Ever since the web view update in March, I am getting data overage warnings from Xfinity. Is this happening to anyone else? It is directly connected to leaving web view on during the day, which I have always done and I have never gotten these warnings before. Why is it using so much data now?
I can’t say this definitively (and I’m not speaking on behalf of Wyze…mostly just hypothesizing), but when Wyze first launched the Web Portal it was using Amazon Kinesis and went through the internet and cost Wyze money per live stream being used. This was the primary justification for limiting it to the subscribers.
Later they started offering 1 camera to stream free to free users. Around this time, someone was reporting that it was no longer using internet data for them and they think Wyze figured out how to make it connect locally if you were on the same network so they could save money. I didn’t confirm this myself, but others reported they were able to use mostly local data connections using the web portal, so it’s likely true.
If it’s now back to going through the internet, something must have changed with the new updates to work that way again. Either that, or it’s struggling to recognize your cameras and your device as being on the same network now for some reason (others may have a different experience depending on various factors). Also, it could just be coincidence and not related to Wyze. Are you certain someone in your house isn’t using more data with something? Did you actually check the router logs to see that the Wyze cams are definitely using lots of external data?
(For what it’s worth, my Wyze cams use a TON of data because I have a lot that are constantly uploading video events. In the last 30 days my Wyze cams have used 70.2GB down and 2.18 TB uploaded!!! and that’s with no web portal use in the last 30 days. My router tells me exactly how much bandwidth is used by each device).
But everything I said is just speculation and in some cases based on hearsay. I have not confirmed any of that myself. I only use the webportal intermittently. But if it’s back to going through the internet for sure instead of dynamically deciding if it can connect locally vs externally, then you might want to be careful since you have a bandwidth cap.
You could also turn down the resolution on the camera to reduce the amount uploaded.