Another test run in the auto yesterday and the video ran from the time of departure from the WiFi at 6:52 AM (lost WiFi connection) recorded until 8:22 AM (auto parked) and the green recorded area cuts off there, and the white area states there is nothing recorded in this area. Then when the camera came into range of the Wifi in the afternoon/evening the recording commenced again on it’s own (green recorded area again present). The power source was a battery jump box with continuous, uninterrupted power to the USB all day long. Wondering why the recording skips to off for hours when not in range of the WiFi. Maybe the camera goes into sleep mode or turns off after 1,5 hours without WiFi connectivity? In any case, it stops recording 1,5 hours after it loses WiFi connection.
Perhaps multiple WiFi connection capability on the Wyze Cam would remedy this situation?
It would be nice to record the auto cam in the parking lot all day while parked and unoccupied.
Today the camera is set to record with the record button prior to departure and motion events are turned off, local storage is set to continuous record. We will see how the record setting works for all day recording today or, if it shuts off/stops recording again prematurely on it’s own.
This is a different camera than previously tested in the auto, both cameras have evidenced the same self shut off/stop recording on their own flaw after losing connectivity to the Wifi, and after a period of time, rather than continuous recording. Guess after today we will see if it stops recording in both record modes.
Today’s results are in, and the WyzeCam shut off the recording again this morning at 8:22 AM and restarted continuous recording on it’s own again once it came into range of the WiFi this afternoon once i arrived at home.
Can anyone shed any light on the reason this is occurring?
Why is the camera stopping the recording almost precisely 1,5 hours after losing WiFi connection? I really want to record the entire day while my auto is parked at work and unoccupied.
Today, another test revealed identical results. About 1,5 hours of video after losing the WiFi after driving away. Then upon returning the camera resumes recording again. Definitely want to know if this can be corrected. Auto cam is a must have for this camera and it is not working properly. I need this to continue recording even when it is no longer connected to my WiFi.
This forum is primarily a user to user community. If you don’t get a helpful reply here, I suggest you contact Wyze Support for more help. You might want to go ahead and submit your ticket now as there is somewhat of a backlog. If you end up getting the issue resolved before support contacts you, then you can always let them know that it’s already resolved.
@Tuna
Here’s a workaround you could consider – give the camera an in-car WiFi network so it doesn’t become unhappy after 1.5 hours of recording. I use a HooToo TM01 for my off-grid recording. It’s a tiny AP combined with a 6000 mAH battery. That gives me over 12 hours of run-time. You don’t need the battery since you have the cam connected to your auto battery, but the AP function might solve your problem.
Another option is the GL.iNet GL-MT300N-V2 mini travel router. Power it the same way you have powered the camera. Configure its WiFi to have the same SSID as your home WiLAN. The cam will associate with the GLnet network. Of course, it won’t have connectivity to the internet, but the existence of the WiFi connection might be enough to trick it into continuous recording to the SDcard.
As for your question about how long it takes to get a response from Wyze: don’t hold your breath. From my experience, it could be a couple of months before you get a reply from tech support (not counting the automatic robo-reply). Even after you make contact with a tech support human, the time frame for a firmware fix is indeterminate:-(
We had already considered putting an older 12v WiFi router that we are not using into the auto. These are possible low power options we can also consider.
We did test the camera in the auto again yesterday on 2 different trips. Each time the camera stopped recording after approximately 1,5 hours and resumed recording on it’s own after returning into range of the WiFi again, each time with a small blank space between the recorded areas after 1,5 hours.
We have read that the support is backed up and response times are questionable. We also understand they have a small team at Wyze and are working as quickly as possible. So we try to be patient awaiting a response even here on the forum. Overall I have to say we are pretty satisfied aside from the few minor glitches we have experienced. I also have to say being able to communicate with the Wyze community is a real blessing and has certainly helped to answer our questions.
If you go the travel router method, rather than set it up with the same SSID as your home network (which confuse things when it’s in the garage), I would setup the GL.iNet in bridge mode with its own unique SSID. Then have the GL.iNet connect to your home SSID, passing that along to the Wyze Cam. In this way, the camera will have internet connection whenever the car is in range of your home network, while also being connected to wifi (albeit without internet) while on the road.
The bigger question for me is whether this hack (an AP in the car) will solve the OP’s problem of the camera stopping local recording after 1.5 hours without WiFi. Is the camera timing out because there’s no WiFi network, or because there’s no (internet) connectivity to Wyze servers? It would be interesting to know. I hope Tuna tries the experiment and reports back.
Yes, it is excellent advice, I think we might try the existing LinkSys router we have on hand first, for a quick test to see which of the 2 you list, is it router signal, or Wyze connectivity the camera is not receiving which causes it to shut off the camera record eventually? Since it starts recording automatically when it comes back into WiFi range it could be either of those 2. I suppose we could disconnect internet and find out if the WiFi turns it back on alone without any connection to Wyze, or run the router in the auto, either way we’ll know.
Christine,
In the past, I’ve done a number of off-grid recordings with my Wyzecam, notably a long (3+ hour) capture while sailing the fjords of Norway. Never had any problems.
That got me curious about your in-car recording bug (shutting off after 1.5 hours) so I’ve done some experiments with my V2 camera (w/firmware 4.9.3.64). I was able to reproduce the bug. It’s the loss of WiFi that causes the recording to stop, NOT loss of internet connectivity to Wyze HQ.
TL;DR,
I set up a new WiFi access point, and then reconfigured the cam as a new device using that network. Set it for no event recording nor push notifications. I didn’t want it talking to the cloud. I configured it for continuous recording to a 32GB SDcard.
10:50am - Started continuous recording.
11:00am - I pulled the power on the AP, killing the WiFi.
1:05pm - I turned the AP back on, thus restoring WiFi to the camera.
