V3 monitoring from multiple devices

I’ve posted this issue previously but as part of another issue. Now I would like to address it by itself:

First off, I do have a strong Wi-Fi signal.
My problem is that when I am monitoring my cameras (5 - V3’s) from one device like say my iPad I have only occasional signal issues. However, if I begin monitoring from 2 devices simultaneously (say iPad and iPhone) I almost immediately get connection issues and get that little arrow in a circle in the middle of the image and have to tap it to get it restarted on either-or both devices. That problem continues frequently as long as I have 2 devices monitoring at the same time. When I shut down either of the 2 devices the remaining device goes back to only minimal interruptions.

As I would like to be able to monitor from multiple devices simultaneously, I’m looking for some suggestions here. Any help with this would be appreciated…tlhutch4

Strong signal and data rate capability have very little in common (although really crappy signal strength will drop data rate). This definitely sounds like you are trying to send more data than your WiFi or network can handle. Can I assume that all five phones and both phones are on the same WiFi? What are you using for WiFi (be as specific as you can be). If you are watching from a different location or with the phones either on a different WiFi or using cellular data, that brings up another question. What do you have for internet connectivity?
Enough for now…

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I don’t have a real answer since it was long ago and supposedly no longer a problem however, we went through a very similar issue. This was back before V3 cameras, and we had several V2. We had a wall mounted tablet displaying cameras and whenever my wife would log on to a camera used as a baby monitor at nap time with her iPhone, it would either freeze or lose connection on either her phone, the wall mounted tablet or both.
Anyway, after several support emails and calls with Wyze, we determined that the problem was that the cameras were grouped together. Wyze acknowledged at the time that they had seen this issue with others using multiple devices with grouped cameras. They worked fine while grouped if only being viewed on one device, or maybe even two at a time depending on individual setups. When ungrouped, there was no issue even if we used 4 devices to view the cameras at one time.
At the time, support was unable to come up with either a reason for the grouping issue or a fix. Since our need was to have the wall mounted tablets and also be able to access the feeds from phones at the same time, we had to ungroup them and since we got used to it that way, we still keep them like that.
As far as I know, it wasn’t an issue anymore, but just as a test, if you have them grouped, you may want to try ungrouping them and see if it makes a difference. If they work ungrouped, then maybe the issue still exists.

Big difference in watching a group showing four cameras and watching a single camera - only a quarter as much data being sent.

True, but the problem wasn’t viewing four cameras at a time, we could do that just fine if it was only on one device. The problem was if we were viewing those cameras on a device and then other devices tried to view them at the same time, they would often lose connection. Actually, now that I think back to the problem and the conversations with Wyze, it would happen even when viewing just a single camera on multiple devices at once, but only if that single camera was part of a group. Once the camera was removed from the group, multiple devices were no longer a problem.

raym64
Thanks for your input. My 5 cameras are all in one group. I will try ungrouping them as you suggested and post results…,tlhutch4

Raym64
I have ungrouped my (5) V3 cams as you suggested. However, I haven’t found a way to view all 5 at once on my device since they are no longer grouped. Can you or someone else help ?..tlhutch4

I suggested the ungrouping as a test because of the previous problem I had. Were you able to stream on multiple devices one at a time while ungrouped without disconnect?
For viewing all at once, the only option I can think of besides grouping on a phone is TinyCam if you use Android. I use Apple devices and grouping is the only option besides maybe WebView which I’ve never used so I can’t tell you how that works, other than I think it requires CamPlus

Raym64,
Thanks for the clarification. After I sent my previous post to you, I thought that may be what you meant.

Meanwhile I have Grouped my cameras in 2 separate groups now (3 in one group and 2 in the other) to see if that reduces the frequency of disconnects that I was seeing with all 5 in one group. I’m don’t know if my logic is valid or not but I’m currently testing with each group open simultaneously on 2 different devices.
Group 1 is 3 devices open on my iPad
Group 2 is 2 devices open on my iPhone

So far, no disconnects but it’s only been 20 min. Time will tell better. If you like I will update you or anyone else that may be interested with results after a longer test time…tlhutch4

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Please do, any info could be helpful to someone else in the future

As @raym64 said, updating helps other users that might run into same issues.

For whatever is worth, [EDIT and judging by your multiple posts on the forum] I still think that you have an issue with your network as I am not seeing any of the problems you have on my end. I can view multiple live views on both my iPhone and iPad with no problems.

