Saved video not playing

I have tried numerous ways to save video from my v4, the only way it will play is through the history. I cannot save it and play back through my Google photos as I always have with my v3, ogs, and 2 other types of cameras. It will show a still photo but video shows a black/white/ or gray screen with, “can’t play video”. Is there a work around for this?

Welcome to the Forum, @jazztml! :wave:

I tried to replicate your issue—at least what I think you might be doing—but was unable. Using the v3.0 app running on an Android 10 device, I navigated to the Live View screen for three different cameras (Cam OG, Cam Pan v3, and Cam v4) and selected SD Card to find motion events for playback and capture. On each camera, I used the Record control in the strip below the playback viewer to save short clips of each event in real time. I then opened the Google Photos app and was able to watch each short video in that app.

Note that I’m not using any subscriptions and that I’m doing continuous recording to microSD on all my Wyze cameras.

What details can you share about what you’re trying to do and what troubleshooting you’ve attempted so far? It might be helpful to include your app version, whether or not your Cam v4’s firmware is up-to-date, and any other information you might think is relevant. In particular, I’d be interested to know how you’re attempting to “save video”, since you mentioned trying “numerous ways”.

Something else you could try to see if it makes a difference: If you’re using a current version of the Wyze app and upgraded from v2.5x to v3.0, then it might be worth a try to uninstall the app, reboot your phone, reinstall the app, and reboot your phone again. There are reports elsewhere on the Forum that doing a fresh installation has resolved some users’ problems because something seemed to go wrong with the in-place update.

Hi Crease, thank you. I have several things going on with my v4, that are getting better, but not always. The recording thing is sporadic now. It used to do it every time I would actually click the ‘record’ button at the bottom, almost always on my phone. Now, I am on the Beta 3 app, which is or is not still beta, but it still says it is beta.
Latest version is: 4.52.8.0648
I am on Cam Unlimited, updated to that so I’d get the v4.
I do have my SD Cards on continuous recording.
I went back through the recording and then recorded it again, and now I have one I can not play, and one I can play through google photos. I don’t get what, when I have done nothing different, it is just a different camera. When there was an update I found that some of the other ‘bugs’ went away, like not being able to zoom in, it would create 2 screens, one from now, and one from some time earlier that day/night.
I will do your suggestion of the reinstall app.
Thank you for all of your assistance and your time!

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There are other complaints with the v4 and recording from SD to phone. Some get an “empty file” message and nothing saves at all, someone else was getting a different error. Sounds like yours is saving but the file is no good.

So it is possible you’re being impacted by the same v4+App3 issue, or maybe it is a wifi problem, if the video stream is not clean, the resulting file can certainly be corrupt or have quality problems. Keep in mind the v4 is higher resolution so needs more bandwidth to stream video than the older cams.

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dave27 ~

Thank you. Mine has had many issues since I fist got it. I was cold shouldered after finding out that it was not purchased, but part of a deal, and nothing further happened with them, after my camera crashed after going through what the techs told me to do. I finally got it working again, but it is still not properly working.
The wifi has been an issue, as it my phone keeps jumping to the 5 from the 2.4, so I keep a close look on that whenever I come back home, when it would go
to the 5.
Wifi has been steady and no problems for any of my cameras, and I only put the v4 to the 2.5 when there is something I want to get good details on. But the clarity of it has never been zoom-in clear to read anything, and the camera is only 30’ or so from the road, could not pull out name of a semi going slow in front of it… Yeah, major disappointment on top of everything else. My point is I didn’t know if it was all v4’s or if I am just a lucky one to get it.

To clarify a few things

v4 doesn’t support 5ghz wifi, only 2.4. Your phone can use 5 while the camera is on 2.4, that’s fine (and Wyze has no control over that, your phone makes that decision). My phones are both on 5ghz and can view the 2.4ghz cams fine, in fact that’s the better way to have it in most cases, at least part of the connection has the better bandwidth of 5ghz.

Don’t know what you mean about putting the v4 to 2.5.

Digital zoom is never clear, and all of these inexpensive cloud cams use extremely high compression rates which makes it even worse. 30 feet is pretty far, and especially if the vehicle is moving (which is when compression has the biggest impact), it will be difficult to near impossible to make out text on it.

As far as your recording issue, not sure if that is wifi related, bug related, or if you said your cam had major issues previously maybe it has a hardware problem (or isn’t getting enough power from the wall adapter). If the camera has had a lot of issues and is in warranty, may make sense to get it replaced.

dave27 ~

I guess you were one of the techs, hugh?
I’m on here for assistance and learning, not to be bashed, I can do that watching the people on the news. Do pardon my typo of ‘2.5’ instead of ‘2.4’.
Your interpretation of that’s pretty far??? I live on a dead end with a T one house away, they can not go too fast to miss the stop sign on the other side of my house either. I could have seen it if I was back farther. Guess you have missed all the ads boasting about zooming in to a license plate??? It does not work as it should, my v3 (yes, V3) and either OG, and either of my other cameras would have e, with their ‘inferior’ tech.
This is a help forum???
Even chatting is not that brutal, nor are you helpful.
Have a great night!

And it was brand new…
Great pr for wyze…

Hi Crease ~

I have done the uninstall and reinstall, and then recorded a bird swinging… same thing, can not play the recorded part that saved in Google photos.
Thank you for the help and things to try.

