I tried to use a V4 as a bodycam, set to continuous recording, by powering it with a power bank. It turned out the V4 stopped recording when it went offline,
Can someone confirm this is the case for V4?
Thanks.
I tried to use a V4 as a bodycam, set to continuous recording, by powering it with a power bank. It turned out the V4 stopped recording when it went offline,
Can someone confirm this is the case for V4?
Thanks.
should record but bugs may disable recording.
there are tons of bugs in firmware and in app.
when i try retrieve sd card recording from my bcp, using app on samsung galaxy tab i have similar gaps as on your screenshot, it turns i had to unlock screen orientation, restart app and only then time slider works.
also time slider disappears when i switch back to landscape full screen.
i emailed support about this but no response.
sadly many today’s products not only from wyze are not ready for prime time.
they use us customers as beta testers but we pay them for fixing their problems
For a different thread a few days ago I tested this with one of my V4 cameras. The cameras was in my truck as a dashcam, so it lost WiFi when I drove away from home. About 100 minutes later I returned to the house and WiFi coverage. The camera recorded continuously while I was out of WiFi coverage.
As a note, if the camera loses power while out of Internet coverage, any of the Wyze cameras will not resume any functionality until they are able to check in with the Wyze servers.
Thanks. You are right. Connected the V4 to a separate wifi router. The V4 keeps recording even that wifi router was turned off, But the V4, still offline, stopped recording after I power cycled it. The V4 resumed recording when the wifi router was turned back on and the V4 was back online.
I will try a different power bank or cable when I use the V4 as a bodycam when I walk the park this evening.
I did a similar test where I turned off my network and then power cycled my V3 cameras. I was able to view playback footage in the app all the way until I power cycled the cameras.
Afterwards, I removed the micro SD card and inspected it. I found out that it still records the footage even after power cycle, but the problem is it gets saved in another random generated dated folder with the timestamp all screwed up. Once you know the date of that folder, you can actually access the footage in the app on that specific date.
I believe it requires online authentication to match the micro SD recording chronologically so you can playback the footage in the app.
As far as I know, V2, V3, V3 Pro, V4’s recordings playback fine in the app as long as you don’t power cycle them even with the network is offline. I did a 4 hour test with the network being offline and the V3 could playback fine in the app.
On the other hand, the OG will record for an additional 30 minute after your network goes down even if you didn’t power cycle them. Afterwards, it starts generating a random dated folder to save the recordings. You will need to physically remove the micro SD and play it back on a PC or a phone. Having said that if you know the folder date, then I believe you can play it back in the app as well.
Recently, the latest beta 4.36.12.9357 and 4.58.12.9357 firmware that was released for V3 and V3 Pro respectively mimics OG behavior above so I don’t recommend you updating to that firmware as noted here and here if you have them.
They also released 4.49.12.9357 beta for Cam Pan V2, but I don’t know if it has the same behaviour. I am guessing they probably used the same firmware branch based on their naming convention.
how you attach it to clothing, as bodycam?
there are cams built for this purpose but not v4, it is too heavy
Dude are you serious?
What is people reaction when they see you in this?
How much you spent on this?
Did you consider dji action 2?
It is more concealed
sorry did not mean ridicule.
important it works for you
Oof.
I have same thing with my Wyze OG and Wyze OG Telephoto cameras.
Contacted support and they said they do NOT plan to fix this. They did not consider it an issue.
Not sure why Wyze did this - as this is a SERIOUS security issue. If my internet is out, then I have no recording of what may have happened during that outage (or if Wyze servers are out for that matter)
This is what Wyze support specifically told me 1/8/2024 via email
"
Unlike our other camera models, the Wyze Cam OG and Wyze Cam OG Telephoto 3x stop recording when they lose internet access. We apologize for the inconvenience and disappointment this limitation may cause.
"
I was very tempted to get a Wyze V4, however as Wyze has been a mess and getting worse every year, I have a hard time justifying buying more of the cameras. If it cannot even do what a security camera is designed to do (record) then it makes the product pretty useless
My old Wyze V2 cameras still record to SD great - so do my Wyze V3 cameras.
Oh? Thank you very much for mentioning this - I was not aware of that.
If you have not already then you’ll want to go into the app settings and disable auto update then - as I believe Wyze enabled auto update for firmware on an individual camera basis around 6 months ago. Looks like for my current Wyze V3 cameras (on 4.36.11.8391) it is in “Device Info” >> click on the current firmware version >> “Automatic Updates”.
