SD Card Removed Notification and Log

I’m with you on that. Can’t make it work forever, but should at least know when it stops working. Seems pretty basic.

You seem to be half “thats the way it is” and half “let’s change the very nature of it all”. There something in between: just add basic features that people can turn off or on depending on whether they need them:

  1. Notification with SD card at —%
    ——option to not overwrite at all or overwrite by default by give warning if requested.
  2. Notification when offline (except when intentional through app
  3. Notification when SD write fails
  4. Notification if SD can removed

This could all be accomplished by a period “health check of the camera (firmware upgrade, so that every — minutes or hour, the camera reports in.

  1. What is the % used…compare to defaults and report if appropriate
  2. Is it online…no report says no…notify
  3. Test write during check-up…if fails, report
  4. If card was there last check, and is not there this check, report (or have auto report when taken out as separate notice)
1 Like

Wyze - please consider adding an alert for when recording to the SD Card fails. It is really damaging your brand and my satisfaction when I find out after the fact that the camera failed to record to the SD Card.

It seems like this could be done pretty easily and would also help lower load on the camera by not constantly trying and failing without the user who could take action knowing about it.

The logic could be something like

If sd card present and recording (any type that records) to SD card is enabled then alert user on failure to write and/or access the card

3 Likes

This has happened to me numerous times. I see there is a bug reported that recording does not continue after losing power (or maybe it was wifi connection). Having to check recording status of four cameras every few days is beyond inconvenient. I’ve already missed recording things that I wanted to look at, only to find out that it wasn’t recording.

I agree with many others. This seems simple and should be an easy update. By comparison, my Nest cam notifies me every time it loses power or wifi connection…

Starting to think saving money on the cameras upfront was not worth the potential inconveniences and possible money lost on anything I miss with recording not working (like theft, vandalism, etc.).

1 Like

I too would like to see SD card warnings – write issues, removal issues, in an error log or popup or event.
Particuarly there have been problems when the SD card has become corrupt and continuous logging is suspended.

It would also be helpful to have a full local recording view in the Wyze App under Account. Much like how you can view all the firmware updates at a glance, it would be helpful to view the recording status and SD card status on all units… I have 12 cameras in my system so it’s a pain to go in and check them periodically both for the setting (which I’ve seen slip) and also for garbage/no playback, I literally have to audit each camera, pick a random date a week back and see if it’ll play… if it doesn’t formatting the SD card helps. It would be better to get these alerts direct from Wyze and not finding out after it’s too late (if you had an incident and it was not fully recorded or captured)… this is especially important given the “cool off” period for the cloud pushed clips, leaves end-users open to not having any video if the incident occurs in the cool off period.

2 Likes

What needs to happen is a few things.

  1. When the SD card is removed OR added, then send a notification. Also, if after a power off and on the SD card changed between. Then send a notification.
  2. If the power is out for 5 min or the cam can’t see the net for 5 min, then send a notification. Once it can, then let the owner know (similar to smartthings)

For 1, the reason you want to know when one is added or changed is cyber security along with you might of not of put the SD card in their to start with.

If you actually have a buffering period when events happen. I doubt it, but it might be possible to actually have an image of what happen before the power problem. But realistically, the best way to handle this is by when it disconnects from the net. Where when the camera isn’t seen by the servers for more than 5 min, you will be notified. And then have it where you are notified when the camera comes back online.

But it might be possible to have it where if there is a buffering in the system. When the camera loses power, it detects this and quickly saves the last frames and timestamp. Then when the camera comes back on, it sends this out to the user as a notification. Even if saving a picture isn’t possible, it lets the user know the camera lost power and came back and the times.

1 Like

I’m amazed this doesn’t have more votes, to be honest.

3 Likes

I think it’s one of those things people just don’t think about until it is needed.

2 Likes

Lot of people post on the #wishlist but don’t VOTE.

I have found myself with sd card issues as well. I think having notifications for when the sd card is removed or is no longer reading would be a huge improvement. I discovered this when I got a notification of movement and was unable to use the playback function to further look into it, which was not very comforting. Being that the purpose of usage for these types of products is security and surveillance, knowing about the sd card problem before a notification of movement or sound would be great. I would also suggest, if possible, finding ways to troubleshoot these types of errors remotely. Again, with the purpose of these products, most people experiencing an issue in this way would not be near the device in question to physically adapt anything.

Some troubleshooting is possible remotely, like turning the sd card on/off, formatting the card, ejecting the card and restarting the device.
If your card is not recording or giving you issues try some of these

@Gwb … I think you might be missing the point. It’s not to troubleshoot. We want alarms if the system is not able to record in realtime to the SD card for whatever reason. I’ve found countless times the unit stopped recording, usually a format of the SD card resolves the issue… but I find these out by proactively going through all my cameras and looking for video from a day or two ago… how many people are doing that on a continuous basis? nobody. So, I want to be warned ahead of time, when the camera can’t write to the card for an event or continuous recording, that should be an alarm / push notification, especially if it’s multiple write failures.

1 Like

I do agree that we want some form of notification to be able to fix immediately. I was just pointing out the troubleshooting options currently available.

Sadly, don’t think they will ever fix this, as Wyze is, intentionally, a passive system. So we are dependent on the camera to initiate contact with the mothership, not the other way around.

Best practice is to avoid the issue by proactively restarting the camera periodically (before they have a chance to error) and avoid the things that cause them to glitch (e.g., cheap memory cards)

An alert when storage media is faulty/not detected would be a huge value add and is the primary reason I’m considering other camera systems.

I personally have had 2 issues now at home where the camera had an SD card and was working, then stopped. Restarting my cameras is not a solution. Is there a feature request board that’s open to the public AND/OR do we know if this functionality is being considered?

Scriven

I’m currently having the same issue. Micro SD Card installed, was working fine, now not recording. Take it out re-seat the card and nothing. Powered the camera off and tried again and nothing. I don’t even hear the chime from the camera when it detects a Micro SD card.
Did you find a fix?

This isn’t really the issue that this Wish List item is about (we just want Wyze to tell us when a camera falls offline (after all, what good is a camera that records if its not recording). The work-arounds for our issue are: 1) use a high quality memory card (biggest issue with card failure seems to be the card itself), and restart (or check) cameras periodically on a schedule (which can be automated in the schedule (I restart daily at 1:30am, but that’s likely overkill). If your card is not being recognized in one camera, try it in another. If it still fails, good news…your camera is good and the problem is the card (if it works in the second camera, great…but format the card via that camera and try again in the first camera…if that didn’t work, then the camera is the problem…call TechSupport and either hope that you are in warranty, or that they are feeling generous, or be thankful that the cameras are cheap enough to replace periodically). If the card failed in both cameras, put the card in a reader attached to your computer and do a full format, If that works, you should be fine. If it doesn’t, its time to get a new card. Cheers.

I think it would be a good idea if there was software developed that would notify you when the SD Card is removed from the camera. Perhaps, a notification when the camera is shut off or unplugged by other means other than by your phone… In other words, if I turn my camera on via my phone and leave the house, should there be a situation where the power supply is cut off from the camera while it’s supposed to be in use or if the SD Card is removed while the camera had been turned on via the phone, there should be a notification sent to the phone informing the person of those things.

Camera SD card failure notification

SD cards eventually fail. It would be great if the cameras would detect when the SD card has failed and send a notification. Perhaps this could be done by once a day by reading back a small portion of what it most recently wrote, Thanks!

In most cases only a single cell fails and can not be written to anymore (read/only). You could take the uSD card out and perform a low level format to map out bad cell(s) but more failures are sure to follow.

Meantime, use High Endurance Cards