Cam Plus Lite is still available. I don’t believe the Wyze Doorbell was ever compatible with CPL. Only the Pan v1 v2, Outdoor v1 v2 and the Wyze Cam v1 v2 v3 according to the compatible cameras list on this link.
Cam Plus Lite is no longer available for new accounts. When they had that Wyze garage sale in Canada back in April 2024, the V3 cameras were sold as low as $22.49. One user reported that they couldn’t find the Cam Plus Lite anywhere on their service page on April 16 2024.
Not new accounts; new camera models after the V3 and its derivatives. Get a V3 today and Cam Plus Lite should still work.
New accounts aren’t eligible for Cam Plus Lite anymore. I just created a new account to test.
That’s NOT true. CP Lite is still available for V3 and prior cameras; even for new accounts. It’s not available for camera models that came after V3 (and its derivatives).
Your test failed because there’s currently a bug with CP Lite, that Wyze is trying to fix. But it doesn’t mean it’s not available when that bug is finally fixed.
My new account can’t register Cam Plus Lite anywhere in the service page. I added a V3 camera on my new account too. Their FAQ specifically states new account aren’t eligible for CPL as well and notice it was updated 12 days ago. Before that, they never mentioned anything about this.
How do I sign up for Cam Plus Lite?
Cam Plus Lite is not available for new sign ups.
If you signed up for Cam Plus Lite prior to March 2022, you can still continue to use the service. However, Cam Plus Lite is no longer available to new users.
The bug you mentioned is completely separate thing which users aren’t able to enable CPL for a camera, but their account already has CPL.
So glad I found out 2months after purchase the OG cams won’t record the 12s clips as my older cams will. I bought wyze cams from the very beginning. Moving forward I will not being buying any additional wyze cams. It’s on me for not doing my research but who would have thought this feature would disappear w/o a subscription?
Not just the OG, anything released after the v3 (or after approx Jan 2024 I think) does not include cloud recording (except I believe the v3 Pro which is a $50 camera). Tradeoff for the lower price points, especially the OG which sells for $10 sometimes.
I had found the same problem, after just buying a NEW OG cam, only to find this out
Not happy about it…
And the only way to get around it, one is forced to Sign up for the Cam services $$
I didn’t have this issue with the older Version OG cam
The NEW version of OG cam is physically a little different AND the screen color of whatever I view, is off, Old OG Cam, was accurate BUT a bit saturated
NEW version of OG cam Tooo much magenta/ brightness compared to old version of OG
Cam Plus Lite is not offered to new subscribers or new cams - which is any cam that was released after the v3. If you want to use CPL and already have it, you would need to buy v3 cams off amazon or another source.
The original OG cam did not work with CPL either so not sure what you’re referring to there.
Note that some users have noticed that their infinite Cam Plus Lite subscription now shows an expiration of next year, though it says it will auto renew at $0. Nobody is sure if that means it will go away next year or not. So keep that in mind if you do decide to buy v3 cams.
That’s a real bummer
I think my memory served me wrong, …I have had the 3 earlier OG cam’s for some time now
Just picked up another new version one, thinking I would use it to replace my older V3 cam.
Didn’t realize I would run into the issue, the OG cam is not allowed under the Wyze Cam Plus Lite. If has been a while since I installed my older OG cams, so I didn’t remember those were not supported either under CPL …
Overall, I don’t need a Wyze Cam subscription, but ended up subscribing for 1 New OG cam only of the 10 Wyzecam’s that I have…
I had noticed that the other day too, when I was setting up my new OG Cam un CP…
Not happy about that either, and my first thought is they are going to try to push everyone onto the WyzeCam subscription, once everyone reaches that date.
I like products, that a person can buy and own,
Not ones that users, have to stay in a marriage in order to use to the product, to the products fullest capabilities.
That date, I think a lot a people are going to re-evaluate the idea of either keeping or ditching their Wyze products.
And look for ones, that are buy once, and use for the lifetime of the product for free.
Thanks for all the info too!
There is no confirmation that it will end on that date, I suspect it is something related to how the system works and it just has to follow the same renewal process or something, but at $0. But we shall see. I believe a couple of the forum mods/mavens have been trying to get confirmation from Wyze. So it may be nothing. The fact that everyone has a different date may support that theory. One has to assume that some day it will end though, even if not this time.
I’ve never had a subscription with any of my cams, I’m happy with the SD card only. I guess it comes down to the profit model, Wyze sells a lot of the cams at/near cost or even takes a loss in the hope that they’ll make money off subscriptions, but they don’t force you to have a subscription. Other companies charge more for the cams and include a few extra features, but still offer a subscription for other features. Some have really high priced cams with all the features and no subscription (though most of them do still offer cloud storage for a fee etc).
