Wyze 'Rules' that became 'Automations'. A problem that wasn't in need of a solution

[inversewave]

Hello,

I counted on the device page in the Android App that I have 114 Wyze devices in my home, and many in boxes waiting to be given purpose (I just purchased 3 more cameras also). I jumped into Wyze in 2020 and even have the car. I have had the Home Monitoring as soon as it was available also. I have had good dealings with customer service when a device fails, and overall, I am satisfied with my choice in supporting them. One middle range gripe is the Wyze Hubs inability to reconnect with the network after a power failure not switching to Wi-Fi, and then it requires a physical reset to bring back online. This is my second one also, both have the same issue. I had to automate a timer and relay to plumb into the reset switch to get around it, but this is NOT why I am here.

I digress.

My CURRENT issue started not long ago with an update and pertains to the Wyze ‘Rules’, renamed ‘Automations’ I believe. They ARE BROKEN now and becoming a source of constant frustration, and even almost got me burned the other day. I am saving the video of this one of my Wyze cameras captured of the incident for ‘Posterities’ sake truth be told.

I have a lot of Wyze plugs and lights that WERE controlled conveniently through sensors such as motion, contact, camera movement, etc. via ‘Rules’ that followed simple logic. The ‘Rules’ worked very well for the most part, but now they DO NOT.

Let me give an example.

Rule for turning on a Wyze Plug that powers a light for five minutes:

Door switch opens, light is turned on for five minutes and then turns off. If door switch is opened again before the initial five minutes is up it will start the timer over.

This simple and useful ‘Rule’ has now become this ‘useless Automation’:

Door switch opens, light is turned on for five minutes and then turns off. If door switch is opened again before the initial five minutes is up it WILL NOT start the timer over. When the initial five minutes are up the switch will be turned off leaving someone who expected the timer to reset standing in the dark. Opening the door switch again will result in the ‘Automation’ immediately switching the light off as soon as it registers to whatever skewed logic is in operation that the Wyze Plug is on again(I imagine it is poling the status, which is unnecessary if the Wyze Plug is indicating being online and not something a competent programmer would do in my way of thinking). Manually turning the Wyze Plug on will result in the Wyze Plug being immediately switched off. This back and forth continues until the switch must be removed and the light plugged directly into the receptacle thus MAKING WYZE PLUG USELESS. Why did I waste my money on them if this is what they do, right?! Good old fashioned pull switch for the win!

This irritating evolution in the Wyze Universe left me repeatedly telling google to turn a light on as it kept being immediately turned off as I was holding a Wok with a liter of 350-degree oil in it and trying to get to the other side of a twenty foot garage without having to go to a Burn Unit. Lucky for someone it was not my beloved spouse trying to make that perilous journey.

Checking the history of the ‘Automations’ in the App revealed only the initial activation and timing of the ‘Automations’. Thus the History feature is USELESS in assisting in this matter.

I don’t plan on redoing ANY of the ‘Automations’ as they worked perfectly previously. Not worth my time to invest in a product I have to ‘Develop’ and ‘Program’ myself, is it?

Any thoughts on the plan to repair this?

Not meaning to sound rude, I am just conveying that I do indeed expect this to be resolved as I have a lot of $$ tied up in these products. I am also VERY BUSY. I’m not going to waste a lot of time on back and forth, as I said it worked perfectly before. AND I PAID for it to work. So, whoever made it NOT work could they please make it WORK again?

Thanks.

[Crease]

Welcome to the Forum, @inversewave!

The renaming of “Rules” to “Automations” baffles me, too. I haven’t seen an explanation for it, and I’m not sure what purpose it serves unless Wyze’s research indicates that Automations makes more sense to more customers because that’s what some other companies in the IoT companies do. Even the Google Home app has been using that term for a while, not just “Routines”. I’m just speculating, though.

@inversewave

Any thoughts on the plan to repair this?

Yes, because it seems like you’re using a “Turn on for” Action in a Device & Services Trigger, and that’s being heavily discussed in another topic, including a Wyze Team member who has requested failure logs for troubleshooting:

Cam V3 Automation To Turn ON Garage Lights

I have a Cam V3 in the garage with a rule to turn ON the Garage lights when “motion” is detected and to keep the lights on for 10 Minutes. But this is not working right. As backup there is a Wall Sensor with a similar rule to turn ON the Garage lights when “motion” is detected and to keep the lights on for 10 Minutes. See attached video, where I enter the garage → 3 secs later the camera sees me and turn ON the lights, but then 5 sec later the lights go out. There is NO specific rule to turn …

If you hop over there, you can shoot holes in my speculation that it’s primarily an iOS issue, because I see that you list yourself as an Android user in your profile. I’m also using Android but have been unable to replicate the failure today. The latest thinking over there seems to be that it’s something broken on Wyze servers and may or may not have been resolved already.

[inversewave]

To be specific the issue is with a Wyze Outdoor Plug, I generally refer to all of the Wyze Plugs indoor and outdoor as just Wyze Plugs.
I appreciate the enthusiasm. I came to the Forum instead of calling Wyze support to bring many eyes to the problem. This problem is centered in some kind of polling of the Wyze Plug to ascertain its state, on or off, to make sure it followed the command.
Let me tell explain:
As before, the sensor triggers the light for five minutes. The sensor is triggered again before five minutes is expired but the programming returns that the Wyze Plug is active so ignores the second activation trigger. This is the important part:
Standing with my finger on the Plug switch, the programming deactivates the plug after the initial five minutes, I immediately press the Plug and activate it manually, the programming deactivates the switch again, I immediately activate the Plug manually again, the programming deactivates the switch again…etc. When it is happening it absolutely seems as if it is doing it on purpose to toy with you, but it is a programming error.

I KNOW this is a programming error. I do not need to help them ‘troubleshoot’ anything as I never changed any of the ‘Rules’ that worked previously. The ‘fix’ is completely on Wyze and I EXPECT them to own it. Because it almost resulted in a trip to the emergency room I am ABSOLUTELY TAKING THIS PERSONALLY. Because if this is not fixed, then these 114 Wyze products are effectively rendered useless for my needs. I don’t like wasting money so I’ll have do something one way or another to get that money back to spend it on another solution.
Just saying.

[Crease]

@inversewave

I came to the Forum instead of calling Wyze support to bring many eyes to the problem.

I think that’s good to get some eyes on an issue and gauge the extent of a problem so some degree, but it’s also important to remember that this is primarily a user-to-user support community and most of us who spend time here enjoy sharing our experience in order to try to help others solve problems, but we’re not Wyze employees. Having said that, some Wyze employees—including some of the developers—do peek into some categories, and in the other topic I linked above a Wyze Team member was soliciting logs so they can isolate and remediate the problem. Submitting a log and then following it up with a Support ticket that includes the Log ID is one of the better ways I’m aware of to get the engineers’ attention on a problem.

@inversewave

I never changed any of the ‘Rules’ that worked previously.

That’s one of the keys that seems to be tying this together and pointing to a server issue, and that’s what they say they’re trying to address at this point. The frequent and unannounced backend changes can definitely be annoying at times, though for whatever reason one of those a while back seemed to enable a PiP feature for my Cam v4s, so that was unexpectedly cool.

[inversewave]

The problem is identical when using Wyze Bulbs, or anything else so it is not a device error it is a programming error.
Still waiting on the correction.