I’ve been using Wyze cams since at least 2019. This morning I discovered that all of them had abruptly stopped working. Meanwhile all of my other, non-Wyze wifi devices were working fine, and my internet connection was as solid as ever. Even so, I rebooted my wifi and cable modem numerous times and rebooted each of the cameras. When that didn’t work I tried deleting a cam from the app and going through the steps of re-adding it . But that is no longer possible. Each time I get as far as scanning the QR code. Then the camera fails to connect and the e-voice tells me to try again. And again and again.
I finally called Wyze support. (Ticket no. 4345963). The young woman I talked to was very personable and tried to help, running me through the same steps I had already tried. Finally all she could advise was to wait an hour or two and try again. Which I did to no avail. The cameras – a mix of V3s, V2s, and the original pan cam – all show that they last registered an image on April 21 or 22.
I wondered if they all may have been bricked by the last firmware update. Digging into the Wyze forums, I found information about manually flashing the cams with a firmware update. So I tried that several times with three of them. It is striking how little Wyze’s own instructions for this procedure comport with reality. For example, after downloading the appropriate file from Wyze (in this case for a V2), one is told to unzip it. But the file is not a zip file but a bin file, already unzipped. OK, no big deal. But it gets worse. Once the memory card with the file is inserted into the cam, and it is powered up according to the instructions, I’m told that the status light will be solid purple — red and blue at the same time. But no, red and blue blink alternately. I’m told that after up to five minutes the firmware update will be complete, the light will turn blue, and I can use the cam again. But that never happens.
Finally I have given up and ordered five TP-Link cams from Amazon. After more than five years Wyze has lost me as a customer.
Are you using an ISP supplied router for your internet? Did they roll out a firmware update over night?
Even if you’re running your own router, check and see if it has auto firmware updates.
None of those cams got any firmware updates recently and it would be extremely unlikely that they’d roll out new firmware for multiple models at once anyway. Something has changed with your internet, perhaps a new router firmware has changed to “WPA2/3” as default which many IOT devices do not like. Or if your ISP router has a blacklist/“advanced security” feature, updates they push out to those are known to cause havoc on many IOT devices, especially ones that send video.
I’d recommend trying one of your cams on someone else’s wifi, or using a cellular hotspot, etc. Just to confirm if it is your home internet or not.
Thank you for your reply. I checked the logs of my router – Comcast Business model – and there were no events in recent weeks indicating a firmware update. Interestingly the Wyze devices all appear in the list of connected devices, so they are reaching my router via wifi. And with each otherwise defunct camera, I can see in the app that it is getting a strong wifi signal. But there is no longer the ability to connect beyond that point to the Wyze server somewhere out there on the internet. Meanwhile I am having no other issues with my LAN or WAN internet connection.
Comcast/Xfinity “advanced security” is notorious for exactly the symptoms you’re describing. So while they may not have rolled out a firmware update, they probably added a Wyze IP or protocol to their blacklist. I know with their home routers you can disable advanced security (which is actually very non-advanced), even if just for testing. May want to log into your account and see if you can try turning it off as a test. Honestly, if you leave it off, it isn’t a big deal, it isn’t really doing much for you other than causing headaches.
The other possibility is some routing issue in their network or maybe with their DNS servers, but I’d expect to see more people reporting it in here (though who knows, maybe support is getting a bunch of calls).
Dave, thanks again. That’s an interesting idea. I’ve confirmed, however, that I have security on the router set to low/minimum. (This is a static ipv6 address on which I also run a Postfix mailserver and Apache web server.)
I just finished installing two of the three TP-Link stationary cams I ordered, and they are working beautifully. One more to go. Tomorrow I should receive two pan cams.
It’s too bad. I’ve liked and often recommended Wyze for years.
