Most of the users in this forum will be confused by discussion about Channel numbers because while Wyze DOES use channels and channel numbers, they keep it mostly hidden except when someone accesses the Wyze API, which most people don’t do. I am aware of it because I have accessed the Wyze API in many different ways.
I can conclusively say that what is being reported by @tornado_alley @davesmisc and others is totally correct and accurate. WYZE did stop allowing people to alter the channel number when they upgraded to App v3.0 because they changed how the device sorting works. These users are totally correct that it was Wyze who made the change in their GUI. Wyze still assigns and uses a “Channel number” for all their devices, but they no longer allow people to change a device to a different channel number by re-arranging them in the app GUI.
I could probably tell you a lot of things I’ve learned about how Wyze uses their Channel numbers and order, but it’s mostly pointless. For example, we were never able to [easily] change the channel number of the Outdoor Plug because Wyze doesn’t actually allow the device itself to show up on the GUI screen, only the sub-entities of each outlet on the Outdoor plug. So you could move around the Outlet entities, but the Channel number for the plug stayed in place, and the only way I could alter the channel number for it was to Delete a device and set it up again so the new device would bump up to be channel 1 and bump all the others, including the Outdoor Plug, down 1 channel.
The good news is that there are a few solutions to this issue.
- Tiny Cam Specific solution: Ignore channel numbers entirely. Add all your cameras using the UID instead (ie: Camera name, or MAC address). Now things won’t keep messing up every time you add a new camera because the UID never changes. Tiny Cam now sets up cameras this way by default. I highly recommend setting up your cameras again with this new update because it is WAY better to do it this way than with the Channel number which is too easy to keep changing and no longer easy to rearrange.
- You can just install (Sideload) the Wyze App V2.5 on an old phone or on an Android Emulator on a computer or something. Go to APK Mirror, search for the Wyze app. Find a Version that is less than 3.0 (ie: v2.5) and click to download and install that. Make sure you select the REAL download, not the ad spam trying to get you to click it instead (don’t click any that have an X in the top right indicating it’s a fake ad). Once you install that, you can change the order of your devices on the 2.5 app and it will change the channel number that Wyze assigns your device to (The device at the top of the home page is Channel 1, the next device will be channel 2, etc)
- As a sub-option to this, if you want to keep the 3.0 app and don’t have another spare phone or computer…if you have Android 15 your phone possibly has a built in “Private Space” now that is sandboxed from the the primary storage. This Private Space will allow you to install a second Wyze app there so you can run app v3 on the main phone and app v2.5 in the private space sandbox at the same time. Some other phone brands also have their own version of this, but Google just made it available in Android 15, so most people should be able to do this soon if not already.
- You could instead just delete all devices and reinstall all devices in reverse order of the way you want them to show up in channel order. So, whichever device you want to be Channel 1, you will need to setup on the Wyze app LAST. Then never buy and install another Wyze device because if you ever set up any device ever again after that, it will make the newest device channel 1 and the one that was channel 1 will now be channel 2 unless you delete it again and set it up go back above the newest device again to regain the channel 1 spot on Wyze’s server.
Obviously all of those options take a little bit of work, but they are functional workarounds for what is being requested here.
Again, apologies to everyone who felt misunderstood. I do understand what you are talking about and I have long talked to Wyze about how they implement their channel numbers. I have brought it up in AMA events over the years, and I even brought it up this summer in a wishlist request as soon as they launched the App version 3.0:
I thought they didn’t do a great job at converting people’s layout from the 2.5 app to the 3.0 app and suggested they should’ve copied the existing channel order so that people would maintain their same layout when they converted to the new app.
How this affects EVERYONE else right now:
- Channel order is also what decides the order of your cameras on the Web portal, though it seems like the app V3 isn’t always putting the newest camera as channel 1 anymore. I am having some ordered in weird ways now. I have asked Wyze to resolve the Webview order to be better organized and allow us to sort in other ways besides Channel order.
- Channel order is sometimes also used in filters and other lists of devices. This is why it can sometimes be hard to find what you’re looking for in a list of devices because they are sometimes sorted in different ways, such as channel number instead of alphabetically or the order you set them up on for your home page.
If Wyze isn’t going to make it possible to CHANGE the channel order, then they need to stop using it, but the fact is that they DO use it for various ways of sorting and other things and we can’t easily alter it, especially not since they launched the V3.0 app. I have pointed the channel issues out to them in probably a dozen different posts, but have mostly been brushed off.
Most people just aren’t aware of how it’s used, but yes, the above users DO have a point that it is WYZE who made the change and Wyze who uses the channel number, so it is a valid issue to bring up with Wyze, not just 3rd parties because Wyze uses channel number ordering for other things that is contributing the disorganization of their app layout when some things are still sorted by channel number.
Just saying. 