Please consider having an option to define the cameras timezone so that when we view our cameras from another timezone we are not prompted to sync the time. I know we can dismiss the prompt but it is really annoying to those of us who travel a lot.
I agree with @nockam that cameras should be set to a particular time zone. While traveling through multiple time zones it is cumbersome to have alerts potentially time-stamped to where I am rather than where the camera is.
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The “sync time” dialog box is silly. Who would say no? So why punish users with that disruption?
This also affects your best customers the most. Those with dozens of cams spend minutes scrolling through these.
My suggestion: Update time automatically over NTP and save the users the hassle of tapping yes.
You could make this a setting if you like, but i think it should be unnecessary.
Perhaps a setting to choose time zone and DST observance instead would help folks where their phone and cam are in different parts of the world.
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I love the Wyze Cam’s, but there are several features that should be relatively painful to implement that would go a long way to improving this product.
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- The cameras constantly ask my to sync time. This should be entirely unnecessary, the phone is a very poor provider of time. Have the Wyze Cam's get their time from a reliable internet NTP source (IE: pool.ntp.org). Warn and offer a sync in the app should this process fail like it does today, but automatic NTP sync from the camera should virtually eliminate time-sync issues.
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I would like to have a time zone setting on the camera and support for time zone recognition. I was travelling in a different time zone and the app would constantly ask me to sync the time with my phone. While there is a don’t ask me for 7 days setting, it would be better for the camera to know I’m in a different time zone and check for the time while accounting for the time difference. Even better though, I would like the camera to sync its own clock through NTP servers so I don’t have to worry about it. The camera can be assigned a location during setup (either by IP address location or phone GPS) and save it unless I modify the location settings.
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Agree with this request to use standardized timezones by camera.
Setting the timezone by camera should support all valid timezones (this should address the issue with 30 min offset timezones as well)
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There’s really several distinct features needed:
- Automatic setting of UTC clock in camera by NTP.
a) MAYBE give the user the ability to turn off auto time sync. But really, I can’t imagine why someone would WANT the wrong time, so I don’t think it’s worth preserving the current functionality of syncing time from phone. - User choosing a TimeZone and DST yes/no
a) once when they first sign up and save that setting at the account level to use as a default for all new cameras
b) store it for each camera as well, so they can have cameras in different timezones.
c) perhaps you can use GeoIP location to suggest the right timezone
7 Likes
id like to be able to sync the clock on the cam automatically via NTP and auto update for daylight savings time instead of when i open the app and get a notice that my clock is different than my phone.
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Hi all who posted here… we are now counting votes for topics in the #roadmap instead of on the hidden feature request tracker. So be sure to slide up to the very top of this post and click the VOTE button.
I swear I voted for my own post already. Just voted since it showed as not.
If it possible that the voting is being reset when topics are merged?
It should not be, but I’m going to test that right now. That would be a big problem !
EDIT: I just tested merging a topic in here and it actually bumped the vote count up one. So I think it’s okay, but we’ll keep an eye on it.
@DreadPirateRush… FYI
Yes, I was on a support chat the other week saying a few things that are needed.
This was one of them. Most routers have it so why cant we have it, its an easy addition / fix.
All that is required in the camera settings just have the following
Time zone selection from a drop down list (remember world wide time zones)
then a NTP server address to pool to get the correct time update. thats all
Then the other thing is when there are alerts remember to send the alert time stamp from the camera time not the time on the users phone etc.
side note:
I have cameras in my property in the USA and the UK and its anoying when i get an alert from my USA property when im in the UK as its time stamped in the UK not the usa time so then i have to remove -5 hrs as im East coast form the time to get the right time that is there.
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I would also like the folder structure on the SD card to reflect the local time of when the videos were recorded. They currently seem to organize by UTC even though the timestamp on the videos are in local time. Very confusing to find files if you look on the card manually.
The issue might be a little worse than a simple time mismatch.
Here is what happened and I observed. When I was analyzing the local recorded stream from yesterday, I noticed that a large portion of the day was missing. The recorded stream simply jumped from one point to a point much farther in time. This morning, upon checking the recorded stream, I noticed that there was a 2-hour gap in the recorded stream. The time in the recorded stream, between yesterday and today’s gap, was off.
Motive? My wife travelled to another time zone, and she logged in to the camera. She must have synced the camera time with her cellphone, which switched the local time of the camera to two hours before. This resulted in the camera erasing two hours of recorded stream. This morning, when I accessed the camera, I received the sync message. At the exact time I accessed and synced, the two-hour gap appeared.
Conclusion: the recorded stream, at least locally, must be indexed by the camera’s local time. Changing this time messes up with the indexing and causes the appearance of gaps or erasure of periods of stream. I am not sure if the actual stream was erased from the SD card, or if the Wyze app is unable to recover two recorded streams with the same time index. If the stored streams used an absolute time index, say UTC or linux time, the app could resort to a better logic to access the recorded streams and avoid being unable to recover a stream because of overlapping timestamps.
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Since the cam already has a connection to the Internet, could we just have Network Time Protocol (NTP) support added to the firmware? It could automatically sync the time every day at 2 AM or more often. This would keep the camera time accurate, including during DST transitions.
Edit: I see you moved my feature request here rather than open a new one, even though it has no bearing on the original request here of not being prompted to sync the time when in other time zones. DST affects everyone, travel prompts affect few.
So, automatic time or DST changes are dead then, I guess.
I have a WyzeCam that I’m using in India and the Sync time button never sets the correct time in India. It shows the time as GMT+5 hours whereas India is at GMT+5.5 hours. All my footage shows the incorrect time due to this.
@ajay_dureja, I’ve added your request to the time zone support thread here in the #roadmap. If/when implemented, it should solve your issue.
However, bear in mind that Wyze Cams are not officially sold or supported outside the US. Therefore, it may be quite some time until you see a solution for this.
I have 3 cams (2 v2 1 Pan) and I have them setup with ifttt to stop /start recording depending on my house alarm status. So there is a lot of soft NTP drift activity. After about 2 weeks the clock diff’d by about 5 seconds varying on each cam. One was right, he rest were drift. I had to manually reset time on all threee cams…
It would be nice if there was an ifttt function or a shortcut to sync all time across cams.
How do y’all deal with NTP drift?
Support for all international timezone ,
currently only time zone in multiples of 1 hour difference is only supported !.
cannot use in my countries time zone +05:30 GMT , which is time zone of INDIA,
The camera time is offset by 30 mins (+5:00 GMT).
Did not realise these cameras lacked Automatic time and DST setting when I bought them.
This is a major flaw since accurate timestamps with the cameras local time are imperative, especially if its to be used by police or as evidence in court.
Asking every 7 days if we want to sync the timestamp with our phones, ignores the fact that people travel and doesn’t fix the problem. It just causes more problems because the time on my phone whilst I happen to be viewing from a different time zone is completely irrelevant.
I recommended Wyzecam Pan to several friends who travel a lot. Luckily I was able to tell them about this massive issue before they wasted their money.
Really appreciate all your doing Loki to merge all the comments together and get votes counted but it’s all a waste of time for everybody if Wyzecam don’t see this as a priority.
Due to this problem and the complete lack of motivation to implement a proper fix, I will be reviewing the product to warm others not to buy.
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