Wyze Cam V3 firmware update today bricked all 4 of my cameras

Cameras
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1

when looking at my 4 V3 cameras they all said it needed a firmware update which i proceeded to do…but all the firmware updates FAILED and now all 4 are bricked and non-functional. I believe it was this update https://download.wyzecam.com/firmware/v3/demo_wcv3_4.36.13.0416.bin.zip
as it is the latest i see on the release notes and firmware page…
im going to try to roll back to a Jan 2024 firmware and HOPE it fixes them. Anyone else have this problem??? REALLY BAD!!

2

ok so now all i get is “connection timeout” after scanning QR code for my home network…and this is after downgrading (I thought) to Jan 2024 firmware. what am i doing wrong here? suggestions ?

3

There have been sporadic reports of this but there seem to be two common denominators:

-You were running really old firmware, got the prompt that you must update, and the jump from really old to newest was too much for the cam. For some, factory reset of the cam fixes this. For others they had to re-apply the latest firmware using SD card (with factory reset before and after).

-You have something 3rd party like wyze mini hacks on the SD cards, and those are no longer compatible, preventing the router from booting on the new firmware.

If you aren’t running 3rd party firmware, remove the SD card, do a factory reset, and see if it can connect. If not try the manual update to the latest version again, (factory reset before and after). Once back online, re-insert and format your SD card.

4

BTW my cameras were on 4.36.9.131… yes old but it works… so maybe when it forced an update to “something” it was too far behind?

5

Yep, it actually requires 3 or 4 firmware updates if you’re doing it over the air to get to the current one from that version. If you were running wyze mini hacks (the main reason people were sticking with that version), that will prevent the first new version from booting up, so it can’t then proceed to the next one. If that’s the case, you need to remove that from your SD card, ideally format the card.

If that isn’t the case, I’d do a factory reset (remove SD card, hold the button for 15-30 seconds or whatever the procedure calls for), do the manual update to the latest version with SD card, remove the SD card, then factory reset again and re-add it to your app. When all is well format the SD card and reinstall it (if you were using one).

That old version no longer supports their security protocols hence the forced updates.

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6

I believe Wyze should have better coding to account for old software/firmware.

7

thanks Dave! after numerous factory resets/ incremental upgrades I got 3 out of 4 working again… if i get more time i will try to get the last one back to life…

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8

I’m guessing there was probably a known vulnerability, but they’re not going to get specific about that in the release notes/publicly if they don’t have to. The only other method would be to release like a 4.36.9.131a with only the security fix but seems unlikely they want to maintain several trains of firmware.

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