I bought a V4 cam when they first came out and it was the best cam ever. The new more sensitive microphone was great for picking up the barking sound I wanted it to.
However, now it’s basically worthless and doesn’t pick up anything it first did. Can I just rollback to the original firmware?
You can’t roll back to the stock firmware:
4.52.3.9455 (March 26, 2024)
But you can roll back to the first update:
4.52.4.9887 (May 21, 2024)
It looks like they made some audio algorithm adjustments in the September 4 2024 firmware, so maybe that is what changed your experience.
To roll back firmware you must follow these instructions:
Note that rolling back to the May firmware will undo all of these updates that happened since then:
Why is this? I can’t think of a good reason.
I think it’s because firmware 4.52.3.9455 was never available for download. You probably need to get in contact with a Wyze engineer to supply that firmware file.
@grapefruityoda is correct. Firmware Downloads are from the Release notes page. And Release notes usually start with the FIRST Firmware update. In this case this camera model actually lists the stock firmware in the release notes, but it’s not downloadable, but often the first update is the first time a device gets added to the release notes to explain what changed since the stock firmware.
Therefore, since the stock firmware doesn’t get an announcement on the Release notes page, it’s impossible to download it there.
We know that the first firmware isn’t downloadable, but why can’t they make it downloadable?
After all, they have the sources and the build files. If not, how else can they modify the firmware? So why not do a build before release and offer that also as downloadble? It’s either there’s a valid reason (OEM restriction, for example) or it’s pure laziness.
It just isn’t necessary. I mean is it lazy that they don’t post CAD drawings for the cams? Specs for the included screws? The beta firmware that came before the camera was even released? Be realistic.
If there was some critical need for it, I’m sure it could be obtained through support or one of the Wyze employees here. Heck they even have a way to push specific firmware to your cam if you give them the MAC address (assuming the cam is online and functional).
Agreed. The other thing is that once in a while they will intentionally REMOVE older firmware from being available for download because the older firmware will either have some incompatibilities OR critical vulnerabilities, or other critical bugs.
Take the V3 cams for example. Firmware notes go back to Nov 15, 2020 and every firmware version after that used to be available for download, but they later removed downloads for the first 22 firmware releases for everything prior to October 22, 2023.
Well, technically that’s not technically accurate I guess…we can’t download the old firmware from the Release notes page, but you can manually modify the download link to the number of the old firmware and then it will still download it, or you can go to the Internet Archive Wayback Machine to get it. But their INTENT is to stop allowing some of the oldest firmware from being downloaded when it is considered no longer realistically viable/advisable.
Lots of cams get older firmware taken away from being able to be downloaded for some fairly reasonable reasons.
True of many devices. Known security issues, incompatibilities, file systems that get updated and can’t go backwards, etc. Heck even computer BIOS very frequently says once you update to that version you cannot roll back.
Recently bought a pair of V4’s from the Costco BF deal. Haven’t opened them yet, but reading through here and seeing the latest Nov 1st update, I’m wondering why in the world they’d REMOVE the sound trigger from the spotlight… That’s kind of an important security type trigger for some people.
If it isn’t necessary, why do I see people asking for them? Doesn’t cost much to host a single file, whereas it costs them more to accommodate phone/email calls for download links.
Thank you!
Thank you all. An interesting tid bit to add to the discussion is I actually had purchased a spare v4 cam when they first came out, at the same time as the one that was originally working well. I activated it yesterday hoping that it would still have the original firmware on it and it did.
However, the Wyze app would not allow me to use the camera without updating it first. It said, “Mandatory firmware Update Required.” I even tried to dismiss this message or find a way to work around it to no avail. Therefore, even if there was a way to rollback to the original stock firmware, the Wyze app will not allow you to use the cam on that firmware.
To be fair, I am not clear if the firmware that was working for me was the original stock or one of the first updates. Maybe the stock firmware was never a functional firmware to begin with. Total speculation.
Well, good. Now you can compare the 2 to see if the original wore itself out, or, if the software update caused the audio change.
Having a basis of comparison is an awesome troubleshooting technique. Another great troubleshooting technique is hitting it with a #hammer
I believe pretty much all the cams got a mandatory update a few months ago, my guess is they updated a security key/certificate or maybe the encryption algorithm, the cam has to match the servers/app or it won’t be able to communicate, hence the required update.
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