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dave27 is merely attempting to assist you. He’s just a fellow Wyze cam user as are most of us. This forum is primarily a user-to-user community. Wyze employees are identified via “Wyze Team” or “Wyze Employee” following their forum user name.

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Thank you Seapup!
Have a great night!

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I hope you have a great night too and get your saved video issues sorted out. :+1:

:+1:

Which is what I was trying to help you do. But never mind.

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Thank you. The 2.5 was the camera setting, theres 360p, HD, and 2.5k.

You’re welcome. I think @dave27 has genuinely attempted to provide some helpful suggestions, too, so I sincerely hope you’ll consider that. In the meantime, I’m puzzled by a few things:

If I understand correctly, you’re using both a beta version of the app and also beta firmware on your Cam v4? What happens if you try using production versions of the app and firmware?

Please not that I’m not criticizing your choices. I’m glad there are people who are willing to do beta testing of products, and I think it’s important to keep in mind that beta versions are for testing. I’m just thinking of my own preferences, where I tend to value stability over whizbang experimental features, and thinking that I’d want to try a process (e.g., recording a video from a Cam v4 and attempting to play it back in the Google Photos app) running production code in order to reduce the number of confounding variables and try to isolate the problem.

:point_up: I’m having difficulty understanding this at all. Maybe if you explained it a different way it would be more clear? I’m really struggling to understand what “2 screens” means.

This part actually did make sense to me:

I interpreted it to mean putting your Live Stream in the “2.5K” or “2.5 QHD” mode for Cam v4, and then I read this in your most recent post:

This makes me wonder if @dave27’s suggestion about your Wi-Fi bandwidth being a limiting factor is part of the problem. I don’t know if it is or not, because there are a lot of variables at play here, but I wouldn’t rule it out with the information I have available at this point.

I don’t recall exactly which topic it was, but I seem to remember reading several months ago a discussion here on the Forum about those advertisements and users describing whether they could or could not (mostly not, if memory serves) successfully read license plates with the Cam v4. :man_shrugging:

It is, and, like @Seapup said, it’s primarily a user-to-user community. I can’t speak for everyone’s motivation for spending time here, but I like trying to help educate other users when I can while (hopefully) working together to solve some problems, and I sincerely believe @dave27 was trying to do just that.

Me, too! :upside_down_face:

I really wish we had a clear solution for you. I think the other Forum members who have contributed to this topic have a lot of knowledge and experience that they’ve used to help other users, including me: They’ve both helped me.

I’m still curious about what your experience would be if you installed production versions of your Cam v4 firmware and the Wyze app. I don’t know if that would solve this particular problem or not, but it’s another thing to try if you feel like you’re running out of options.

This problem is a real head-scratcher, at least for me. Maybe I need to sleep on it. I hope you have a good night!

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My last note on this will be that:

My OGs and Pan v3s can read a license plate from 10 to 20 feet away only if the car is not moving, or is moving directly toward the camera very slowly. Above about 5mph it is pretty impossible.

My OG Tel can do it a bit better, 30-40 feet for slow moving car, 50 for parked car, but still requires the car to be moving pretty darn slow and moving toward the camera in almost a direct head on - mine sees them at about 30 degrees off from straight and if they’re moving slow I can get a plate, but nobody moves slow on my street so it is uncommon to be able to make out a plate unless parked.

The 2.5K on the v4 really only comes into play on things that aren’t moving. As soon as something moves, compression kicks in and blurs things severely. Plus the fact that it is not a 3x lens like the Tel, your range is going to be pretty limited.

The ads and pictures I’ve seen when Wyze shows off plates. The cars are parked.

I have a 720P dash cam in both my cars (much lower res than my 1080P Wyze cams). It has much lower compression ratio (10 megabytes per minute on Wyze vs 100 megs per minute on my dash cams which are at 720P, so in reality probably 20 times less compression than Wyze). With those, I can make out a plate much clearer and from further away, even when it is moving toward me at normal speeds (and I’m also moving so the net speed is pretty high).

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Impressive. I can’t read my tag when parked in the driveway on my v4 2.5K Cam.

Maybe I will buy a OG Tel next.

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Thank you very much, and I do apologize for my remarks yesterday. Not everyone speaks or types the same way, and I took yours as hostile, and I am sorry for that.
I do appreciate your remarks, as well as your input on the types of cameras and your experience with them also. Which also validates that there is something wrong with this v4. The truck was going very slow, and I should have been able to read it, had I been at the window at that moment, but I did not know what happened until later, hence needing to read the sign on the truck door.
I have been playing with the resolution on the v4 taking pics at the same time day/night, and I kind of not that impressed with the 2.5k. I do see more variations of colors, which is Great for the colors of birds!
Anyways, have a great rest of your weekend!

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Thank you Crease. Well, I did have the production on both at first. It wasn’t until later that I joined the Beta, thinking I would learn other things. Well, I have, just not what I was thinking of. When the help techs put me through many things, which kicked the camera off where it would not connect at all, I was at my wits end. After days of working around at different things, I finally got it to connect, and I have been using it as it goes, but I do not trust it as a means of anything, as I may or may not beable to record or see what it recorded. Lately it has been good.
The double picture is one of these. It is one from right now, but the overlay picture is from a time earlier in the day or night, in which there is no way to zoom in at all. It hasn’t been doing that as much lately, but once again, I do not trust it. I am not a super geek, or computer wyzard, just someone who has done a few things, looking to make this better, if I can.
Thank you!

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