Format Failed: Wyze Battery Cam Pro - 256GB SanDisk Ultra MicroSDXC UHS-1 not compatible?

Cameras
, , , ,
1
  • Wyze Battery Cam Pro
  • Firmware: 1.4.2.3615
  • 256GB SanDisk Ultra MicroSDXC UHS-1 (Speed up to 150 MB/s) (Class 10 rating)

I have four Battery Camera Pros, all four recognize a Wyze branded 32 GB MicroSD card. I’m working with two of the four cameras for this issue (haven’t tried the other two as they are in service)

If I remove the 32 GB MicroSD, and insert the 256GB SanDisk Ultra MicroSDXC UHS-1, the two camera’s I’m trying to initially setup, do not recognize the card has been installed.

If I re-insert the Wyze 32 GB MicroSD, the two camera’s immediately recognize the 32 GB MicroSD.

If I select “Eject MicroSD Card”, then physically eject the 32 GB card, then insert the 256GB Sandisk MicroSDXC card, The 256 GB card is recognized, but shows as 0G/0G and the “Format” button is available.

I select Format, and it then displays as 0.00G/29.54G. odd…

I back out of that, and select “Manage MicroSD Card” again and it’s now showing 0.00G/238.30G

All is well, or so I thought.

I went back to check that both Camera’s were seeing the 256GB SanDisk Ultra MicroSDXC and sadly I was back to: “no microSD card found” on both cameras.

I’ve tried formatting both 256GB SanDisk Ultra MicroSDXC cards to FAT32 with free version of AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard , and also tried formatting with the SD Memory Card Formatter for Windows and still no love from the Wyze Battery Cam Pro with these 256GB SanDisk Ultra MicroSDXC UHS-1 cards.

Am I doing something wrong, or is this a known issue?

SJ

MicroSD Card Recommendations from Viofo.com
2

Are you sure the cards are legit? 256G should be no problem, but if they report 256 and are really 8 faked as 256, that will cause problems. Same will happen if the card is legit but starting to die.

Run it through the sdcard.org formatter again but do a full overwrite format.

exFAT file system is fine, no need to use any utility to force FAT32, that might actually cause problems.

3

I purchased four of these yesterday new in the unaltered packaging from from MicroCenter in Tustin, CA

SanDisk 256GB Ultra MicroSDXC Class 10 / U1 / A1 Flash Memory Card with Adapter

So, I can only assume they are legit, the format, and play nice with my Windows 11 system without issue.

I actually did full overwrite format of one of the MicroSDXC cards with the SDcard formatter as a part of my troubleshooting, and same result, not recognized by the Wyze Battery Cam Pro.

SJ

4

Strange, it should have no issue with the 256GB card, but I would make sure it is formatted to exFAT, forcing FAT32 on a card larger than 32GB may confuse the cam.

Perhaps the card reader is partly faulty in the cam and it can recognize standard SD but not SDXC.

5

Grabbed one of my V4 Camera’s inserted another of these microSD cards, fresh out of the packaging, and the V4 recognizes it with no issue, I then formatted it in the V4, ejected it, inserted in the Wyze Cam Pro, card is recognized, but showing 0G/0G. Selected 'Format button, and as it’s done every time in the Wyze Pro Cam Pro: Format Failed

If someone at Wyze cares to investigate this further:

Log ID: 1757176

I can recreate this issue on multiple Wyze Battery Cam Pros

SJ

6

What happens if you format using sd card formatter and then put it in the BCP directly and don’t format it again? Same thing?

7

Hello dave27, yes, I did that per my first message in an attempt to get the Wyze Battery Cam Pro to recognize this specific MicroSDXC card.

I have four Wyze Battery Cam Pro’s, and four 256GB SanDisk Ultra MicroSDXC cards. I haven’t been able to get any of them to be recognized properly in any of the cameras.

And to answer your question, I went ahead and formatted the card using SD Formatter, and it shows 0G/0G, not 0.01G/238.23G as I’ve seen it actually show sometimes, but it never maintains recognizing the card.
SJ

8

Others have used 256G cards in that cam so it might need to be warranty swapped.

Did you do the firmware update that was just released a couple days ago? Wonder if the firmware is corrupted and maybe updating it would fix it?

