I have had a Wyze Cam OG for a year and a half. It has sometimes disconnected, but I solved that by restarting the router.
For about a month, I have not been able to get it connected.
When pressing Setup, it never says “Ready to connect”. I don’t think that it is resetting when holding Setup for 30 seconds either. The light keeps blinking red, it is never solid red.
Even if I ignore that the camera never says “Ready to connect”, I can go through the connecting flow in the app until I choose a network and enter the password. After that, I get a connecting failed message.
I have tried:
Holding Setup to reset.
Removing the SD card.
Reinstalling the app.
Restarting the router.
Rechecking all Bluetooth permissions.
Trying in three different Android phones.
My network is indeed 2.4 ghz, but I created a new split. No difference.
If the status light is blinking red after you reset it, then it should be in setup mode and ready to connect to Wi-Fi.
I’d be interested in knowing more about the failed connection message you see in the app after you’re able to input the Wi-Fi credentials into the app. A few days ago I had a Cam OG that was offline and wouldn’t reconnect even though it’s practically in the same room as my Wi-Fi gateway. I clicked the SETUP button and heard the “ready to connect” voice prompt, but then going through the device add process failed a couple of times with some kind of voice message about a Bluetooth error (IIRC). I moved the Cam a few feet closer to the gateway and tried again, and that time it popped right onto the network at the appropriate step of the device add process. When I got to the part where it wanted me to assign a name, I aborted by swipe-closing the app. Then when I re-launched the app I was able to connect to the Cam with its original name and settings intact. I moved the Cam back to its previous location a few feet away, and it has operated as expected since then.
I don’t know if splitting your network (or even forcing your phone onto 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi for setup) is necessary. I don’t do that with my network and didn’t have to resort to that while reconnecting this Cam OG. Because of all you’ve done, though, I’d be inclined to try to get a real factory reset done and start like it’s a new Cam somewhere close to your main Wi-Fi source.
Wouldn’t holding for 30 seconds put the cam in factory reset? My experience has been a factory reset is invoked between a count of 8 - 12 seconds. I think this may be a defective cam.
It should. The Help Center article about factory resetting Cam OG says 10 seconds. What I’m saying is that if @iig wants to try to revive this out-of-warranty camera then my inclination would be to try to start with a factory reset (because I don’t know what all has been done in the interim with the troubleshooting that’s already been attempted) and then proceed as if it’s a new device. It may very well be defective.
@iig bulleted 8 steps in his original post starting with the 30 sec hold of the setup button which would have put the OG in factory reset. I had a v3 that had similar issues and would not connect after an attempted factory reset. Got a warranty replacement which he appears to be beyond eligibility.
I’m aware. What I’m saying is that I don’t know what was done after that, so I think attempting a fresh factory reset as the first thing and then proceeding as if the device is new is what I would be inclined to attempt, especially on an out-of-warranty device.
Or see what happens with pricing on new Cam OGs with Black Friday specials. I picked up an extra that I didn’t need (but that I have used) for <US$10 last year.
I’m still curious about what the failure message is. I’m not sure what’s meant by “Rechecking all Bluetooth permissions.” either, but another thing that may be important is enabling Android’s Location service and ensuring that the Wyze app has permission to use that, because that’s necessary for the component of Bluetooth that tries to search for nearby devices. I mention this because I usually have that Android service turned off, so I always have to re-enable Location whenever I want to do an add device process in the Wyze app.
I’m going to try to set it up closer to the router. That is something that I have not done yet. I can’t remember what error message I get, but I think that it is simply something like “connecting failed”. I have tried to factory reset many times, but I am not sure if it is working.
I think that all permissions are on, but I will check again. I reinstalled everything in three phones and I’m pretty sure that I allowed permissions every time. I can’t remember the exact wording of the error message, but I think that it is actually “pairing failed”.
If you can manage to get it to connect (by bringing it closer to the router), deleting it from the app will factory reset it and put it into “ready to connect”. But I’m guessing if you can get it to connect, then you won’t need to do that anymore.
It sounds like your setup button may have corrosion inside it. If you unplug the cam and push the button repeatedly (using something pointed but not sharp enough to puncture the rubber) you might be able to work out some of the corrosion. Pushing it from different angles, working it around in circles, etc may help.
All else fails you can try pulling out the rubber cover and spraying a tad of contact cleaner on the button, followed by pushing repeatedly, but you’ll obviously sacrifice the water resistance, so I’d cover it with some electrical or sealing tape after (which you’d probably need to pull back to push the button in the future).
Haven’t seen this on any of my OGs, but I’d recommend making sure all your cams have drip loops in the power cable, basically when it comes out of the back of the cam, it should immediately go downward (it can then go back up as long as you leave a bit of a “u” shape in it). Otherwise water will track along the wire and get into the cam. No matter how well you seal a wire on anything outside, water running along it always seems to manage to get through.
If anybody else runs into this message, I have been not able to make it work after my last attemps doing it closer to the router or pressing the reset button in different ways. I will have to throw this camera out. I may end up buying another one because I already have a mount for it (the original mount broke, btw), but I will definitely not recommend it. A camera that lives indoors for 18 months should not just stop working.