I do believe some day it’s going to end, as with all business, costs have risen in the last 5-6 years. and things are not what they were when v2, or V3’s were released, as the same time, as you had mentioned, OG cam and on, they dont support CPL, so to me, the ship is steering in 1 direction, heading for that island of cash 
For me, I tried the Unlimited some years back, but in trying to save money in every corner of my life, I went to the Free model, and then only signed up for 1 cam, cam plus, and just switch the subscription to the camera I want to use it on…but mostly leaving it assigned to the cam that points out from the front of our home, as that is where I need the real security.
The other side of things, like many people, including me, have multiple cams/devices. Signing them all up, to Wyzecam Plus, would add a large data transmission layer on the network, up to the internet/cloud. Internet connections are always much slower bandwidth, then a local area network… so any added load, further burdens/chokes the internet connection,…Now that they are adding AI to everything the load increases even more…So the LEAST amount of cams assigned to Wyze Cam Pro, the better, better internet speeds.
I haven’t looked much at all the other brands out there, and if there is one that FULLY operates without needing a subscription, I would pay MORE for a CAM if there was no need for any type of subscription…I don’t need Cloud, everyone has cloud storage space, Google, Microsoft etc, and its cheap if one needs more of it.
I’ve never actually tested but I think the cams actually upload the 12 second clip even if you don’t subscribe, so if you do subscribe, you get access to it. But I could be wrong, haven’t had a need to test. Perhaps @carverofchoice knows. I’m guessing even then, they’d probably be 12 second clips and would still have the cooldown, so less bandwidth than a subscription. A 12 second clip is probably between 1 and 1.5 megabytes so not too bad, if your wifi and internet is decent that can be uploaded in under a second.
Yes the AI detections, even though they only use a still frame to do the analysis, if you have a lot of motion/events, can really add up. We see a lot of people here having missed events and often it can be explained by something just being overloaded and not keeping up (2.4ghz wifi is very limited after all).
Many here have been looking at/testing the Tapo cams from TP Link. I remember back when I was choosing Wyze I looked at the online reviews (the guy on youtube Lifehackster does some good side by side comparisons) and at the time the video quality of the Wyze was better, less compression artifacts. That may have changed since then as people here have been speaking highly of the Tapos. A bit more expensive but they include everything except cloud video (onboard smart detections, no cooldown, etc). Personally I’m happy with what I have, but if my needs change I would evalulate again and see where things stand at that point.
Reolink are pretty expensive, but supposedly more features and the ability to have less video compression. But there was a person on this forum that was constantly pushing them, flat out SPAM, and constantly bashing Wyze. It really turned me off to even considering the brand, and I think given the price there are better options anyway.
Of course the ideal would be a true hardwired NVR like Lorex or similar but I don’t have the need for anything that costly.
One thing I did learn from here like 6 months ago is that even without a subscription, you can view one single cam in the web view portal. They added that feature like a year or so ago. You can only change the cam once per month. I haven’t actually used it but nice to know the feature is there.
Here are two sample videos to compare. Here is my Wyze v3 Cloud Event video download.
Here is a clip from my Tapo C121 recorded to my Tapo H500 Hub with a 2.5 inch hard drive.
In fairness the v3 is 1080p and the C121 is a 2K camera.
I do not have SD cards in the Tapo cameras. I bought a Tapo H500 Hub on sale for $127 and put in a 2.5 inch hard drive I had on my shelf. The C121 cameras I bought on sale for $29.99 each.
I am still satisfied with my Wyze v3 cameras on Cam Plus Lite. I am having fun playing around with Tapo.
It was specifically motion that the Tapo (whatever model competed with the OG at the time) where there was a big difference. Again that was a few years ago and I’m sure things have changed. I believe I also watched his comparison of the v4 and whatever equivalent tapo there was at the time and can to the same conclusion.
I did actually get and test a v3 as the night clarity was better but I saw the same issues as in the reviews and returned it.
I would love a cam that lets you choose the compression level. I’d give up the amount of time available on SD card in exchange for less compression. When I calculated it out, wyze was over 99.9% compression on 1080P, and the 2K and 4K cams are even worse.
For me, my internet speed is FIOS 1 Gigabit, but with 10 cams, outdoor power switch, and then all the other computers on my network Window Servers and such, I noticed the Wyze cams are somewhat chatty, when I monitor the IP traffic, and such…Having the subscription to all my Wyze stuff, I do believe there will be a lot more traffic, 3 of my Wyze cams point to very active areas so that also adds to the bandwidth usage…
For me, I don’t need the Wyze AI stuff, I don’t find it detecting/ID’ing very well…and figure that is just more overhead on the cams..----- I totally agree what you mentioned 2.4Ghz is very limited, an in my area there are MANY other wireless networks in the area…so the interference, is high, which in turn affects Wifi performance…I wish they came out with a 5g cam …also IPv6 support…
I HIGHLY recommend DO NOT buy ANYTHING from TP-LINK
There are HUGE security concerns, since TP-LINK is a Chinese company, and ALL companies are controlled by the Chinese Communist Gov.
