Notifications Bulb Cam Detection

Cameras
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1

Recently installed a bulb camera and it works great, detects cars, people etc. However, I can not get notifications with the smart detection on. I need to put it on “all events” and under notifications I need to check the box for notify under “other motion”. This is the only way I get notifications, but this also means that I get notified every time a branch moves, or light from a car headlight shines off my cars rims. If I uncheck the notify under “other motion” then I get no notifications at all, even when I’m walking in the driveway, dancing in front of my camera. It picks up the motion, to create an event, but I dont think it recognizes me as a person. Im new to wyze cameras, and looking for some help/advice. Thanks

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Welcome to the Forum, @dchila02! :wave:

I don’t use iOS, so I won’t be very helpful with notification issues specific to that platform, but a few questions came to mind while reading your post:

  1. What subscription are you using? If you can select  Settings ➜ Event Recording ➜ Smart Detection Events, then I imagine you’re probably using Cam Plus or better, otherwise I’d expect the app to prompt you with a message to subscribe.
  2. Is the subscription attached to the camera? (I think it probably is, but I don’t want to assume too much.)
  3. What happens if you try the Reset Services button at  Settings ➜ Reset?
  4. What app version are you using?
  5. Are you seeing Complete Motion Detected notifications (like for light changes and branch movement)?

I haven’t experienced what you’re describing in the Android app (v3.5.5.669), but I am noticing something that seems unusual as I check this just now:

  1. If I navigate to  Settings ➜ Event Recording and see that Smart Detection Events is selected, then tap Customize Recordings on one of my Bulb Cams, I can verify that the NOTIFY column is checked for only Person and Pet. :check_mark:
  2. If I then navigate back one screen and select All Events, then Customize Detections, I can see that there’s a check for Other Motion in the NOTIFY column, which seems weird because I didn’t check that. :thinking:
  3. If I uncheck the NOTIFY box for Other Motion, tap back one screen, and select Smart Detection Events, I find that I get the notifications I expect when I test (walking in front of the camera, for instance). :check_mark:
  4. If on the Event Recording screen I select All Events then Customize Detections again, I can see that the NOTIFY box for Other Motion has been checked again. This is happening automatically for me. :cross_mark:
  5. I can uncheck the NOTIFY box for Other Motion, tap back one screen, tap Smart Detection Events, then tap All Events again, and if I then tap Customize Detections, I see that Other Motion once again has a check in the NOTIFY column. :cross_mark:
  6. If I uncheck this again, tap back one screen, and then tap Customize Detections, that box remains unchecked. :check_mark:

Something about either switching to Smart Detection Events or switching to Smart Detection Events and then back to All Events is enabling that NOTIFY check for Other Motion, and I think it’s the latter, because when I can see that I have that particular box checked (which is possible only when I have All Events selected) then I also receive Complete Motion Detected notifications for generic motion. That last part (the Complete Motion Detected notifications) is a known consequence of having NOTIFY checked for Other Motion, but it shouldn’t be happening for Smart Detections, and I haven’t seen this automatic checking of that one box for other Wyze Cams I use.

I guess that’s something else you could try:

  1. Verify that Bulb Cam’s  Settings ➜ Notifications is enabled .
  2. Tap back one screen and then select Event Recording ➜ All Events ➜ Customize Detections to select or verify your desired notification settings and uncheck the NOTIFY box for Other Motion.
  3. Tap back one screen, select Smart Detection Events, and then exit Settings completely without doing anything else.
  4. Test.

If that last bit doesn’t work, then answering the earlier questions might help, as could sharing additional detail about your settings, etc. Screenshots can be helpful in troubleshooting, too.

1 Like
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Thank you for the reply.

  1. I do have Cam plus
  2. Subscription is on the camera
    3)I reset the service and it was an instant camera was reset. I then had to go through and customize my settings again
  3. App version looks to be 3.6.0(6) and firmware is up to date with 21.1.2.0791
  4. I see complete motion detected notifications only if I have the notifications for “other motion” in the events. If I take that off, then I receive no notifications at all. Even when a vehicle or person goes into frame. It appears vehicles and people are not recognized as those types of motion and only recognized as “other motion”.
    It appears the only way I get notifications is if the “other motion” is selected to notify in my event recordings.
4

Thanks for checking on that stuff. Did you happen to try the last four steps I mentioned?

I think that’s the expected behavior if you have the Other Motion box checked in the NOTIFY column on the Customize Detections screen. If you have that enabled/checked, then do you see any notifications or events tagged with the Smart Detection labels (i.e., “Person”, “Vehicle”, etc.) at all, or are they all labeled as “Complete Motion Detected”? I think what you’re describing is that the notifications and events have the correct labels when you do get them, but the only way you’re getting them is in a situation where you also get some “Complete Motion Detected” notifications thrown in for generic motion, as well. Is that correct?

If that’s the case, then I wonder if this is an iOS-only thing or if this is a problem with just this camera and its app plugin or if this is a new problem with more recent versions of the app. (I tend to wait on updating the Wyze app, so I’m currently two updates behind.) You could try updating to the most current iOS app version (3.6.5.5) to see if that fixes it. I imagine Support would suggest that if you opened a ticket. If you do that and the issue persists, then I’d probably do a couple of other things:

  1. Submit a log from the app after reproducing the issue, then open a ticket with Support and refer to the Log ID that you generated in order to get this on their radar.
  2. Reply to the announcement topic for the 3.6.5 app with a note about the potential bug. Include the Log ID and a link to this topic when you do.

If I’ve misunderstood or incorrectly characterized the problem, then please let me know. Again, I think I’d do the app update as a next step and then report this as I described if the app update doesn’t fix it for you. At this point, I’m wondering if they introduced a bug in the 3.6 app and if that’s what you’re seeing. The 3.6.5 release came pretty quickly after 3.6 (quicker than usual, I think), so I’m curious if what you’re describing is a bug in that version of the app that you’re using now.