Offline recording still broken?

According to this article the offline recording has been broken for some time.

I just did a test and it is most certainly not recording offline. It didn’t record a single thing all day yesterday, despite being plugged in and having plenty of space on the SD card. As soon as I reconnect the wifi, it then starts the local recording again.

What version of the firmware does one need to downgrade to to get this working?

Thanks

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Off-line recording has been problematic for a long time. Its demise was announced in May 2019.

It worked fine for me in early 2019, but I don’t know what version of firmware was then current. I tried downgrading the firmware in a V2 a couple of times, but was unable to restore stand-alone operation.

Very interesting - thanks for posting that link!

I’m almost glad I didn’t know that regular Wyze cams were ever capable of this version of “true” offline recording. I would be even less gruntled than I currently am.

This sounds a lot like what is being promised with the new Wyze Cam Outdoors, and is probably why the Wyze crew is so darned excited about it - yes?

The only offline recording I have ever encountered with Wyze cams is the kind where the cam has to connect to the internet for a short time to authenticate before being able to record off-line. Even this was an involuntary discovery when a battery backup kept the Wyze cams running and recording to the SD card even when the internet went down.

But it always feels like carrying a lit candle into the wilderness with no matches. Once the internet-authenticated Wyze cam loses power for a second, the show is over.

I guess the question is this. Knowing that it is a problematic issue, is Wyze ever going to fix it? Definitely a great feature to have (smartest one. IMO, as, even though branded “not a security camera”, no matter what you use it for, that would be the point of a camera). So think, I use it to watch my chemistry set as I am on the other side of a lab. If it loses connectivity, just as something boils, then maybe it blows up. Or any other number of ideas. Would be great to have this feature back.

Nice analogy! Now you’ve got me humming this.

I used to travel with a V2 and a battery-powered WiFi travel router (and an iPhone). Could set the camera up in locations where there was no internet, or in far-away locations where I had no cellular data access (roaming can be VERY expensive overseas). With the cam and the iPhone both connected to the AP, I could use the Wyze app to live view what the camera saw, and set it up for continuous recording to SDcard. Or for time lapse recordings. Then walk away, leaving the camera on its own, recording what I had configured it for.

I could subsequently view the recordings on iPhone via the travel router/access point. All without any internet connectivity to Wyze HQ. This functionality came to an abrupt end in early 2019. Too bad - there are lots of compelling applications for off-line recording like this. Wyze left money on the table by exiting this market segment, and caused many Wyze owners to become gruntled.

I haven’t looked closely enough at the new Outdoor cam to know if it was designed with such an off-line use case in mind.

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Well, thank you for that awesome link! What a performance of such a great song! I remember playing the heck out of that album when it first came out. Even had the yellow vinyl version. :grinning:

But back on topic, that must have been fantastic to be able to do all that with a Wyze cam. :slightly_smiling_face: Wish I knew why they went a different route with it…

And yes, from everything I’ve read and watched, I think Wyze really had your use case in mind when making their new outdoor cam. Much to the disappointment of many who were hoping for a more stay-at-home all weather cam.

Anyhow, I’ve been taking your name in vain in other threads :wink: - hope you don’t mind and please correct any inaccuracies!

Unless it’s a Chinese government requirement for them to have backdoor access to every functioning cameras, Wyze WENT OUT OF THEIR WAY to make local SD recoding dependent on an internet connection.

It’s frankly disgusting. They should get sued over this.

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This is a year old thread but currently yes the cam requires an initial handshake with the server but then as long as it does not lose power it will continue to record without internet. The only thing is you cant lose power, if you do it requires that initial handshake again before it will record

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The wyze FAQ state that this works for continuous recording, I tested it with motion sensing and it didn’t record anything.

There’s absolutely no reason to require a handshake to keep operating like its supposed to.

Continuous recording will work if you have an SD card installed. It will record continuous to the SD card. The events are 12 seconds with a 5-minute cool down unless you have cam plus.

As far as the handshake I would love for it to not be needed and I honestly do not know why it is.