Wyze cam outdoor connectivity issues - no connection or very limited wireless range with the wyze cam outdoor

Hi there,

Got the new wyze cam outdoor yesterday and I’m having quite some connectivity issues. The wireless range is around the house maybe 20 ft max (from the base) while other battery operated cameras (like my old Blink XT) or some newer Chines products have way more wireless reach in the same circumstances. One of my battery operated ip cams have about 3x the wireless range without even an additional base. I mean I love the image quality and the functions, but with this super limited wireless range despite the complicated set-up it’s simply not working and I would love to return for a refund. What experience do other users have?

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If you have the ability to change the channel of your wifi equipment on the 2.4GHz band try changing it to 1 or 6. My WCO base is using channel 11 and it’s not possible to change that.

Not ideal but give it a try.

Also try moving the antennas to be perpendicular to where the WCO is.

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Thanks - unfortunately have a WOW router and have never accessed the settings and I’m not planning to change anything just because WYZE is not capable to build a system which works as is

(as the old saying goes never touch a running system …).

I am having the same problem. With my Router upstairs and a CAM is outside, it just doesn’t even load the video. I had to hook up the base station to a Wifi Extender in my kitchen (has a ethernet port) and then that works better as its closer to my backyard for my new Trail cam. I am hoping something can be done with the wifi range because its borderline useless right now.

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Question about that extender - did you simply switch it to Access Point mode, or does yours have a Wireless Bridge mode?

I am planning on doing the same thing.

Nothing can be done for that, it depends on your specific environment.

Best thing to do is get the basestation to be in the line of site with the cam.

I am not sure what the difference is. I have home network and the extender I have a different SID than the home network and my Waze cams all use the SID from the extender.

Question: do you run an Ethernet cable out of the extender to the BaseStation?

Yes, the ethernet cable is going from the base station connected to the extender.

Travisscudder12:
Thanks for that info.
I’ll give my extender a try tomorrow if I have connection issues.

It’s not perfect but it’s better than my main router

Earlier, I’d been able to get mostly working 1 bar signal about 35 feet away from the base station. It seemed to be getting worse, so moved it closer to about 25 feet. I still can’t get it to fully connect. Distance between the base station and the cam really makes it hard to use. I have 4 other Wyze cams all over the house, 2 Cam Pans and 2 Cam V2s, much further away, and they have no connectivity issues.

Mine gets hung up on step 3, getting video data.

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Mine as well. All my other cams work great. Regardless, its fun to have and I just hope it can get resolved with some future updates.

Travisscudder12:
Thanks for your advice. I pressed my old extender into service and it works pretty well. There are some points in the day where the camera cannot connect - I get that “connecting my secure channel” status. Then when I check later in the day, it’s working. Haven’t had the time to troubleshoot this yet.

ATM, the WCO is deployed up in a tree using a flexible leg tripod wrapped around a branch, monitoring my long driveway. The detection is not 100% and even when it works, I may not get a notification. And, when I get a notification, it can be 1 minute after the event or 15 minutes or more after the event. I need to work through these variables to make this a really usable product for me.

Yeah, I still have connectivity issues. Motion tracking doesn’t work either. Its just sitting outside right now not doing much lol

I feel people should return things that don’t work as advertised.

Wyze spent far too long for this product to have so many issues out of the gate.

Same serious issues with this Outdoor Cam. I’m very disappointed with the company. Not so much about the bugs to work out. Maybe they can correct this so that my cam actually detects motion and records. Or maybe fix it so I can mount it further from the base station. Right now I cannot get more than a few yards away. This is sad. A security camera’s main purpose is to detect and record motion events.
Still maybe they can work this out. My issue is more with my disappointment in the leadership of the company seeming to ignore the concerns of those of us who backed the cam. All we get is silence. No answers. A solid company should let their concerned customers know their concerns are HEARD.
I FEEL RIPPED OFF.

Yep. It’s ridiculous. A security camera’s function is to record motion events. This does nothing. It misses almost all my motion triggers. Very upset. Want my money back

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First thing I noticed. Only 20 steps and and a couple wood/drywall walls and it has only 1 bar, but sometimes 2. Old indoor cams get 3 bars. Firmware upgrade seemed to help, but still terrible reception given the dedicated base station. Trying to figure out why a base station is even needed. What does it give me, besides subpar wireless coverage and another SD card?
Detection zone on the old cams is so easy, and effective. The interface for detection zone is so poor I thought my camera had an issue, but by reading I see this is actually by design. Great example of losing great functionality in the attempt to add more. This is code building, product management 101 guys. Please improve coverage and detection zones. Also, please allow users to set playback, even if that means I have to charge the battery every week.
Almost returned it, but will hang on to see if anything develops.
Thanks

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Thanks … couldn’t agree more. I even get zero bars on the cam when right next to the base, but the base shows 3 bars for the cam … nice joke. Also I’m still waiting for the first time-lapse to transfer to the base station or the phone. It’s only 50MB, but no success since 2 weeks even though I try almost every day and sometimes even more than once and I leave the page and app open … just no result and the next day I have to start from zero again. If I activate the option ‘backup to base station’ why is not everything then backed up in the background to the base? Even after 2 weeks nothing done. I have cheap Chinese battery operated outdoor cams which have at least 3 times the wireless range of this cam and they don’t need a base station and the battery really last 6 months and not only weeks as with this camera. How can a company mess things so up with this camera. It’s even worse than what Blink has made from the XT to the XT2 where they messes also up the wireless range, but there at least I can use a wireless extender, not not here …

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