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For a lay person, troubleshooting connectivity error codes is about as mysterious as the meaning of a Check Engine light to a driver with a code reader and no auto mechanical knowledge.

Camshaft position sensor? Guess I better (find somebody to) fix that.

Realtime case in point. I’ve had two cameras active for four months, accessing them mostly over my local WiFi. Zero connectivity pain. Until Saturday.

Background: I have basic networking knowledge. It is not comprehensive in the least (spotty/shakey is how I’ve described it.)

Here’s a document of my travails:

Error code 90

Changing the wifi channel worked for me this morning. I’d had about twelve hours of intermittent connection and error 90’ing. The basic troubleshooting didn’t work. The new channel did.

Error code 90

Until it didn’t, hours later. Here’s what finally resolved my problem: Removing and reinstalling the micro USB power plug into the socket on the back of the cam. I did it three times for good measure (“exercising” a plug/ socket combo costs nothing and can improve power connection quality if any flakiness from corrosion has occurred. Especially applies if you’re using a cam in “outlaw” mode (the cam is not Wyze approved/supported for outdoor use.) I’m pretty confident this c…

and

Connection issue after successful setup

Since I don’t know anything about your current network setup, I’m going to throw a few things out there. Do you already have multiple (25 +) devices connected to your network? – If so, do you have them all on a 2.4Ghz network, and are your 5Ghz devices capable devices connected to that band exclusively, if available? – Is your router capable of handling that many devices? Some routers can only handle so many devices per band, and if you are reaching that limitation, you can start to see con…

Here’s me digging around like a moron in router logs (masked here for privacy):

[WLAN access rejected: incorrect security] from MAC address 11:aa:22:bb:33:4a, Saturday, April 13,2019 16:52:00
[admin login] from source 192.168.1.1, Saturday, April 13,2019 16:51:43
[DHCP IP: 192.168.1.13] to MAC address aa:11:bb:22:cc:33, Saturday, April 13,2019 16:51:22
[DoS Attack: RST Scan] from source: 198.xx.xxx.xx, port 443, Saturday, April 13,2019 16:50:39
[WLAN access rejected: incorrect security] from MAC address 11:aa:22:bb:33:4a, Saturday, April 13,2019 16:50:17
[DHCP IP: 192.168.1.21] to MAC address 11:aa:22:bb:33:cc, Saturday, April 13,2019 16:50:12
[DHCP IP: 192.168.1.2] to MAC address 44:dd:55:ee:66:ff, Saturday, April 13,2019 16:50:08
[Time synchronized with NTP server] Saturday, April 13,2019 16:49:59
[Initialized, firmware version: V1.1.1.1] Saturday, April 13,2019 16:49:58

11:aa:22:bb:33:4a is the squirrely Wyze cam

Here’s a reasonably good question (maybe) that I came up with in the process.

What does it mean when a cam has zero or intermittent livestream connectivity yet continues to generate Event notifications and cloud clips (which are viewable no problem in the app)?

Beats me. I have no diagram to hang anything on. It’s just a muddle of incomplete comprehension. Darts in the dark. Stupid.

Here’s another:

When you do a factory reset, is the camera re-registered to (potentially) a different server (or pool) for authentication activities? If not, what precisely does a factory reset reset?

I’m about to do the reset now but my inner idiot is screaming:

I must know why I am doing this!
Shhh, inner idiot, the results are all that matter.
NONSENSE! GIVE ME A DIAGRAM!

The inner idiot wins.