Apologies if this has been asked but why do the cameras not work via the local network when the internet is down? IMO this day and age that’s ridiculous. Is it all to keep us locked into the app and or their service? Is there a way to jailbreak this? Thanks in advance
These are cloud (internet) cameras, authentication is done against Wyze servers on the web to ensure you are a valid user and protect you from hackers. Various features other than authentication also require the internet to work. You would need a “closed circuit” system if you want it to work offline.
To put it another way, there is no “server” in the camera. All of that functionality is done by a central Wyze server and the camera just provides a fairly dumb video feed and some other limited functionality.
I believe you can run them standalone using RTSP, at least on the ones that support that feature (currently v3 and Panv3 I believe, with others in the works). Though I’m not 100% sure, I believe once you have RTSP set up and running, it should continue to work and stream to your RTSP server even when the internet is down. So essentially your RTSP client/server becomes the server instead of Wyze, telling the cam what to do and where to send the video stream.
This appears to be correct. At least when I tested it just now on my LAN this is what I experienced. I tested with RTSP enabled on a Cam Pan v3 and made sure I was able to view the Cam’s live stream in both the Wyze app and VLC media player. Then at the router I used parental controls to turn off that Cam’s Internet access. I also cleared the in-app cache, closed the app, and re-launched it. When I did that, the app said that the Cam was offline. Despite that, I was still able to close and re-open VLC and reconnect to the Cam’s live stream multiple times.
I also tested by physically disconnecting the router from the ONT and had similar results. When I did that, all of my Cams were offline in the Wyze app, but I could still connect locally to the Cam Pan v3 with RTSP and stream that feed.
Bummer appears the firmware files have been removed. I don’t know, to me, seems silly this day and age the cams should be able to function locally if internet is out or not accessible. Without a “diy” work around.
Not sure why you keep saying “in this day and age”. This day and age is what brought about the concept of IOT (INTERNET Of Things) devices that rely on the internet to function, and thus significantly reduce the cost.
The RTSP firmware for v3 and Panv3 is readily available, if you’re running the latest firmware and app you should already have the feature available.