So the Chat for customer support is not up and the call center seems to not understand my questions, so I thought the community my shed light.
I purchased a CamPan v2 years ago installed the SD and was loving it, easy to access event video, and playback. I liked it so much, I went ahead and also bought the outdoor cam and base station a little over a year ago. Which both the cam and base station has SD cards.
I learned quickly that the outdoor camera is not the greatest, it doesn’t catch some events that I know happened, battery life not that great, and I could never access playback, I only had the 12 sec clip (not anymore)
One of the main reasons with purchasing Wyze is that I don’t have to have a subscription, hence the SD cards in the cams! And honestly the SD holds enough recording, I don’t need weeks of recording archives.
I’ve held off on updating the app, but finally was forced to because the app stopped working, after the update my outdoor cam is now useless without a subscription.
So here are my questions:
As someone that doesn’t want a subscription (which Wyze previously didn’t force onto you, but seems too) what I’m I to expect with regards to functionality of my cams moving forward?
The outdoor cam and base station, which both have SD cards, now only show thumbnails of events, I cannot access playback, the SD cards seem not to be recording anything (I cannot access them through the app anyway). Instead it says I have to upgrade to a subscription. Again I would like confirmation, that if I do not choose to get a subscription (I bought these cameras when that was not a requirement) what I’m I to expect?
Since the Wyze business model has changed to subscription based (Again the SD cards which are installed in the cameras will hold enough event footage) Will Wyze refund my my purchases.
How do people access their SD cards without a subscription?
Without a subscription you will see thumbnails in the event tab. I believe if you click on the thumbnail to view it you will be shown a playback button for the camera to access the SD card recordings.
Thanks, but not for the outdoor cam, the playback icon is grayed out. So yes now instead of the 12sec clip I have the thumbnail but again with the playback icon grayed out, Wyze has now made the Camera useless.
If the cam and the base station both have SD cards why are users not allowed not access them? I’m guessing/hoping I’m missing something and that there is a way to view playback from the SD card through the app without a subscription (as it was originally sold)
Now with regard to the indoor CamPan V2 I have, once I click on the thumbnail I can access the playback feature, which is fine and works as it should.
I am not sure if the SD card footage was able to be viewed from the app for the outdoor cam. I have not used an SD card with mine so I have no experience with that. You were likely viewing the footage from the free cloud storage. You can sign up for Cam Plus Lite for $0 and get person detection.
Thanks Rareapple3 but why then would they have the SD card slots.
So for the Cam Plus Lite do you only get the 12 second clips or true playback function? Because it states “Record 12-second Event videos every 5 minutes”, unsure what the even means LOL.
Thanks, I have tried to use the scheduled recordings and travel mode in order to us the SD cards. I had to keep the camera plugged in or the battery dies quick. Also with the recording on it then doesn’t notify me of events. Which then makes the recordings useless since the whole reason is to record when away, or I have watch the entire recording to see what happened.
I’m also afraid if I sign up for the Cam Plus Lite it would impact my ability to access the playback on my Cam Pan V2 camera, which I really don’t have issues accessing the playback on the SD card.
Why not make the outdoor cam like the Cam Pan and if the battery is the issue, then make an outdoor cam that can be plugged in.
I’m getting the feeling that the Outdoor Cam is not what was advertised when I bought over a year ago and I’ll have to go with another camera, like Arlo or Eufy.
To my knowledge, the outdoor cam is the only camera that you can not access the SD card footage from. I do believe that is because of the battery. You should not have any issues with SD card playback on your Cam Pan with Cam Plus lite.
The V3 is rated for outdoor use and is USB powered. You would have to get an outdoor power cable that is sold separately If that is what you want and has the same SD card playback function as the pan.
I appreciate it, but I do not want a subscription. The description is very vague on “…video length storage…”
And I’m once bitten twice shy, from when I bought the first Wyze Outdoor Cam that was advertised with the same access as my CamPan V2 but instead Wyze choose to slowly took away functionality to push people to subscriptions.