Wyze Cam v3 not recording to SD card (with local continuous recording on) when offline

Camera: Cam V3 (with the latest firmware: 4.36.13.0416)

SD card: SanDisk High Endurance microSDXC 64GB V30), thoroughly tested with diagnostic tools and formatted as exFAT.

Steps to reproduce the problem:

  1. Start up the camera with the SD card inserted.
  2. Set up the local continuous recording to the SD card (“Record to MicroSD card” is ON, “Continuous” toggle is ON)
  3. Power down the Wi-Fi access point.
  4. Wait for a while (about 5-15 minutes).
  5. Power up the Wi-Fi access point again, let the camera connect back.

As soon as the Wi-Fi access point is powered down (resulting in no Wi-Fi), the camera STOPS continuous recording.

There is a segment of the recording MISSING, corresponding to the time when the Wi-Fi was down (see the screenshot attached)

Note:

  • the camera did not reboot at any time
  • the microSD card was checked with chkdsk, fscsk , then fully formatted
  • the issue is replicated across all three V3 cameras that I have currently running

After 30 minutes of no connectivity, the camera reboots. When it reboots, if it still has no connectivity, it cannot set the date and time, and thus starts recording to a different folder on the SD card (with some date like 1980). The app does not look for that folder since the app knows the correct time and does not expect it to be in some random folder.

If you put the SD card in a computer you’ll be able to view the files that way.

In my case the camera stops continuous recording immediately after the wifi is down and starts recording immediately after wifi is back up.
There was no reboot in between (see the screenshot with the timeline).

OK, you mentioned “wait a while”.

Have not heard of anyone else seeing cameras immediately stop recording to SD but they have been working to improve the reconnect time after a wifi outage, so maybe the cameras are now rebooting right when wifi is lost.

Check the card in a PC and see if the video is there in a folder that does not match the normal naming structure. If so, then your cam is rebooting right away, may be something that’s been added in recent firmware.

I believe @grapefruityoda has documented which cameras behave which way.

“maybe the cameras are now rebooting right when wifi is lost”
No such thing in my case.

  1. I’m closely monitoring the changes in the USB power draw and monitoring for IR filter “clicks” when the camera reboots.
    No such things happened, the camera did not reboot when the wifi is was off.

  2. The SD card was thoroughly checked with diagnostic PC tools (windows chkdsk and linux fsck) , then again freshly formatted (full format with read/write checks) , then checked for read/write speeds (CrystalDiskMark) , then formatted with the cam software.

The issue is with ALL my three V3 cameras that I currently have up running. As soon as the wifi is down, the recording stops with the camera still running without any reboot.

Before formatting, did you check to see if there is a rogue folder with the missing video files in it?

Even if there was a secret folder with the missing files I would still consider it a serious bug. How can I access such files with the app if the cams are in a remote location ?

Not saying it isn’t an issue, just relaying what others have noticed, especially on newer firmware versions. With the OG it is 30 minutes, but maybe with the v3 it is faster.

Asking to see if the files are there was just to determine if the issue you’re seeing is the same as others or not.

2 Likes

From my testing, Cam V3 on firmware 4.36.13.0416 restarts itself after losing online connectivity for more than 30 minutes. I was able to repeat the test results every single time. I took note when I shut down the router and start it back up. For example, I will shut down the router at like 8PM and turn the router back on at 9PM to check. I take a look microSD playback footage timeline in the Wyze app and noticed it only recorded up to 8:30PM. Once the router was back up at 9PM, it resumed recording as shown in the timeline.

This is a relatively new behaviour for 4.36.13.0416 firmware (restarting after 30 min of no internet). The V3 camera will restart itself and tries to connect to a NTP server to sync the timestamp and correct date to record into. If it can’t connect to a NTP server, then it will start recording the its firmware build date which will end up in the wrong folder. The Wyze app relies on the recordings being in the correct folder to align the footage chronologically and to play it back. As a result, you need to physically remove the micro SD card to play the footage back in a phone or PC.

The last time I did this test I made a note that the recordings will have timestamp 2024-07-03 01:10 saved in the folder record > 20240703 > 01 > 10.mp4. You can technically view this footage on the Wyze app if you go to July 3 2024. Please note this date is only valid for 4.36.13.0416 firmware.

I did a similar test with 4.36.11.8391 firmware and the V3 didn’t restart itself after a 4 hour internet outage. All playback footage was shown correctly on the timeline in the Wyze app. However, if you power cycle the camera when there’s no internet then it will start recording in folder record > 20240104 > 19 > 39.mp4 with a timestamp of 2024-01-04 19:39:46 (this is the firmware build date). You can view the footage in the Wyze app on Jan 4 2024.

3 Likes

Odd that OP seems to see it stop recording immediately. Not sure what would cause that, but would be good to see if the files are actually there and just dated wrong.

Also good to know the files can be viewed in the app, as long as you know the correct date for the firmware. Guess we’ll have to create a thread to track those dates…

Wonder how the camera handles when it needs to roll over, does it overwrite those “older” files first or does it just leave them there indefinitely (or does it lock up or stop recording due to being confused)…

Luckily, this question was sort of brought up couple weeks ago as well due to the DST changes.

FW 4.36.13.0416 overwrites the old files. It will not create another set.

FW 4.36.11.8391 will create another set of files with “_new” for each file if it exists already. However, if the “_new” files exist already then it will not create another set, but it will just overwrite it (_new files) instead.

If you constantly power cycle the V3 cameras or there’s power outage constantly when there is no internet connectivity, then the older firmware is technically more advantageous as it gives you one “extra” set of files to overwrite.

Wyze support confirmed (after much hesitation) that it’s a software bug, and their engineers have been unable to fix it since 2022.

I received a refund for my subscription.

I’m now planning to sell all eight of my Wyze cameras and replace them with something more reliable.

1 Like

Wyze support is likely wrong. If you look at the firmware notes, rebooting the camera to re-establish connectivity appears to have been an intentional change.

How will that make your internet more reliable?

1 Like

sorry, didn’t read the whole thread. Are all 8 of your Wyze cameras having this issue? Are they all V3?

i have one older pan V3 with this issue and one pan V3 I bought after that is working correctly. Both of my V3 (non-pan) are working correctly.

All my V3 cameras have this issue. As soon as the wifi is gone, the continuous recording stops.

I am referring to products from other camera manufacturers, such as Eufy, or even Raspberry Pi-based solutions