I’ve had two cameras, a motion sensor and door sensor that have been working flawlessly for months. Last night, the motion detector and door sensor stopped reporting any events. The first thing I would normally try to fix this, would be to unplug/replug the camera with the sensor module. But I can’t do that because it is remote, in my mom’s senior living center apartment, that is totally locked down to all visitors due to the stupid coronavirus panic. Mom has dementia, and would not be able to reboot the camera or report the status of any lights on the back of it as it reboots. Let alone put it back where it needs to be, aimed appropriately.
Is there anything I can do to fix this remotely? I do not want to risk something that might wipe out the camera feeds, which are still working currently.
I was very happy with Wyze stuff. But wouldn’t you know it? Just when you really really need it, it fails. Not very happy with it at the moment.
This is a wild a&& guess … the sensors are connected to a “bridge” that is connected to a camera.
You cant “restart” the sensor, but you can Restart the [associated] camera … that’s what I’d try. (choose camera, Settings gear icon → Restart Device at bottom)
The problem is, I don’t know if this is my hardware, the Wyze servers/database, or the app on my phone. If others are not reporting the problem, that makes it less likely to be a problem on the Wyze servers. The app on my phone seems OK, I can access the cameras and get a live feed. They are also detecting and reporting motion in the app. So my strong assumption is it’s my hardware. But it’s pretty hard to troubleshoot/repair without physical access to the hardware.
Understood. But what if the camera does not successfully connect to WiFi on the first try? I have had that happen in my presence. Usually it will connect on the second attempt, but I am there to pull the power to initiate that second attempt. If I’m remote only, as I am now, I only get one shot. I don’t trust the Wyze camera enough to attempt a remote reboot unless it’s the absolutely last option. In normal circumstances, I would attempt the reboot and if it failed, I’d just drive over there and fix it. But now, under lockdown of the facility, I don’t have that option.
I have restarted the camera with the app in the past, remotely, and it always reconnected. I did this when a Wyze bulb went offline because of its distance from the bridge. That brought it back online. I’m sure notifications are important to you, then you have to weigh your options. As I mentioned, rebooting the camera from the app has never caused the camera to fail to connect to WiFi. This may sound obvious, but have you checked to see if universal notifications are turned on in the app as wellas the camera’s notifications?
It is not just notifications that are not firing off, events from the sensors are not showing up in the Event List, and that is not something that you have to enable. With no events being logged in the first place, I would not expect any notifications.
I will probably just have to bite the bullet and try a remote reboot. Normally I wouldn’t even blink an eye at doing this. But in the current situation, where I cannot physically access the camera/bridge for a local reboot and troubleshooting, I am hesitant to potentially nuke the more important camera while trying to fix the less import sensors.
FWIW, the Wyze cams runs an operating system (Linux) like a desktop computer that runs Windows or MacOS or Linux. Performing a soft reboot of a Wyze is no different than a soft reboot of a PC or Mac … as in System menu → Reboot (and we all know, a Windows machine needs to be rebooted all the time). It’s not like the Wyze is gonna power off as with a Shutdown on a PC / Mac
I appreciate your responses. You appear to be insulted that I did not immediately run off and remotely reboot the camera on your suggestion. That response, I don’t understand. I am soliciting feedback from others here as well as from you, to get a feel for if they have had problems with their WyzeCams not reconnecting to WiFi on the first attempt. I have had such problems with the WyzeCam myself on occasion. And it’s not because I am ignorant or technically illiterate. My entire work career, since 1980, has been Unix (then Linux) system administration and systems programming, networking, computer security, etc. I really do have quite in-depth knowledge and experience with operating systems, routers, WiFi and most things that relate to WyzeCam operation.
However, I still have pause about doing a remote reboot because of demonstrable problems I have personally had with the WyzeCam in the past. And also because of my decades of experience at work having “remote things” go bad.
So now I am indecisive about exactly what to do. Should I gamble, or should I play it safe? I have a critical need to monitor my mom, who has dementia, in a remote setting that I do not have physical access to any more. And I must use the hardware that I chose and installed (Wyze), even if in retrospect that may not have been the most stellar decision of my life. I am not knocking Wyze. It is extremely good for what it is. But you have to remember what it is, and I did not. $50 worth of hardware falls into the hobbiest/toy category, but due to my own error in judgement, I put it to use in a more critical application. My choice to use Wyze was just fine for a long time … right up until [I was] denied physical access to it to fix problems. I am solely responsible for putting myself into this situation, and I’m just trying to find a way out of it.
I appreciate your responses. They are helpful. Thanks.
Understood. And we have similar backgrounds - me as a software engineer and site reliability engineer, and published author of a number of programming and OS books.
My wife purchased two Wyze cams with the sensor pack and installed them at her mom’s (80s) house to keep an eye on her … and we’ve been through this exact same scenario. Yes, a working camera is more important than a sketchy sensor. Maybe a trusted neighbor can walk over and be of “physical assistance” to bounce the Wyze gear. (not a workable solution because of lockdown)
I have had a rule that resets all my cameras every night.
I had the same issues that you are having where my sensors all dropped connection. Once I reset my one camera with the bridge, they came back. I then made the reset rule, and included all my cameras. Never had an issue with them not coming back online.
@jwt, forum shows this top part is to you, it’s actually info for the group, the bottom quote is for you.
i have 1 wyze camera which for 7 months worked flawlessly also strangly went offline. i power cycled it multiple times, and it still wont reconnect. i can hear it clicking during the powercycle so i know its powering.
my option is to wait further to see if it is a wyze server issue or reset the camera.
i dread pressing the reset button and going through the setup again as it has a bridge & 12 sensors configured to it (along with a myrad of ITFFF actions)
does anyone know if i pressing reset button on the camera to reconnect a camera will lose the sensor names connected to its bridge? or can some kind soul with an extra camera/bridge try this please? thanks
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