I have several Wyze cameras including 2 version 1 Cam Pans, and 3 Wyze Outdoor cameras.
I was having no success on getting several of them to connect to the network and the camera server. I spent tons of time on the phone with Wyze support and no solution came about.
But… I FOUND THE TRICK!
Prior to attempting to connect your camera to the network, log on to your router and TURN OFF your 5Ghz WIFI signal… Leave your 2.4Ghz WIFI on and log on to your network with that signal.
Then go through the connection process with your cameras. Connect all of them and ensure they all work.
Then you can go log on to your router again and turn the 5Ghz WIFI back on.
That was an excellent and concisely explained solution. Glad to see it.
Here’s another suggestion that its the right time to add this, so anyone that is reading yours might also get this idea - just in case. Sometimes we forget and a hint is just enough.
Many of us keep old gear when we upgrade to newer routers and mesh routers. Seems about half of the newer routers are merging the 2.4 and 5 GHz bands together and creating these issues. So, when you are trying to add a 2.4 device to your merged network, here’s an idea that I know from first hand works.
I keep an old router (actually more than 1), that is still using the same SSID/network name and password as my newer gear. This part, same SSID/password is critical.
Temporarily remove power from your newer router. Don’t forget, must do all the nodes, not just the one connected to your cable modem. All of them.
Connect the old router to the cable modem and boot up your old network.
Add the 2.4 device and access it so you can confirm its on your network.
Shutdown your old router, plug the cable modem into the newer router and power it back up. Power up your other nodes too.
Now that the 2.4 device has been added to your named SSID and password and has been on your network, it will reconnect automatically because it matches the SSID/password both your routers (old and newer) use.
Its always been easier and we have encouraged people here to re-use the same SSID/network name and password as their old router when they are upgrading. Because you avoid having to change each device and often go through the setup to change the SSID and password on every device you are reconnecting.
Welcome to the Wyze User Community Forum @SeniorWhiz!
Is that Senior or Señor?
Anyway, thanks for the confirmation that this worked for you. It has long been one of the tips given for problem installs. It really has to do with the router though. I have never had any install issues with any of my routers with a dual band, single SSID network and my phone connected to 5GHz. If it is a split SSID network, however, it is an absolute requirement to log into the 2.4GHz with your phone.
As with most IoT devices, they do not have the 5 ghz radio (hardware) that is necessary to connect using 5 ghz frequency to a 5 ghz radio on the router. They are not designed to connect at 5 ghz. Its not a software/firmware issue, the hardware does not exist in the devices.
WYZE folks: Wake up. Add this to your help documentation: My (Ziply supplied) router reset for some reason and reverted to turning on a feature called “wireless controlled”. Instead of maintaining two separate 2.4 and 5 GHz network frequencies it creates a single network that attempts to “auto select” the right frequency for the given device trying to connect. The problem is, at least for me, I think the Wzye cameras got confused and could no longer stay on 2.4 instead of 5 GHz. The 3 cameras I have all stopped working all at once.
After many rounds of factory resetting the cameras and trying to figure out why the QR code wouldn’t work (10 sec press of reset button, it’s quite vague in the docs as to what happens after that, the light states - blinking or not blinking arrgh, all of the help suggestions to clean the camera lens, invert the code, move phone closer/back, etc were red herrings) during my attempt to reconnect the cameras I realized it was the “wireless controlled” problem by logging in to the router firmware.
After I turned off/disabled “wireless controlled”, (then reconnect my computer to wi-fi/firmware because you become instantly disconnected when make this change) and made sure I had two separate 2.4 and 5GHz network connections, I could then go thru the process of “adding a device” from my phone in the Wyze app (even though its an existing camera I’m trying to fix), reconnect the camera to the right 2.4 connection, which re-recognized the camera and fixed the problem.
The underlying issue is that there is no way to reconnect/troubleshoot offline cameras. Some kind of temporary Bluetooth troubleshooting connection would be a nice feature.
I ran across this thread after a weekend of frustration.
I put in a new modem/router in two properties. On one property, was able to reset cams but not the three lights. On the property where I live, I spent a lot of time with Xfinity to discover what you said here-new modem /routers merge the bands. So after many grounds, they were able to show me how to split and name the two networks-one 2.4 GHz and one 5.0.
Now the wyze cams see the networks—but no go. Next according to this thread, chose the 2.4 on my phone, but still no happiness, no connection. What else?
Well, I’ve done this. Have not need to recently, but its worth a try… Go to ebay and find an older used Android phone. You are not going to add cell service. You want it simply because its an old phone, version 9 or 10 maybe, little older will likely still work. On the Android side - the play store, there’s been some utilities that force the phone’s 5 GHz band to turn off. That way only the 2.4 GHz band on the phone works and sees your 2.4 GHZ WiFi band. And, I still encourage you to look for, check the specs by googling, to see if you can get an old router on ebay so you can turn off the 5 GHz completely. Then, get it, use it to add your devices back to your WiFi. Then shutdown the ebay router, and bring your new stuff online. I am going to say this again, this works when you use the same SSID/name and password on both. Its simply your network devices doesn’t know the WiFi router is different.
Franky, if you have two separate properties and two separate WiFi sites, you could use the same SSID/name and password on both. The distance keeps them separate.
I realize you don’t care, but short story. Years ago, had to listen to both my sister and my mom whine because each time the went to the other’s house with phone and ipad, “we have to reconnect everything?”. After enough, I told niece to change one or the other’s WiFI to match the other. So the are the same. She did. And she had to listen to one whine one more time. Then like magic, regardless of which home they or the other was at, WiFi worked without a hiccup. Know what I had to hear then? Why didn’t I do this sooner?
Good luck. Oh, yeah, keep the old Android phone and the router, for just in case.
The issue is with the router security setting. Meaning wpa2/wpa3 settings. The camera will not see an open network. You will most likely have log into the network manually.
I have a similar problem since upgrading my router. I split the router into 2.4G and 5G mhz, but still unable to connect my outdoor wireless camera. Any suggestions?
@Benji12 , also include your security setup. For example WPA3 or not (in the past WPA 3 used to cause issues), IPV6 setting, SSID complexity as some characters used to not be allowed.
Your statement about Nest is one of the reasons, I put mine on eBay and sold it. I didn’t have an issue, but why tempt fate by adding to the complication. Its a good system for people that don’t want to deal with setting granularity. But that also can cuff your hands.
It could be what @Sam_Bam is implying. Some routers have some issues with Navigating 2.4 and 5 when in a Mesh setup. Fortunately, I have never had an issue using a Mesh with one SSID serving both 5 and 2.4.
I personally don’t have a Nest Router setup, so cannot speak for that one.
