[FIXED] Wyze Cam v3/PTZ Ignoring SD Card? Here’s the Real Fix (After Wyze Said I Was SOL)
I recently ran into an issue where my Wyze Cam Pan v3 refused to recognize any SD card I threw at it — even freshly formatted, name-brand ones. Wyze support reviewed my ticket and told me I was basically out of luck and needed new hardware.
Spoiler: They were wrong. Here’s how I diagnosed it and a PowerShell script that fixed it cold.
Symptoms:
- Camera would read from the SD card to update or roll-back firmware
- But showed “No SD Card Installed” in the Wyze app
- No local recording options available
- Multiple SD cards tested (including 32GB SanDisk Ultra)
- SD not compatible or not present symptoms.
What I Tried:
- Formatted cards as FAT32 with 32KB allocation unit (using GUIFormat)
- Tested with multiple cards (32GB and 128GB)
- Rolled back firmware to 4.50.4.9222
- Did full factory resets
- Confirmed card slot worked (because it read the firmware update)
Still, the Wyze app refused to recognize the card.
The Fix:
Turns out, the camera’s firmware wasn’t creating the expected folder structure on the SD card. Once I manually created the folders and added a dummy file to /record/, the camera started working immediately.
To make this easy for others, I wrote a PowerShell script that:
- Formats the SD card to FAT32 with the correct settings
- Creates the folder structure Wyze cams expect
- Adds a dummy file to help the firmware recognize the card
Warning: This script erases all data on the selected SD card. Be sure to pick the correct drive letter!
Wyze SD Card Prep Script for Windows (PowerShell)
# Wyze SD Card Prep Tool - PowerShell Edition
# Formats the SD card and creates required Wyze folders
Write-Host "=== Wyze Cam SD Card Preparer ===" -ForegroundColor Cyan
$drive = Read-Host "Enter the drive letter of your SD card (e.g., E:)"
if (-not (Test-Path "$drive\")) {
Write-Host "Drive $drive does not exist. Aborting." -ForegroundColor Red
exit
}
# Confirm with user
$confirm = Read-Host "WARNING: This will format $drive and erase all data. Type 'YES' to continue"
if ($confirm -ne "YES") {
Write-Host "Aborted by user." -ForegroundColor Yellow
exit
}
# Format the drive as FAT32 with 32K allocation
Write-Host "Formatting $drive as FAT32 with 32K allocation..."
Format-Volume -DriveLetter $drive.Replace(":", "") -FileSystem FAT32 -AllocationUnitSize 32768 -Confirm:$false
Start-Sleep -Seconds 3
# Create Wyze folder structure
$folders = @("record", "time_lapse", "log")
foreach ($folder in $folders) {
$path = Join-Path "$drive\" $folder
New-Item -ItemType Directory -Path $path -Force | Out-Null
}
# Create dummy file inside /record/
Set-Content -Path "$drive\record\camera_ready.txt" -Value "Wyze SD Card Ready - Created on $(Get-Date)"
Write-Host "Done! SD card is now Wyze-ready." -ForegroundColor Green
That’s an impressive first post! 
That’s one of the reasons I mentioned “all the other factors” in my previous post.
if this was different on any of them, because I believe that’s an app component (not specific to a particular device), which makes sense given the app’s seemingly modular nature (different UIs for different Cam models, etc.).
So that camera’s SD Slot or firmware or something is broke