2:20pm - disconnected the WAN cable on the AP. So no internet connectivity to the cloud.
4:15pm - reconnected WAN cable. Camera back ‘on-line’.
Findings:
I tapped VIEW PLAYBACK to see what got recorded. As expected, it started recording at 10:50am. According to the timeline, it stopped at 11:02, round about the time the WiFi vanished. However, it turns out the timeline is misleading. The camera continued recording past 11:02 even though the timeline shows white space! The timeline went back to green at 12:00, and stayed green until 12:34pm. Recording ceased at 12:34. That’s about 1.5 hours after it lost WiFi, consistent with your experience.
The timeline went green again starting at 1:05pm, when the WiFi was restored. The camera started recording at 1:05 and continued unabated, even when it lost internet at 2:20pm. Then kept on recording during the internet outage, and kept going without a hiccup when internet was restored at 4:15pm. It’s still recording as I type this at 4:45pm.
UPDATE - as I’m typing this, I popped out of PLAYBACK mode to LIVE VIEW, and then back to PLAYBACK. The erroneous timeline display has magically fixed itself. It had been white from 11-12am even though it actually was recording. Now it shows a solid green from 10:50am when I started the experiment through to 12:34pm when recording spontaneously stopped. There’s another bug for Wyze to wrestle with.
Bottom line: the bug you’ve reported is reproducible. I assume that you’ve already reported it to Wyze Support, so I won’t do so again. If/when you get a reply from them, you might link to this post so they know that you’re not alone.
A fix/workaround for your automotive application is to spin up a tiny AP in the car, either your old Linksys router or a mini-travel router like the GL-iNET unit. NB: if you contemplate the former, I’d be leery of having the Linky connected to your car’s power while the engine is running. I doubt that the router’s power circuitry will be happy with the voltage variation and noise spikes prevalent on an automotive power grid.
FYI - I’ve not run into the 1.5hour limit on my off-net recordings because I power the camera from my HooToo travel router + USB battery gadget. I configure the HooToo with its WiFi turned on. The camera associates with the HooToo, and I then use my iPhone (connected to the AP), to check the camera, be sure it’s aimed where I want, etc. Then I walk away, leaving it recording, but still connected to the HooToo WiFi. Hence, I’ve never encountered your 1.5 hour surprise:-)
I suppose I should run another experiment to see if the cam terminates time-lapse recordings in the absence of WiFi. My long-duration recordings have mostly been time-lapses.
Would everyone that is experiencing this, please send logs to Wyze utilizing the feedback in the app. They are currently trying to chase down this issue and resolve it. Thanks!!
Yes, thank you, I saw your Fjord video, very captivating, I thoroughly enjoyed every moment. All good info on the test procedures. The power being used in the auto is a battery jump start box with a large Gel-Cell battery inside, a digital voltage indicator and pleasant blue LEDs. That is used to power both the Link-Sys router and the Wyze Cam. I just located a cigar lighter plug to provide 12v to the Link-Sys router. I have an ill family member and had to take FMLA (Family Medical Leave of Absence) so testing will resume once surgery and recovery is completed. I thank you for taking the time to do all of this detailed research and an equally detailed description. It has been very helpful and now I will record for hours in “das auto” just as you have in the Fjord. I have also viewed the train across Norway, Finland and Sweden? Videos on TV. Very similar experiences and equally interesting. Thank you so much for sharing all of it with the Wyze community. I think I speak for everyone when I say we all look forward to more of these wonderful Wyze Cam videos in exotic far away places.
I missed the detail that you are using an external 12V gel-cell battery box (ie., not the car’s 12V power system). The jump box will work just fine, with no concerns about voltage variations or bad automotive power messing up the Linksys router. A lot of people here have been posting about how to permanently wire the cams into a vehicle’s power system, and that use case was on my mind.
I’m going to run another experiment and see if time-lapse captures also get terminated prematurely after 1.5 hours without WiFi. The bug that is present in the Wyze cam firmware might not impact TL recording.
Could I ask why you’re using continuous record to SD card instead of motion-triggered. Clearly you’re wanting to capture what’s going on around your car when it’s parked all day. Would motion capture not suffice? You’d have less video to scan through looking for miscreants. The SD card will last longer too.
I’m glad you enjoyed my Geirangerfjord video. I only wish I had chosen a shorter TL interval so the sailout would have been a bit slower. And that the Wyzecam lens didn’t have that bit of fibre stuck in the middle of the frame. On the same trip, we took the famous Bergensbahn railway from Oslo across the mountains to Bergen. There are some insanely long tunnels, high up in the mountains. It is a spectacular train ride.
This video was NOT shot with a Wyze cam:
Hi @Tuna, it should be a bug in our code. The camera is supposed to keep recording even off WiFi connection. We should have one test case for this before we do every official firmware release. I don’t know when the issue was introduced.
I will have our engineering team investigate on this and provide a fix as necessary. Thanks and there is no need to contact our support team (it will come to us anyhow ). Thanks for reporting this issue!
update: a bug was filed on 2/1. We will work on a fix for it.
@WyzeTao
Thanks for updating us on this bug. Those of us who use your great cameras for ‘off-line’ recording will look forward to a fix in a future release. (but not too future:-).
Could you add to your suite of test cases one to verify that time-lapse recordings also continue without WiFi connection. Thanks!
Hi,
Having the exact same problem with 2 of my Wyze Can v2s’ : not being able to continuously record on the SD Card, without having a WiFi access… would it be possible to have an idea when this acknowledged bug will be addressed through a new FW, as this is quite annoying in my case?
Many thanks for an answer.
Brhds,
Lipari
PS : I filed a ticket on Feb, 4th, but unfortunately didn’t get an answer.
). Thanks for reporting this issue!