I was sure I disabled auto updates in the past - but looks like it was enabled - Gladly looks like mine did not update to the version you mention on its own… whew!
If your security needs are of that critical magnitude, then you probably need to consider options other than a $39 camera system and / or multiple internet sources. We work from home and have fiber and 2 cellular internet sources with failover and a whole home generator just to make sure we have connectivity. For our cameras outside there is also a DVR onsite on a UPS. The Wyze cameras are cheap, cool to play with ( 6 at home ) and ( have 14 ) at our remote recreational land and even there there we have 2 sources of internet. One fiber to a temp power pole in a pole mounted plastic box and TMob cellular both into an Omada switch and 3 access points. We don’t even really care if someone happens to be on the land as we have insurance that covers theft, but like to watch the wildlife. And if we go there a work there’s a redundant system in place. I mean we went for 30 years without cameras there and nothing happened.
People do what they want to do, but trying to make a tool do the job you want, vice its design parameters never ends with a happy outcome.
Absolutely. At least something using wired (both power and data) and with on site NVR recording and many hours of backup power (no, a UPS with20 minutes of runtime does not count).
I partially agree - yes when purchasing a low cost camera you cannot count on it working all the time.
But what Wyze is doing is INTENSIONALLY breaking functionality. There is no reason to stop recording when internet is down - makes absolutely no sense.
I understand that there would be no smart detections on the recordings that happen during an internet outage - but we should still have video recorded that we can manually look through.
So again - I understand if it has a bug and fails to record - but this is not a bug, this is the way Wyze designed the latest cameras.
Here is a snippet of a support ticket I had with Wyze January 8th 2024. I had asked Wyze to please fix the local recording 24x7 - but they said it was “designed” to NOT record when internet is down. Here is the exact quote
"
this is how Wyze Cam OG and Wyze Cam OG Telephoto 3x are designed. We understand and recognize that this is indeed disappointing and frustrating. We apologize if they do not meet your needs.
"
So I am not asking Wyze to have perfect connectivity - or to be 100% reliable - I am only asking them to give customers what they said they would (24x7 local SD recording).
I cannot understand why Wyze would invest time to make their cameras worse - as someone had to program in to stop recording on internet outage - makes no sense.
And yes - I do have 3 hard wired cameras (Reolink 4k camera, and 2x 2k cameras (cx410 ultra low light cameras) - so I understand that when you pay a bit more you get better quality hardware - yet Wyze is making their software worse every year.
They have about 4 different interfaces/configurations in the Wyze app for different cameras:
Why in the world would they have all of these interfaces different?
And yes - I do have UPS for my internet and POE for about 1/2 of my cameras. UPS is not super long - lasts about 40 minutes.
I have Fiber 1gbps symmetric internet (with the Fiber line housed in PVC piping from the post in my front yard all the way into my house (so risk of it getting cut is extremely low))
But that does not mean that the internet won’t go out at times - so yes, having redundant internet is best - yet if Wyze just recorded locally like they advertise, then this wouldn’t be as big a deal
The good thing was that it was caught early on and only this recent beta firmware 12.9357 introduced this behavior. You have to purposely opt-in for beta firmware and I was fully prepared to troubleshoot bugs. They stopped rolling out the beta firmware so it’s okay for now. I have reported the issue to Wyze so hopefully they will not release it to the public.
I manually flashed some of my cameras back to the stable release 11.8391 and I will keep some cameras on the beta channel to see what other problems there are.
what a nonsense, these are two different, non-related issues, lack of internet does not prevent recording.
They’re very related. OP is maybe living in a bunker fortress and wants a $39 camera which in fact DOES require connectivity to function to keep him safe in said fortress without internet. Like building a $5mil doomsday bunker with the door lock one $4 master lock from HD and being shocked when it is breached.
The level you want determines the hardware and redundancy you need.
Ops gone to extreme and buried his fiber in PVC so it can’t be cut ( except it can just be unplugged at the pedestal in 10 seconds ). Said if internet is down and therefore doesn’t record. So he needs redundancy or different camera hardware. For about $180/mo we have 3 independent internet providers - because that’s the way we ensure the level of daily uptime we need, if I plugged all that internet into a $39 router - that router would then be the weak link.
Just curious as I was looking into setting up a TP link ER7206 to have two internet with failover if you could assist with the setup process?