9

I’m on Firmware 1.4.2.3615, and the camera states:

“Everything’s good, your updated”

10

Yeah, that’s the latest. Is it within warranty?

11

I guess I’ll contact Wyze Support (not looking forward to that Interaction), and see what they say about my Four Battery Cam Pro’s all having the same issue with the quantity of four of these MicroSDXC cards.

When I get a change today, I’ll round robin the four cards through the four Battery Cam Pro’s to see if I can get any of them to actually format.

My goal of placing one of the 256G MicroSDXC in the V4, was to verify the cards actually would function in something other than the Battery Cam Pro. (which it did), and if I could format one in the V4, then place it in the Battery Cam Pro, perhaps that would resolve my issue (It did not)

SJ

12

Sorry I thought it was just one BCP. If all 4 do it, unlikely they’re defective, unless they all experienced some sort of power surge or bad charger damaged them all, etc.

Just seems odd that I’ve seen others in here with 256G and I believe even 512G cards in them. :man_shrugging:

13

@CatHome - Suggest you upgrade to a High Endurance MicroSDXC I - U3 - C10 - V30 card. I also have 4 BCP’s and would not use any lesser card.

14

The Sandisk Ultra, while not technically high endurance, are very good cards and shouldn’t have any issue being recognized or keeping up with the slow speed these cams record at. They might last 10 years instead of 15 (or more likely will last about the same as their endurance cards). They are basically what you got before Endurance cards even existed. I still use them in my dash cams and they’re over 10 years old at this point.

Assuming @CatHome didn’t get counterfeit cards (which I believe they already confirmed they were straight from Micro Center and tested fine), would be very surprised if these cards were all bad.

Can you confirm if your cards are 256G or larger?

15

Actually just read back through, and honestly it seems the glitch may be that the cam is expecting the old 32G card for some reason.

Have you tried factory resetting one of the cams? Maybe some sort of glitch where once it sees a FAT32 or standard SD (non SDXC) it gets “stuck”?

If a factory reset alone doesn’t fix it maybe do it again but this time delete it from the app first and set it up from scratch, in case the app is somehow the one with the issue (but that seems less likely than the cam itself having the bug).

The only common denominator seems to be that with all the cams you had 32GB in them for a while then tried to switch to 256.

EDIT to note - for “phase 1” test, don’t delete the cam from the app, just remove the SD card, factory reset the cam, then go through setup and name it the same thing in the app, that way it saves your settings. I don’t think it matters whether you put the card in before or after going through setup again. I’d say probably just put it back in right after the factory reset before doing setup, but I don’t think it should matter either way.

16

That is wild. A great find if true.

17

@dave27 - I agree the SanDisk Ultra’s are good cards and have used them some of my cams. However, for later cams like v3 pro, v4, bcp, cam pan v3, db v2 & duo and floodlight v2, high endurance is way to go to avoid issues in my experiences. Also I have gone from 64 to 128 to 256 in the same cam and never had the problem you theorized.

18

All the cams record at about the same rate, no reason the later ones would need anything different than the older ones. Yes endurance rated cards are best, but in reality the Ultra should be pretty much equivalent, and certainly even if there was a big difference, a brand new card should be recognized and work fine.

But not from 32GB, which is where it changes to SDXC and exFAT (not to mention it may not have been on the same firmware as OP).

19

That is a fair statement. I had to check the cams still in use that I only used 32gb cards, v2’s and cam pan v2 and they are still on 32gb cards. All other cams including v3 and OG I didn’t list before are 128gb and 256gb. Admittedly, none had 32gb installed that I can recall (age is a factor at this stage of my life) :smile:

20

I removed all of the 256GB SanDisk Ultra MicroSDXC UHS-1 cards from the Wyze Battery Cam Pro’s and will use them in the 3 V4’s that appear to be less persnickety at being able to recognize, format, and still recognize them.

After opting to try to use these two cards:

image
image271×456 56.5 KB

Guess which one exhibited the very same behavior as the other Red and Grey Sandisk Ultra Plus card

So, I’m guessing the Wyze Cam Pro just doesn’t care for the colors Red, and Grey in that ratio… :slight_smile:

the Gold and Black 128GB SanDisk ImageMate PRO, was not a problem…

I’m done fighting on this one.

I give up.

done.

I tossed in the 128GB and a 64GB card in the second one, and will live with that for now.

SJ