The 12 second video clips are stored in the cloud (and the base station if you have an SD card installed. The cloud stored images can be played back on the app.
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Unlike the other Wyze cams, there is no internal continuous recording to play back.
There are only 2 ways to get the camera to continuously record video. You can do a manual recording, or you can do a “Scheduled Recording” over a time period.
Either way, the battery drains much faster while recording. By my observations, you can only record about 10 to 12 hours before the battery is dead. Apparently, that is the reason that the camera does not record continuously to it’s internal storage like the other Wyze cams that are externally powered.
Also, keep in mind that while doing live streaming, manual and scheduled recordings, you will not be generating events and their associated notifications.
Also, the 12-second clips are spaced by a minimum of 1 minute “cooldown”. This make the event recording pretty much useless because you only get the first 12 seconds.
Let’s take the case of a “porch pirate”. The event is most likely going to trigger and use it’s 12 seconds of recording while the bad guy is approaching. After 12 seconds, you are blind for the next full minute - while your stuff is being carried away.
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Can you say, “Class Action” for the early adopters?
I just can’t believe the “Beta” people didn’t point this out as a make/break problem.
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…and cue the “But They Say They’re Not Security Cameras” Chorus.
Though I always think the legal action stuff is way overblown and unneeded.
Well, the 5 cameras I now have will be going on Market Place and my $ will, sadly, be going to an alternative company…
Truly a shame.
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Things to look for in outdoor cameras:
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Push notification
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Wired power or large battery capacity
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PIR (to reduce false detection)
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Full event recording and remote viewing
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Livestream
At least that’s what I’d look for.
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Okay so I just went through this entire thread. Can someone sum this up for me before. I have been going nuts trying to get my outdoor camera to record video. Let me get this right…
Here is my take
-The camera records motion.
-It doesn’t tell you it recorded motion.
-It saves footage it to the cloud, and an SD card?
- It only records 12 seconds and then cools down for 1 minute
-I can’t review the footage from the app.
-The SD card needs to be put into a computer to see footage.
-The only way to set recordings is with a time block for up to 30 days that will ultimately kill my battery.
Is this correct? If so I’m blown away because I truly love WYZE but this is trash. Please someone tell me I am not understanding something.
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Well, I see you didn’t read the fine print and search the back alleys of the forum. 
I did come across this little gem today. Perhaps it applies to Wyze:
“According to the Startup Genome Project, up to 70% of startups scale up too early. They even go as far as saying it can explain up to 90% of failed startups. Premature scaling basically means too much, too soon.”
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12-sec Events are stored in the cloud. Photos, Manual Recordings, Time-Lapse and Scheduled Recordings are stored on the cam’s SD card.
The 12-sec events are viewable from the app like those from any other cam. They are located in the Events tab on the app’s Home page.
Footage on the cams SD card is viewable from the app. Pull up a Live Stream > More > Album > choose a category (Photos, Manual Recordings, Time-Lapse or Scheduled Recordings)
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Thank you so much. For the life of me I cannot get the camera to record anything. I am not sure what I am doing wrong or why. I have motion detection on, I have sensitivity set pretty high. Do I have to setup scheduled recording I order for it to record? I have tried everything.
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I purchased 3 of the outdoor cams, fully expecting similar operation capability of the standard cameras. These outdoor cam limitations are unacceptable and defeat many of the reasons of having the camera in the first place.
If there will be firmware updates to give some of the the original can functionality, even with a faster battery drain, at least then the choice is in the customer’s hands.
I feel misled by Wyze. I shouldn’t have to read fine print, assuming that these deficiencies were noted anywhere at all.
As a possible work-around, does any of the regular cam functionality start to work with the outdoor cam if plugged into power? Does anyone know of a solar panel/external battery pack solution that has been successful?
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I have a word for this situation but… It would be censured
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It appears the Wyze engineers think everything that happens does so in ‘warp speed’ thus 12 seconds would be ample time
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This ‘sticky wicket’ could have been avoided with simple communication.
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I can’t even get the 12 seconds to show up under Album at all. Am I missing something? I have motion detection turned on, an SD card installed in the camera.
I suppose it doesn’t really matter. The limitations of this camera really suck so I am going to return it. It honestly doesn’t even function in a manner that makes sense, back to Arlo I suppose.
Events do not show up under the camera. Go to the home screen and click on Events. They should be there.
Should the SD card in order to record Events be on the camera or the base station? I tried on the base station but I get no events on my iPhone. Thanks team.
You don’t need an SD card to record events, they are stored in the cloud. If you put an SD card in the base station, you can backup the cloud stored events locally. The SD card in the camera is only for time lapse or scheduled recordings.
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