I thought this was a one off, but its happened multiple times now, to different cameras at different locations i have. i accept a $20 dollar camera/bridge setup will need an occational reboot due to unhandled software issues, but Wyze intentionally decided to indicate bridge offline with continuous orange/blue flashing lights that needs a powercycle to stop.
I have never seen a cctv camera advertise that it is offline like this . If I open the Wyze app and check the sensors. they all show up as offline with cloud symbols, so the Wyze app KNOWS that the bridge has a problem (btw sometimes the camera will still be sending video, so casually glancing at the Wyze app will give you the impression that all is ok, you have to check the sensors manually). If the app knows there is an issue, why dosnt it send orange/blue flashing notifications to my smartphone, rather than light up the house like a christmas tree when our devices go offline. We live in a remote area, the flashing can be seen for miles at night.
Before someone asks, no i dont have camera nor bridge light indicatior ticked on & i cant tape over the LEDs as some are mounted high up in places difficult to access. Wyze please replace this flash with a soft beep from the internal speaker. thanks
One kludge that might help is to have the bridge on a different camera that you keep inside or out of sight. Then plug that camera into a smart plug that you can cycle off and on (Wyze branded or otherwise).
you wont know from the app that you need to power cycle, unless you go outside to check.
granted a workaround is to get to each wyzecam bridge and tape over the led light, but I have some on the roof in weatherproof housings. I had thought that if I chose the setting “turn bridge status light” off , there would be no need for tape.
But don’t you have two other workarounds available, one of which you mentioned? 1. Check the app to see if the sensors are offline. Or, 2. Schedule a periodic restart of the camera / bridge via a smart plug.
Why use a smart plug to restart a camera? Unless you want a full power off and on. A rule can be made in app to soft reset of a camera without the added use of a plug.
How many bridges do you have? How big is the area where all your sensors are? Maybe since this is a big deal to you, maybe you should take some time and visit all your bridges and place tape over the lights. Seems like it would be worth it vs the worry about having the lights be visible. I don’t think a regular person on the street would see flashing lights from a camera and even think about that location sensors are offline now.
So replace a blinking light that is only visible at night to a beep than can be heard at all times of the day? But to my point above again, regular person still won’t be able to connect that to sensors being online.
I’d vote for a rule trigger or atleast a general device notification when stuff goes offline.
Come on, we know that turning “off” the camera in the app really doesn’t do much of anything and certainly doesn’t cleanly power cycle the camera or even reboot it. It even continues transmitting and draws the same amount of power, reportedly, whether on or off in the app.
To really reset his bridges I’m pretty sure he needs a true power recycling, which is why I suggested a smart plug.
I am puzzled at the enthusiasm from some to ignore that there is a bug here that needs fixing and declare that this issue has a workaround by adding adding a smart plug (which wouldnt keep the bridge from lighting up at night anyways ) . I already shared the only real workaround , if you can readily access your bridge, cover the LED with tape.
In the Bridge setup , there is a toggle switch, to disable the Bridge Status Light. The code inside the Wyze Cam/Bridge is ignoring that setting.
Have you created a support ticket to let Wyze know? The forum are mainly user to user, but the ticket system are where this should go to report this. Support ticket link.. Thanks for bringing this forward.!
jdstolz91 had confirmed this issue is not related to just my wyzecam,
its a bug that is general to all WyzeCam/Bridge setups.
I put it here to raise awareness amongst other Wyze users who are also affected by it. Hopefully it get enough votes to warrant attention by Wyze developers . thanks
Like I stated above, thanks again for bringing this forward to the group. Unless you are proposing a new feature or request, I think this thread is best served in the “ask the community” section. There is an existing wishlist item that talks about notifications for products going offline here:
@Customer, I don’t officially know what occurs when the “reset” rule action or manual button is pressed, but whatever soft reset or action occurs I believe clears some issues. I also believe that it is a bandaid for some persistent known issues, but unless those are fixed via update I’d rather put on a bandaid than let it sit and do nothing.
As mentioned above, there is a toggle switch in the app to turn off the bridge status light. I can confirm this works for a connected bridge. If that doesn’t work for any of you, a Support Request should be filed.
I do not know if this toggle also disables the status light when the bridge goes offline. If anyone (preferably two people) can confirm that the toggle works for a normal status light but is ignored for an offline bridge, then I will re-title this topic “Make bridge status light toggle effective when bridge goes offline (flashing yellow/blue)” and keep it in the #wishlist.
If not, then I’ll move the topic to #ask-the-community.
@Loki yes “Make bridge status light toggle effective when bridge goes offline (flashing yellow/blue)” describes the bug in the app UI that forces me to cycle the power. But the other bug is in the camera itself, if the camera manages to reconnect and continue to send video , then it should be able to check that the status lights should be off if the user had chosen to have no status lights on. thanks
if it helps, i also notice that the orange/blue flashing lights come on after a firmware upgrade , instead of using my preference choices. i suspect that the lights are somehow being given a default setting .
With all devices it’s good to triple check your settings after an upgrade. Sometimes new firmware includes a new settings file that reverts things. (Example: do you have a pancam and did the default tilt now face the ground after the firmware upgrade?). Thanks for the reply.
huh? an upgrade should not cause loss of any settings. that’s a bug. if it’s happening to you too, instead of living with it, I ask you to document it here in this thread so it will eventually get fixed. thanks
