I have three Wyze Outdoor Cams. The batteries always lasted months. After updating to firmware 4.17.1.027 and base station firmware 4.16.1.13 and switching to WiFi connection for basestation, batteries on all three only last one or two days with only a few events recorded. Switched to firmware 4.17.1.001 and then to 4.17.0.186 with the result being the same fast battery drain on all three. I just changed the base station back to Ethernet from WiFi to see if that has any effect. Next I will switch to older base station firmware. Anyone else having this problem? Still troubleshooting, but it takes time and I was hoping others might have seen this and have solutions.
I have 4 outdoor cams running 4.17.1.027 and base on 4.16.113 and the battery use has not changed and some of the cams get numerous events every day. I have my base on ethernet and 3 of the 4 cams have 3 full bars wi-fi and the 4th cam has two full bars. No problems here. How is the wi-fi signal to your cameras and are you using cam plus? My cams are all on cam +
My WiFi signal is very strong on one of the Outdoor Cams. Not strong on the other two. But the same problem occurred on all three cams at the same time after the upgraded firmware and switch to WiFi on the base. I do not have cam+ on any of those three outdoor cams because the event usage is very low. I switched to WiFi on the base so that I could move it closer to the two outdoor cams with weaker signals. That is why I am now switching back to Ethernet connection as an experiment.
To be clear, I did not move the base to a different location after I switched to WiFi. I planned to move it later.
I think going back to the ethernet on the base is a good idea. If that improves things maybe you can purchase a wi-fi range extender to help you get a better signal to the other two cams. My furthest cam is about 45 feet away and has 3 full bars. The cam that has 2 bars is in the back of the house and the wi-fi signal is going through 3 walls, one of which has the electrical breaker panel in it but the cam still works good.
Thanks Antonius. I’ll report here once I recharge the batteries and figure out if that works, and report it to support. My base station is about 6 feet from my router. I was planning on moving it closer to the weaker cams, preferably without running Ethernet wiring across my house.
1 Like
Wow to be only lasting 1 to 2 days something is definitely wrong. Sounds to me like they are definitely running the whole time for some reason.
I’m dumping my outdoor cams. Going with v3’s. Sick of battery drain. That Wasserstein solar panel is garbage. It does absolutely nothing and I tried everything. Anyone want some cheap outdoor cams let me know.
I hope my doorbell that finally shipped works good.
I’ve had my 4 outdoor cams up since November 4, 2020. I have charged them one since then and yes they get events everyday, some more than others. I have been through at least 3 versions of firmware and now using the latest 4.16.113 and4.17.1.027. I have them set for event recording on cam plus with a max. video length of 2 min. per video and no cool down time. I have never used them for scheduled event or continuous recording.
I got my first outdoor cam in August 2020, and have charged it 3 times - each time while it was still greater than 35% charge left. The others followed later with similar discharge rates. So this sudden fast discharge at the same time on all three is surprising.
For now they seem OK after switching the base station back to wired Ethernet. But it may be too early to be sure. Tomorrow I’ll know if that is related. Maybe it has something to do with my base station being only about 6 feet from my WiFi router? Will need to do more experimenting, but if keeping the base station wired instead of WiFi is a solution at least I can live with it.
I’m going to take the cam down today and charge it. Then modify the settings as suggested and see if it makes a difference. I love all Wyze products but the outdoor cams have given me some issues. Nothing major, work great but the battery drain has been problematic.
My latest change seems to work. After changing firmware to assorted older versions on the outdoor cams I finally re-installed the latest firmware and simply changed back to an Ethernet cable for the base station instead of WiFi. For now it seems to work and my outdoor cams are holding a charge.
Outdoor Cam firmware version 4.17.1.027
Base Station firmware version 4.16.1.13
Base Station set to Ethernet (not WiFi)
Tomorrow if things are still going well I might move my base station where I really want it closer to several of my cams and switch to WiFi (it would be a pain to run an Ethernet cable there). I’ll report any effects shortly after that.
Final note on this battery drain issue. Yesterday I unplugged my wired Ethernet connection to the Outdoor Cams base station, and went back to WiFi. Battery drain appears to be very low today. I can only assume it was a one time glitch that occurred in the base station after updating to the latest firmware and then connecting via WiFi for the first time. My three Outdoor Cams are working normally now and I am back to WiFi on the base station. In a few days I will move my base station to where I really want it, and I do not expect any more Cam battery drain problems. Just one of those strange things that happens in life. Thanks all for the feedback.
Well that’s good to hear, all of my WCO setup has the latest updates and I’ve had no drain issues. I also have not tried the wireless base which is completely unnecessary in my situation. It makes me think your situation may have had something to do with going wireless that 1st time something did not go right.
I’m having the same problem. The battery drain makes it absolutely unusable.
Same problem here. Battery Drain…equals unusable camera. Lasts maybe three days.
I switched to wifi and the latest update. Maybe that is the problem.
Going to try back on ethernet.
If that doesn’t work, I wasted a good amount of money on this experiment. I had much higher hopes.
How good is the wi-fi signal at the cameras using the base on wi-fi vs. ethernet ? Low signal = battery drain. My signal using the base on ethernet.
I just got the latest update and thought at first that the problem was fixed but unfortunately it’s not. It’s much better then it was but it still drains very quickly and makes it unusable unless I want to take it down and charge it every few days. It’s a pain since it’s up high on the side of my house so I’ll probably have to just stop using it. Very disappointing. Hopefully there is some update yet to come or something… or at the very least they can replace it under warranty if the battery has gone bad maybe…
Three of 4 bars.
I just hooked up to ethernet again. If the battery lasts, then I have my answer.
WiFi not good.
My wifi signal was good but I’m also going to try going back to connecting the base straight to ethernet and see if it helps.