You do not have to pay, you can put in an amount of zero
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I’m not understanding how the feature request of disable cloud but keep push notifications has been launched? Is it not true that the thumbnails are stored in the cloud? If the thumbnails of events are stored in the cloud, then how can the cloud be considered disabled?
As long as anything is being uploaded to the cloud, whether it’s a video or a thumbnail, then I think this feature request still stands and shouldn’t be marked as launched.
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Yea same, cloud still seems like a requirement here sadly
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Also in agreement with you there Ree. Notifications only generate from the server side Event Videos (when they work)…ie Cloud. With Event Recording off…but SD Card recording on…ie No Cloud, there are no notifications.
Trying to track down source of upload bandwidth consumption and I think I’m down to my Wyzecams, which I use no cloud services for. However, they are all enabled to record events to local SD cards. Does this imply that it’s streaming data to the cloud? Why would that be?
Welcome to the Wyze User Community Forum @jeremyenos! 
Even when not recording and uploading video, the cams will communicate minimally with the cloud servers on startup and occasionally when reestablishing lost communication.
If you have the Event Recording settings “Record Motion Events” or “Record Sound Events” enabled in the Cam Settings, it is uploading video to the cloud. These Events are found in the Events Tab.
With those settings disabled, except for the possibility of user rules generated uploads, there should be no upload bandwidth used except for the initial startup sequence.
Thanks for the rapid reply. I guess I’ll have to disable event recording if it has to send to the cloud, which I don’t understand, but I believe you. Why wouldn’t the camera, on detected motion, just record the event locally to the SD card? This makes no sense to me why enabling that would force cloud upload.
Micro SD Card Recording and Cloud Event Recording are two separate and independent functions set in two different settings menus. The Event Recording menu mentioned above is only for the Cloud Events uploaded to the server and shown in the Events tab.
The micro SD Card recording settings are in a different place. To enable the micro SD Card Recording go to the Advanced Settings menu in the Cam Settings. Enable Record to micro SD. Choose either Continuous Recording or Motion Events. These videos will be accessed from the “Playback” button at the bottom of the Live Stream page.
UPDATE
When your phone is using the same WiFi as the cam, viewing the Live Stream or microSD Card recordings will not adversely affect your bandwidth. After the initial connection, these are maintained locally thru a Peer to Peer connection on your local WiFi.
If you live stream or view SD Card Playback footage from another network or from mobile cellular, the cams will be sending that video thru the internet to your phone and they will use upload bandwidth.
When viewing Cloud Event Video in the Events tab while on your WiFi, you are also using download bandwidth from the servers.
I could have sworn I just enabled micro SD motion event recording, but I’ll have to double check to be sure when I next am able to. I thought the motion detect in the cloud was a paid (or free trial after cam install) service only though. I’m quite certain I’m not paying nor am I in a trial period, so that wouldn’t make sense either. I’ll know more after I review the configs.
Yes. If there is no subscription, the cam will upload a thumbnail snapshot upon motion rather than a video, wait 5 minutes, and then wait for the next upload. There are, however, exceptions to this if you are using sound detection uploads.