There are TONS of national security news events, of China , hacking, stealing, etc over the years
AND also installing Backdoor access on Super Micro Server Motherboards, just to name a few instances
The U.S. Gov, has also issued warning, and restrictions on TP-LINK equipment.
Also this
When China tries to take over Taiwan, there will be a war, and all the backdoors, China has installed around the world will be used by China, to try to take down / disrupt other countries that try to stop China’s aggression…
This is a much larger topic, but overall, Stay away from any electronics made in China
I had seen that, regarding the Web Site Access to ones cams…NOT happy about it
It adds another layer of Security Risks to every Wyze customer…
I don’t and won’t use it ever…and wish they had to option to disable it…
I worked in IT for many years, and also stay on top of security, and all the security threats
Web Servers, are high risk, and attacked often.. and Web Servers are providing access globally, to your web cams…A hackers dream
Both to me, look very close in image quality.
I never heard of Tapo, and looked it up, It turns out to be TP-Link
As good as they are, I would never consider a Chinese made camera, or network equipment, as All companies in China, are controlled by the Chinese communist government, and there are 1000’s of news stories on all the Chinese security threats, security attacks, hacking, etc to American gov, mil, bus, and personal accounts…
U.S Gov has banned foreign made network equipment since is posses such a high security threat.
I can almost guarantee, if you monitored the IP traffic, from the Tapo hub or cams, or even TP-LINK equipment, you will see IP traffic going back to China…
On my routers, Sophos XG Firewall, I have blocked ALL traffic to China,
MuMu Android Emulator for which I run Wyze APP on my desktop and access all my Wyzecams, tries to communicate with China very often…So I blocked all access to China, and other high risk countries, known for attacks against the U.S. /users etc…
With FIOS you have symmetrical speeds so around 950 megs up and down. That’s plenty for pretty much anything you can throw at it from your home.
That’s where your limitation is going to be (as is the case for most people).
They have one or two, but the shorter range and higher power consumption usually doesn’t make sense for low bandwidth IOT stuff.
I don’t know if any of their cams have IPv6 support or not, but for home users, honestly I wish they wouldn’t support it. The number of people I see who are trying to troubleshoot a game not working or some other thing and “disabled my firewall” - with v4 you still have the safety net of hide NAT blocking incoming connections. With v6, you disable your firewall, you’re exposed. Not to mention you’re putting a lot of trust in that cheap home router’s firewall as your only line of defense. There’s really no need for v6 on these cams, it offers no benefit.
Wifi 6 or 7 support on the 2.4ghz band would be somewhat beneficial, they’ve added some better coexistence and noise handling over the very old wifi 4. But those chips are still expensive, at least when compared to the cost of the older ones.
I get where you’re coming from, but the same used to be said about Wyze. Their cameras are made in china, and used to use Chinese servers. Some still attempt to do DNS lookups to Chinese servers due to leftover code in the firmware.
Much of what AI gave you in that answer applies to virtually every router out there. Firmware exploits, EOL devices (that aren’t getting security updates), having a weak default login, that’s nothing to do with TP Link specifically. As far as “national security concerns” - just about every electronic device you own is partially or fully made in China.
Regardless of the brand of camera (or any IOT device), it should be isolated on its own network without access to your main LAN. All my IOT stuff is set up that way, separate SSID, separate VLAN, with two layers of firewall in between. No “cloud camera” should ever be set up in a private area, at least not when people are present. Those are rules of thumb to follow regardless of camera brand.
The router ban is a political move, nothing more, nothing less. It only applies to residential routers, if they were actually concerned, they’d be focused on commercial equipment, which is where the real valuable data lies. It will be short lived, Asus, TP Link, and others will end up giving the US some concession in the trade war and the ban will go away. Even if you manage to find a router assembled in the US, the guts are all made overseas, whether in China, or in another country with links to China.
Ensure you have 2FA on your account, regardless of whether you use it or not. The app is just as hackable as the web view. You don’t even want to know about the API Wyze has that bypasses 2FA and much of their security (though at least in that case you have to log in and generate an API key, however secure that may or may not be). And as I said, don’t have an internet based camera anywhere you wouldn’t want a stranger to see.
Virtually every IOT device, heck virtually any networked electronic device in the home environment, is a hacker’s dream. You’d be hard pressed to find an IOT company that has not had a breach or vulnerability exploited.
Just to re-iterate, Wyze cams are made in China.