General Remedies to Common Issues

Here are some general remedies to not uncommon issues I see in the Forums, on Reddit and (Shudder) I imagine on Facebook.

Connectivity

All of the Wyze devices require some form of network connection to function. Either direct WiFi connection to a 2.4 GHz WiFi network or a connection to a “bridge” device or hub. With that in mind check your device info page in the app and be sure your device shows a reasonable > 70% connection strength. It may work with less but you WILL have sporadic issues.

Signal strength is primarily affected by distance from the router to the device and/or interference in the frequency band or channel being used. Other things like certain construction materials such as steel and aluminum or dense concrete or ductwork in the walls can also affect the signal.

Consider adding other access points or “nodes” in a mesh environment. Consider your Router or Access Point placement. Higher is usually better. Seek knowledgeable help from Wyze or your local Geek Squad for clearing up interference or weak signals.

Magic Reboot Trick

Believe it or not the old oft used standby of “Turn it off, wait a few seconds and turn it back on” actually works. It works so well that I schedule a reboot for ALL of my cameras twice a day. Especially those cameras that host a Sense Bridge. I personally picked Midnight and Noon as the times I reboot every camera. Since I have done this the issues that I had with my Wyze Sense sensors mysteriously going offline has disappeared entirely.

I extend this magic preventative reboot voodoo to also rebooting the app and my phone. The app once daily, usually the first time I use it on any given day. I am an iOS user so I force close the app. Android has something similar. My phone I reboot once a week. Usually I force close every app running then shut the phone down. I generally wait until the “tinging and pinging” cooling sounds stop and then restart it.

Skills of Lore

We have the fabled electronicafied wizard known as “Alexa” inhabiting our residence. Well actually we share her residence, just ask her. Wait! Better yet just take my word for it. She works very well with many of Wyze’s devices. And we hear tales of other wizards from the land of “Good Googlie Goo” and even Johnny Appleseed being available.

In general these Wizards perform their magic via special spells called ‘skills’ or ‘connections’. In order for these to function well it is a good idea to occasionally club them over the head, then pet them nicely and assure them you were just kidding. In other words unlink and then relink the skills or connections once a month or so. They get lonely and appreciate the attention.

In closing I have found these preventative and restorative steps tend to make living the internet of things dream life smoother and more enjoyable. Give them a try and let me know of any steps or spells you find useful. As always your mileage may vary.

And don’t forget, you always have the ability to summon the powerful sorcerers at Wyze to your aid at need!

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Hum …I use to reboot 3 times a day on V2s with the bridge installed.
Disable that rule/schedule for now, seems that it’s not needed …for me anyway?

I have a contact sensor connected to a bridge of importance that’s integrated with Alexa in our room.
At night I use it so Alexa tell me if the Bridge is online by lifting the magnet off.

… cool post by the way.

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Nice work!
We do a lot of the same things. I’ve been rebooting bridge cams - noon and midnight - also. I’m assuming you mean a full reboot (power cycle) as opposed to a restart from the app. Hadn’t thought about rebooting the phone though. Restarting the app is about a dozen times a day anyhow with switching between the test apps I have.
Fought the wifi battle with a provider box for a year then (hopefully) won by going to a mesh system.
Two other things I always run up the proverbial flagpole are using name brand batteries and a good High Endurance SD card formatted before use with a deep format on a PC, not in the cam. I just think that avoids eventual problems.
Alexa invades-oops - I mean lives at- our house also. We love having her but the dropped linkage is still an issue. Unlinking/relinking helps but it the issues return, sometimes pretty quickly.
Great resource thread!

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Thanks for the positive feedback, and further suggestions! No one fix seems to work for everyone. That said there are some “common sense” solutions to try that should help a lot of folks. But while they may be common sense they are not always obvious.

For devices with batteries I find that a decent multimeter takes a lot of the guess work out of the picture. A cheap but very usable example is below.

AstroAI Digital Multimeter with Ohm Volt Amp and Diode Voltage Tester Meter (Dual Fused for Anti-Burn) Amazon.com

For testing WiFi signal strength there are apps for your phone that you can use but a decent EMF meter capable of testing into the 6GHz bands is pretty expensive. Even one just handling up to 3Ghz is over 100 USD for one that actually works. Better to just hire someone to do a survey and identify dead spots or interference sources.

I have a recording meter that you can leave in one spot for 24 hours and it will track a frequency range sampling many times a second for the 24 hour period. It’s great for finding intermittent sources of interference that come and go like compressor motors. I once found out that the inexpensive electric blanket we used on our bed was generating terrible interference in the 2.4 Gig range when it was on high. We bought a slightly better quality one and no more interference.

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I am quadriplegic and unable to use the remote. I am running my cameras through Alexa onto a flatscreen TV. It was working beautifully at first for a couple weeks. I have been through everything with live tech support on the phone with wyze and Amazon and they cannot figure this out.

Here is what’s happening. When I give the voice command to show a certain camera “Alexa show front door” it goes to that camera with a blurred image in the background and shows that it is loading. Then it disappears from the TV screen.

Then when I give the same command it finally works. I have eight cameras and they were working beautifully on my PC, phone and flatscreen. I don’t know what happened but now on my TV I have to open each camera twice through Alexa before it will load the live view.

I have tried uninstalling both apps, unlinked, renamed cameras, enabled and disabled the Alexa skill, unplugged everything (TV, cameras, modem etc.)

It’s driving me crazy because I can only access it by voice and I don’t want to have to say it twice each time I want to view a camera. Any suggestions?

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