I have 4 of the version one cameras that have been working since November 2020. All 4 are currently on cam plus lite for free $0.00 and they will show person detection since that is the only available Smart Detection. Everything else is shown on the events page as motion event, cats, dogs, vehicles, trees shadows, birds, squirrels and everything that sets it off. It does tag some of the raccoons and possums a people though 
If you have cam plus Lite put an SD card in the base and the events are backed up there also. You can also do Scheduled event recording to the SD card along with cloud recording. Set it for the max of 30 days, MOTION ONLY, no cooldown and a video duration up to 5 min for each event. You can view what it recorded via the app album. You can also set the cam for continuous recording on scheduled recording but you will need to charge the battery every 5 hours or so if lucky, not worth the trouble.
3 Likes
Thanks, That explains why I was not able to sign up for Lite: I activated the trial subscription.
1 Like
If you want the cam to be on Cam Plus Lite, be sure to cancel the Cam Plus subscription before the expiration date. It will not expire, it will auto renew as a monthly Cam Plus and start billing you.
You, kind sir, are a life saver!
I had no idea that I literally had to use āSchedule a recordingā. To me, that meant it was just recording all the time. But that little switch in there that says āMotion Onlyā versus āContinuousā made me eyes light up really fast! AHA!
Iām all set now. Iāve āScheduled a recordingā for 30 days, motion only, and no cooldown with a maximum video time of 5 minutes. Whew!!! These cameras donāt SUCK a XXXXXXXXXX as much as I thought.
Now, one last question. Even though I did select ānoneā for the cooldown period does that mean that once recording is triggered by motion it will never stop recording? I had better get that one right or itās just the same as āContinuous Recordingā.
And on the opposite side of the coin, if I selected 5 minutes for the maximum video will it record that long if no motion is happening for most of the video? In other words, if a car flashes by for all of 2 seconds, I donāt think I need a 5 minute video for that. Iād better go set the maximum video time to 30 seconds and a cooldown period of 1 minute.
Iām scared Iāll fill up my SDXC card if I donāt do it this way.
1 Like
When the SD card gets filled up, the app will erase the oldest videos and start recording the newer ones. It runs into continuous loop. I have five cameras set to record continuously on SD card and never had to move a finger about filling the cards.
1 Like
Thatās a wonderful feature of the software but the thing is I also donāt want to be recording āDead Airā. I guess thatās a radio term but you know what I mean. And I donāt want to record āDead Airā because flash devices have a limited number of writes to each block before they are marked as non-eraseable.
So, I want to use my SDXC flash devices as wisely and efficiently as I can to make them 1) give me only what I need and 2) last as long as possible.
The camera only records when it detects motion. If you set 5 min. max duration and the motion last for 5 minutes which never happens in my case it will record the 5 min. Set for 5 min and the motion last for 45 seconds you get a 45 second video. I wouldnāt worry about filling a 128GB SD card on a battery powered cam. I have them in my V3 cams and one in a V3 Pro and it records 24/7 and doesnāt get full for about 10-11 days before write over.
Scheduled recording in the album look like this. You need to tap the download icon on the picture to view the video, it will also be saved to your phone/device photo-video album automatically.
2 Likes
Yep, Iām getting multiple video recordings already because I live on a half-way busy street. Not dead, not crazy. But yeah, Iām very happy with these cameras now that you poked me into the right directions. It was just a matter of understanding the functions of the software.
You should read everything on the link I posted about the cam features, and this:
2 Likes
While that is true, particularly with āHigh enduranceā cards (what you should be using), itās not really that big of an issue. Also note that larger capacity cards will overwrite the same block less often.
I currently have 38 operational Wyze cameras of six different types. All have uSD cards and all are set to continuous recording. Until recently my standard has been SanDisk 64GB High Endurance cards. I have had a few cards fail - mostly non High endurance cards from before I started using the HE cards. Iāve only had one HE card fail. I recently changed the cards in my truck cameras to 256GB cards because I wanted to make sure I retained data longer.
Yeah, Iām not using high endurance cards at all here, but have older smaller sd cards that Iāve no longer any use for so they get used up here lol. As that happens, larger ones will get swapped in.
Works better for me then paying extra for high endurance cards and having sd cards sitting wasting away.
It sort of depends on your needs. If you are recording for security and want a better chance of having a recording when you need it, high endurance cards are important.
1 Like
Is that just because they provide more write cycles before they wear out? Is that really an issue? They fill up and then drop the oldest video to make space for more. And theyāre good for thousands of writes so that means theyād have to fill all the way up thousands of times before it would become an issue (unless you delete whatās on there and have it start over). Sort of built-in wear leveling.
High Endurance cards are especially designed for continuous recordings to surveillance cameras and car dash cameras. Regular cardās wonāt last six months.
2 Likes
3 of 5 experts agree (I made no formal count.) 
I bought several Wyze cameras. One just broke down after 12 months for no reason at all. Iām sick of Wyze and their insistence on monthly fees for almost nothing. Iām not buy any product or service from them again. Itās NOT a value.
Hey Joseph, bummer, which cam broke? Mounted indoors or out?