V3 Camera stolen, need alert when camera disconnects

Hello,
It has been frustrating that the Wyze app no longer lets you receive alerts for ONLY person.
So I have turned off notifications due to living on a busy street and cars being detected as VEHICLE.

Today, Oct 5, around 8am. Someone tried to break into my place but was unsuccessful. Before they left, they stole two of my Wyze V3 camera (mounted on the outside, under the overhangs).

A few questions.

  1. Does Wyze have warranty replacement for stolen cameras?
  2. Why doesnt PERSON ONLY notification no longer works?!
  3. Why doesnt Wyze automatically notify you that one of your camera is offline?
  4. Why is getting ahold of someone from support so difficult?
  5. Any way to report it stolen, to blacklist it from being used by theft?
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Firstly I’m so sorry to hear about the theft.
Also, welcome to the community. This is mostly a forum of other Wyze users, but I’ll be happy to provide my own personal understandings of the answers to your questions (though I don’t represent Wyze in any official way).

  1. Does Wyze have warranty replacement for stolen cameras?

    • Not at this time. For now the best option is to try to have these things covered under some kind of insurance such as Home Owners or Renters Insurance. There is a wishlist to have Wyze offer theft insurance together with their Cam Plus subscription:
      Cam plus subscription - include theft protection but if we’re just talking about the warranty, then no, here is a copy of the warranty: Refund policy – Wyze
  2. Why doesnt PERSON ONLY notification no longer works?!

    • In short, Apple bought out the rights to the code that previously allowed this be on the limited memory cams for free, then Apple said nobody else was allowed to use that code anymore. Wyze created their own Cloud based AI alternative and initially made it free, but with Wyze using such a low profit margin business model, their finance advisor indicated the cloud processing was using too much of their limited resources and it was not sustainable to keep offering for free when their cameras are so low in cost with not enough profit margin to make up for it. Wyze has indicated in other AMA’s and such that they MAY consider creating another local person detection option on a future Wyze device that could more easily handle that. It may or may not ever happen now that they’ve invested so much in their advanced cloud AI, but it wasn’t ruled out, and they have even had job postings for Edge(local) AI solutions, so who knows what the future holds. For now, you can subscribe to Cam Plus and get just person notifications (that’s what I do, I have it for all my cams and I have some of them only tell me about person notifications and nothing else), but I was assuming you were talking about a free option. You can sometimes use detection zones and sensitivity levels to help with this (I used to do this on cams that didn’t have person detection). Still, none of that makes a difference to the current situation though. Even if we ever eventually get free person detection again, it won’t undo the emotional and financial distress these people inflicted on you currently. I hope Law Enforcement can help in some way (your home or renters insurance might also be able to help).
  3. Why doesnt Wyze automatically notify you that one of your camera is offline?

    • I am showing that Wyze says they are researching doing this. There is a wishlist item for this. I recommend going to the following link and voting your support for implementing this:
      Loss of Communication/Network Connection Notification & Log
      I also voted for this wishlist item and agree that it would be a great feature.
  4. Why is getting ahold of someone from support so difficult?

    • There are a lot of things that contribute to this. It is a big problem in general for lots of companies right now, including companies I personally have ownership in. Regardless of the causes, I’ll talk about solutions. I personally like to contact Wyze by email instead of by phone. This allows me to explain everything I think is important, send it to them and then go do whatever else I want while I wait. When they reply, I can get back to it whenever I feel like it, whenever is convenient for me. I can do it in cracks of time. I love the email support for this reason. I totally understand that some people prefer phone interaction and immediate responses though, so I am glad they still allow that option. Different times of day have lower hold times though. I think most people are calling when they get off work and are free, but since everyone else is also doing that, the hold times will be worse then. Wyze recently said after they got a lot of investor money that they are using some of it to make upgrades to their customer service, so I expect to see improvements coming.
  5. Any way to report it stolen, to blacklist it from being used by theft?

    • Not that I am aware of. As I recall, Wyze has been working on making harder to use stolen devices with some of the recent models. I don’t recall the details off-hand (maybe someone else will chime in), but for now, I personally would keep those cameras on my account (not delete the device). Depending on the particular model, I think there is at least one of them that has problems activating to a new account if it hasn’t been deleted out of the old one. I could be wrong on that though.

Again, those are my understandings to the answers to the questions. I wish there was some way I could help better. Did any of the cloud events capture the perpetrators at all? I hope you hurry and download or save those events if they were captured on the cloud events. And I assume Law enforcement was contacted. Maybe insurance can help restore some of the loss.

5 Likes

Person works for me. Since your cams were stolen I assume they were installed on the metal disc with the magnet ? My cams are attached to the wood siding with the provided screw and you need at least a 6 foot step ladder to reach them and you’ll also need a screw driver or a baseball bat to knock them off the wall.
Did you try to call WYZE support 206-339-9646 or 1-844-999-3226. I do not think any company has a warranty for stolen cameras. You can call support and give them the information of the cameras like the MAC address and so on if you have it. Don’t delete the cams from you account. Sorry for your cam loss.

Thank you for the reply. That sucks that the PERSON only feature went away, thought it might come back.

As long as the thief cant just factory reset it and use it, I’ll be happy enough. Wish there was a way to take it as stolen on the app though.

2 Likes

Thank you for the reply. On the screenshot you posted, you are also getting other alerts.

In the past, there was a toggle for PERSON ONLY. But it went away, the person above you explained the reasoning for it.

It’s hard to explain, but my back yard has a patio area where the roofline drops down to 8ft, so it look the thief jumped up and ripped it right down.

Yes the other events are from one of my Battery Powered WYZE Cam Outdoor, the person was from a V3 with cam plus. I do know that the WYZE Cam Outdoor can not be used by someone who steals it unless they also steal the base and you delete both from your account. You need to ask WYZE support or someone smarter than me if another “Criminal” who steals your V3 can set it up and use it. I don’t believe they stole the cams to use, just to get rid of the video recording. Did you get any cloud event recordings of the camera being knocked off or removed??

Just to confirm, are you talking about the CAMPLUS person detection or the legacy “pay what you want” person detection? If CAMPLUS, the settings moved to a new location during a recent app update/firmware update, whichever it was. is that what you mean by “went away”?

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Yes, what do you mean by went away? Please post screen shots. Both my V3s with Cam Plus and my V2’s with legacy person detection are still running great.

Someone removed the camera from an overhang? That’s tough, did it transmit an Event during the time it took them to do that?

Thus, with a stole cam with CamPlus activated, how do I review uploaded footage?
View playback does not work if cam is disconnected

Thanks
Andrea

Anything (camplus, cloud events) that was uploaded successfully will show up in the event tab.

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Uploaded events (CamPlus or otherwise) are viewed on the Events tab. That requires that your phone be connected to the internet, but the status of the camera does not matter.
Local camera uSD card recordings are accessed from the “View Playback” on that camera. That requires that the camera and your phone be connected to the internet.

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Replace with a Nest cam as they cover stolen cameras if a report is made within 30 days.

Ring also has a similar subscription deal with stolen cameras replacement too.

Other brands may do the same, do your research…