Thanks, but I think I’ve ruled that out. As mentioned earlier, every other one of my wifi devices (non Wyze) works fine. Neither my SSID, wifi password, or security protocol have changed. I’ve confirmed that each camera is being registered by my internet router. I can even ping them with their local ip addresses. But somehow they are apparently not reaching beyond my router to the Wyze servers. If I knew the Wyze server IP addresses I could test that theory.
Wyze uses a couple smaller hosting companies for some of the cams (even the newest v4 goes through those companies for some purposes) and they do seem to be prone to ISP blocking. They’re not the only ones, there have been similar complaints for many IOT vendors and Xfinity is very commonly one of the ones with issues (though there have been other ISPs).
If you want to rule out a problem with the cams (for resale or giving away to someone) just try to set one up on someone else’s wifi or even a hotspot cellular connection. I’m guessing it will probably work fine.
They symptoms you describe (connected to wifi fine, pingable, etc) but not able to come fully online are exactly what people see when the internet portion of the connection is blocked. The cam can’t complete authentication (with Wyze’s internet servers) to confirm you’re authorized to view it, so it won’t connect to your app, or in some cases it can authenticate but the video stream itself is blocked.
Have never seen an ISP all out block Wyze servers, it is usually a router’s security features (IP blacklist, DNS filtering, intrusion detection, etc) that false positive and block it.
Dave, thanks. That sounds plausible. It has to be somewhere between my router and Wyze’s where the packets are being blocked. I’ll try with another wifi when I get the chance.
As Previously mentioned I would just turn the wifi off on your phone and try a cell connection. I use the cell connection all the time on my iPhone while I am out wandering around on the Golf Course or in a different state.
Dave – you nailed it! Comcast Business accounts have an option called Security Edge that does regular scans and blocks what it interprets as suspicious sites. This was not something that is enabled through the router but at the level of the Comcast web account. As soon as this was disabled, I could reinstall the cams. Thanks so much for pointing me in this direction.
Comcast/Xfinity are a bunch liars and full of
I have my own modem/router with normal speed on my plan on the 5.0 network 585 down and 40 up, the 2.4 network is 100 down and 40 up. A month ago I called the because my download was 0.9 up and upload would not work. A tech came here on a Sunday and said all signals were good and said it was probably my modem/router even though the logs showed nothing. I kept restarting my gear once a day for two days and ordered a new modem/router. The new equipment is still in the box because after two days everything was back to working as it has been for the last two years +. I don’t trust anything they say.
Sorry, I should have emphasized that part, all their “extra security” features (yours is just the business version of the home account’s “advanced security” and likely uses the same definitions and blacklists) is done via your account and not the router admin page. I pretty much tell everyone to disable it, it is an extremely blunt tool, and causes more problems than it solves. The biggest issue, at least with the home version, is you cannot add exemptions or really even see that it is blocking something. Basically all or nothing.
A few of the low cost hosting providers that Wyze uses for most of the cams video feeds (not the OGs for some reason, those are strictly AWS) are probably prone to being used for malicious things, so Wyze isn’t totally absent of fault here, but various other IOT brands are guilty of the same thing, they need to keep costs low.
Glad it is working, at least now you know the cameras are safe to resell/give away/use for a different purpose.
I am away from him and go on the app to see something on one of my camera and every freaking one is off. I hit the button to turn them on and every single freaking one says “offline.” What the crap?! I have been with this company a long time and this has gotten to the ridiculous level. I use these for security and to keep an eye on my dog. But they are worthless when they are shut off (they are on automations I created so should be on!) and then every single darn one is offline. What a joke!
Probably make sense to start your own thread. It sounds like a connectivity issue on your home wifi, cameras not able to connect to the internet, or maybe your cellular provider, but without more info hard to say.
If they can’t communicate with the Wyze servers, the automations won’t run, but it could also be that the automations ran fine and you just aren’t able to connect to them from the current network you’re on for some reason.
Honestly, regardless of what these brands may tell you, cheap wifi “cloud cams” from any brand are not security cameras. “Monitoring” at best.
