Restart V3 cam that’s offline

One of my V3 cameras went offline. It’s on a Smart plug. I can’t get it back online. It probably would come back if I unplugged the smart plug then plugged it back in. However I want to use the smart plug on the app to recycle it but I’m not able to make it work. I attached some screenshots. Can anyone see what I’m missing.

You’re going to have to power cycle the plug to get it back online before you can do anything with the camera. There isn’t any way to cycle the plug without pulling it from the outlet and then plugging it back in.

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I thought that was the purpose of the smart plug. To be able to remotely restore the device when it goes offline.

Yes, but your screenshots shows the plug is offline.

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While I do use Smart Plugs on all my cams, I do not use Wyze Smart Plugs for this. When I bought mine, the original Wyze Smart Plugs we’re not CFH and had issues going offline.

I do have about a dozen 2021 CFH Wyze Smart Plugs and none have gone offline, but I am still keeping my cams on another brand. They have been very reliable for me.

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So if I understand you correctly you are saying if the standard Wyze smart plug goes offline then the only alternative is to unplug it and then plug back in to get it back online.

I purchased the Wyze plug to restore the “camera” remotely not realizing that the plug itself might go offline and I can’t fix that remotely.

If that’s the case do you have a recommendation for a plug that I can use to restore my camera remotely that itself can be restored remotely if necessary ?….tlhutch4

Unfortunately Wyze Smart plugs suck.
Most any other choice available will work.
Wyze only makes fairly good cameras, everything else is JUNK

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Please recommend specific smart plugs that you know work well with wyze and don’t require resetting or can be reset remotely if required.

The TP Link Kasa plugs always get very good reviews as does Levitin, Wemo and Meross. There are way too many out there to suggest one is the best. I bought the original Amysen Smart Plugs because they aren’t bricks, but round plugs that don’t block out other plugs on some power strips or plug banks like my UPS. They have since redesigned these, so I can’t really recommend the new ones as I don’t use them.

The important thing to look for are the features you want:

Power Loss Recovery state. User Defined?
Schedules. Onboard or App driven?
Timers and countdowns?
Power usage monitoring?
Usage history?
Alexa, Google Home, IFTTT, other integrations?
Max Amp rating?
Size\shape?
Hub required?

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You are correct. And honest this is not a “I told you so”. But you see why many of us don’t use Wyze smart plugs. Almost any others, but not Wyze. No offense intended. Most of us have learned this the same hard way.

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The Plugs and a few other items had a service outage a little over a week ago on 11/30/22. It was reported at 5:49 PM PT that day in the service status update and a post here.

Newer Plugs did recently have a firmware issue that made them drop offline, but that issue has since been fixed. Unfortunately this more rare issue looks just like that issue.

Hopefully we will be free of issues for some time to come now.

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Is there a smart plug that can be reconnected remotely if it drops offline while you are away from home ?

I have four TP-Link KASA Smart Wi-Fi Plug Mini . Work great

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I don’t know of any Smart plug that will monitor its own WiFi status and run an auto reboot power cycle routine when it’s WiFi connection drops. I know they have special power cords for routers that will do this, but I have never found it in a smart plug.

The problem with any of the plugs is that it would need to do this on its own. With the plug offline, it has no WiFi connection to the outside world, and therefore no way for you to reach it either locally while on that WiFi network or remotely through the internet.

Short of finding one that will, best bet is to find the most reliable… And I can’t put Wyze Plugs at the top of that list although I have never had an offline issue with my plugs. Much of that result for me is a rock solid WiFi router.

If you find one that will auto reboot on WiFi drop, please post it for everyone else!

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I use Feit Smart Plugs that I bought from Costco.

I used them on my Wyze cameras that need to be power cycled to get them online.

The ultimate solution is for Wyze to prevent their cameras from going offline.

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My experience has been quite the opposite. I have 8 indoor smart plugs, and 2 outdoor plugs. Not a single problem with any of them, nor with the handheld vac, the robot vac, air purifier, doorbell, and a multitude of v3 and outdoor cameras.

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Kasa schedules and timers will work. Other good info. here.

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But you might lessen the risk of an outage if you plan for an outage. (What the heck does that double-talk mean?)

A few of us have discussed here before this thread methods we use to lessen the risk of devices dropping offline and staying offline. So, how did we do it? Some smart plugs have more detailed features.

  1. Schedule. Set a shutdown/restart schedule for the plug to turn itself off and back on. Some of us use a middle of the night time i.e., 3:00 a.m., DAILY. Others use every couple of days or weekly.
  2. Immediate Restart. Sometimes its useful to manually perform your own plug restart. But versus just remove its power, we use the schedule feature and create a schedule for off and then automatically back on 1-2 minutes later. Example, it’s 8 am, and I want it to restart my ROUTER. But if the router is turned off, how do I connect to the plug to tell it to turn the router back on, hmmm? Some smart plugs store the schedule locally, not via the cloud. So, its 8 a.m., and I create a schedule for 8:05 /off and 8:07 / on. Then, engage both the on and the off. And then wait. At 8:10, my router is back up (has been up for 2+ minutes).
  3. Some plugs have settings to “come back” on or off depending on the setting, when the plug looses power. So, if you lose electrical power, you usually lost Internet. And maybe your Router doesn’t come back up (and your plugs don’t come back up, and your cameras don’t turn back on) when power is lost and restored.) So, with some plugs besides the On/Off, there’s a LAST STATE setting. And its stored locally too. So, plug loses power, we can tell it to either turn ON (regardless) or LAST STATE, does whatever it was when it lost power and power is restored.

I’m trying to explain the features of a plug can be useful for different devices, not just solving a camera restart or camera offline/restart purpose.

This being a Wyze forum, we do try to be conservative about offering unsolicited advice about some other manufacturer’s product features, until specifically asked. We like Wyze. But we do like some other manufacturer’s products in some categories better.

Hope that helps.

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I have never had any issues with my Wyze plugs, but it does make sense to use a diffrent brand for recovery, since cloud outage could effect all of one brands products.

The tp link Kasa plugs are pretty good, but I would stay away from Wemo. Wemos have gotten so bad recently, I have replaced every one with a Wyze plug. The drop offline all the time, setup is a nightmare, and the app sucks. Stay away from Wemo

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Great responses from all. I’ll review each and try to come to a conclusion soon. Thanks again,

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