Update on testing of my disconnecting cams:

I created 2 groups for the cameras
Group 1- 4 cameras
Group 2- 1 camera

3 of the cameras are indoors and 2 are placed outside. Turns out that the only cameras that are disconnecting on a regular basis are the 2 outside cameras. One of those 2 outside cameras is located a fair distance from the house.

The good news is that all of the cameras continue to record to the SD cards continuously and I can view the recordings without issues.

Side note; I tried different group configurations and no matter how I grouped them I got the same result.

I think that is your problem. WiFi has a hard time reaching to your cameras hence all the issues.
I was in the same boat like you, pulling my hair (whatever is left of it), trying to figure out what’s going on with my cameras.

I have two locations some 600Km away from each other, on two different ISPs, on two different networks. One ISP is strong, 100MBs down-10MBs Up, the other one is only 10MBs down-1MBs up, and that is ideal, but it never is. The one in the city (the strong ISP) no issues with cameras. They work flawlessly, The other one, not so much. Constant disconnects, hard time viewing footage. Need to remotely reboot them via smart plugs (some times multiple times).

I learned to live with it and find some work arounds. I plugged ISP supplied (what a crap piece of equipment) modem/router combo to a smart plug connected to a timer plug set to reboot every day at 4:00AM. Solved so many issues. The smart plug on the modem is my redundancy backup in case the ISP acts in the middle of day (it happens more often than I’d like to admit). Also cameras are plugged into their own smart plugs, another redundancy measure.

So far it’s working okay, waiting for better ISP choice.

What I would suggest is, get a new, better router with return policy. Give it a try and see if it improves things. If it does, keep it. If it doesn’t return it. No lost love except few hours of your time.

Good luck and have fun :slight_smile:

Thanks Habib,
I have a very new Orbi (Netgear) router with a satellite. So, it’s very decent.

It’s not like I’m losing anything when the cams disconnect because they are all set to record continuously to their SD cards so I can always retrieve the recordings. Only issue is that when they are down, they don’t get backed up to the cloud which I guess isn’t really that big a deal.

My setup;
All cams are set up with Smart Plugs
My router allows me to reboot it remotely

Therefore, if cams go down, I can restore them with smart plugs and if Smart Plugs go down, I can remotely reboot the router and get them back online.

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That’s good setup you have there. :+1:

Thanks, tlhutch4. We’re getting ready to buy a system for the house, and read about problems with another brand allowing access to more than 1 phone at a time. Seems like that could be troublesome. I can imagine getting an alert, seeing something odd, and texting my wife to look at the camera also. Not having seen any mention on various sites about the V3 Pro capability to allow multiple devices to access the app simultaneously, I wondered, so joined the forum and rooted around a bit. Thanks for the info.

Hebu,
I have been trying to work through this issue with my cams and am making progress with the much appreciated guidance from others on this forum such as Habib and Raym64. They have persuaded me that my issue with random disconnects has more to do with signal strength on my “further out” cams than access from multiple devices simultaneously. This is turning out to be the case.

Currently I am having very few disconnects except the farthest out one. And by far out I mean way out in my backyard. I’ll attach a screenshot. Other inside cams have almost NO disconnects.

By the way, even when they do disconnect it’s not a real issue or me because they are set to continuous recording and remain recording to my SD card which I can review regardless of whether or not they are connected. Only issue would be that they aren’t sending footage (while disconnected) to the cloud which is not a real issue for me. When the signal is restored, they start recording to the cloud again.

The camera with a week signal is right next to the red light on the far left of the attached photo.

Thanks! I don’t think distance from the camera to the router will be an issue for me. I just want to be sure my wife and I can both access the app/cameras at the same time. I can imagine seeing something thru the app, and telling my wife to, “Go to the app and look at that”. I suspect it’s not a problem since I see no mention or complaints from users or reviewers.

The issue that @tlhutch4 is having is isolated and usually caused by WiFi instability, in his case distance. It can also be caused by overcrowded channel or to many devices. I have 24/7 live view on two of my cameras on an iPad in my office. I can simultaneously view them on my iPhone, my wife’s iPhone and iPad with no issues from anywhere internet is available.

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Herbu,
My experience with the Wyze V3 has been great. Going into it I was a neophyte for sure. Some of the people on this forum have been great in getting me up to speed (or at least where I am now).

I got in gradually with a small investment and bought one V3. Over time I have purchased several more plus a Wyze doorbell pro. It’s been months in the making but I am now getting very comfortable with the V3’s, the Wyze app and the Forum. I had many many things to learn but have enjoyed doing so and the challenge has been fun……tlhutch4

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