> p2788deal If you are still on Cam Plus trial, you can stop cloud recording at any time by turning off “Setting->Event Recording->Motion”.
2 tech support missed that big time – because cloud recording is the complaint and how to turn it off was the question – i will try your suggestion and watch if it affects my microSD behavior – my first instinct was it would
dave27 Not something us fellow users can answer. You’d need to contact Wyze billing/support. … The “plus” trial for the cam will expire at the end of the term but in the meantime nothing will upload.
yes on the billing call
I can see i am currently uploading to the Cloud in EVENTS> RECENT EVENTS (bottom row of icons in mobile app) – i do believe those are stored on the cloud – the 1st tech agent couldn’t tell me where they were playing from (local or cloud), but I am pretty sure the 2nd level tech confirmed motion clips in Recent Events are playing from cloud storage…
i had these checked enabled on my initial setups:
Setting->Advanced Setting->Record to MicroSD Card
Setting->Event Recording->Motion
those settings give me a TimeLine with a green Motion icon (on the SD card)
on the v4 cam with the CamPlus active:
those settings give me a Motion icon with a corresponding 10 second-plus clip in Events> Recent Events (on the wyze cloud server)
common sense in a User Interface would suggest turning off Setting->Event Recording->Motion would disable Motion icons on BOTH SDcard and Cloud
curious – I just did the test (turned off Setting->Event Recording->Motion) on the v4 cam with the CamPlus active
results – now I do not see any Motion icons on either SDcard timeline or Cloud events
my point:
I don’t think disabling Setting->Event Recording->Motion is a fix for disabling motion clips IF you want Motion alerts in the SDcard timeline (like me)
You never get any alert for SD recording. What you’re getting is alert from the server that an image was created on the server, that corresponds to a clip recorded on the SD card.
Not all SD card recording, however, would have an image alert. This is what cooldown is about.
You never get any alert for SD recording. What you’re getting is alert from the server that an image was created on the server, that corresponds to a clip recorded on the SD card.
i don’t write in this forum enough to get the terminology exact or fully understand what some are talking about – I think I know what you mean but I’m not using wyze cloud server and I have wyse notifications turned off on my iPhone
“alert” in my context was an icon in the SDcard timeline alerting me to a motion event
the “5-minute cooldown” is a real mysterious reference in wyze’s owner’s manual – it was the main reason i originally activated CamPlus on one of my v4 cams – to see how it affected continuous recording on the SDcard, if I would still have 5-minute gaps inbetween event icons in my timeline
in 24/7 Continuous Recording video to my SD card the video recording never actually pauses – we still get the uninterrupted “continuous” recording – what we do NOT get is another motion icon until five minutes has passed (from my limited observations)
what that means is I have to watch 5 minutes of video in real time to see if any other events happened between motion icons – I can’t even speed up playback or scrub the timeline – I have to sit there and patiently observe in real time speed for 5 minutes to see what’s there
what purpose this locked confusing 5-minute cooldown feature serves wyze I don’t want to speculate or knock them for making a buck
but in traditional security camera software I have used – the continuous timeline shows motion events in a progress “bar style” that continues until the motion stops in the frame – the icon alerts seen counter intuitive
further – the ability to scrub the playhead across the timeline is another missing feature sorely limiting use of the wyze app in my preferred workflow
i’m not knocking the v4 cams – I am just trying to figure them out
As already mentioned, even if you completely delete your Cam Plus subscription, some data is still uploaded. These are cloud cams, and they will use the cloud no matter what. If you want a closed circuit system, this isn’t the setup for you.
I believe if you delete all cams from your subscription they won’t actually retain any of your videos going forward, simply forward you a still frame of the event via their servers, but I can’t say for sure. Mine certainly do not appear to be uploading video clips when I’ve monitored bandwidth but I wasn’t specifically trying to catch what happens after each “event”.
If your cams are indoors or in places that are “sensitive” then I agree, you do not want Wyze or any other cloud based camera in those spots. You should look at alternatives that do not require any internet to function (then you can set up remote access or a VPN so you can watch them securely while away). My Wyze cams are all outdoors or pointed at entry doors where I’m not concerned with who might see the video.
