After the most recent firmware update, I have one camera, the one that came with the base station, completely drains within hours. I charged it yesterday to 100 percent and it was at 60% after 1 hour and completely dead a couple hours later. Anyone else having this issue? The outdoor cams I bought individually aren’t behaving like this.
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I just read in another thread that this was discovered as a known issue 5 days ago by WYZE. They are working on beta firmware now and hope to have this fixed soon. In the mean time, others are reporting that you can roll back to the previous firmware to work around the issue.
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Thanks Know1 for your information. I was having the same issue where battery was draining within 8 hours. Going back one firmware version to see if this will help.
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You bet and happy to help. By the way, another person reported that they had to update the app on their phone before the mentioned functionality appeared. Thus if you don’t see those options, try updating your WYZE app.
Good luck!
My first WCO began to do this about a week ago. I moved it inside and turned it off. I fully recharged it from the base station. I opted out of Beta so have no idea if the recent in Beta Firmware changes will help.
I kept the WCO indoors for a week. The first two days, with it on, I left it facing a wall. The battery drained 1% total. I moved it to a window where it would pick up very little movement. It was at 91% after 5 additional days. I placed it outside yesterday. Early on the battery dropped to 86% quickly. 24 hours later it is at 84%.
My replacement WCO was positioned outside when I brought the original one inside. As of right now, it is at 61%. That’s a 5% per day drain rate.
IMHO, the WCO can not handle cold weather.
Also, it’s limit to sensing motion is about 30 feet. That, with the recent changes to how motion wakes it up, meaning about the first 5 seconds of motion is not captured, is not a reasonable solution to extending battery life.
It is not clear if the battery struggles in cold weather, or the components struggle with cold weather and increase their battery consumption.
I have recently had some issues with one of my WCOs as well… it was resolved after the same steps @isaiah58 mentioned above… time passed on and the same one needed a charge, brought it in charged it up to 100% sent it back our and noticed it was down 20% over night. Just so happened to have snowed and my cool down was at 1 minute. I kicked it back up to 5 minutes and it’s only gone down 4% in a couple of days.
Just something to think about when it comes to battery consumption on the WCOs. The less cool down period, faster the drain.
There is a known bug with the current firmware. That’s the root of the issue:
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@Known1 the 2% or higher per day has been happening for a long time. As for the battery running down in 24 hours, that is the fix you are referring to and does address the OPs issue.
In addition, they added an additional Firmware update related to the Base not saving motion clips.
@R.Good , even 2% a day is excessive. I have one other thing to check. I moved my SD card over to the replacement. It is possible that adding a SD card factors into battery usage?!?!
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I would say that having an SD card does factor in. Based on reading in other threads I’ve learned that the WCO will create a log file and store it on the SD card, if/when inserted. If there is no SD card there is no log file. Obviously creating a log file is going to use additionally battery.
Thank you, Known1. I’ll revert the firmware on that camera and see what happens.
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We are discussing issues that continously drain the battery. There are a number of use scenarios or individual instances that contribute.
Are you claiming you know that by inserting a SD card, the WCO will exhibit an increase drain on the battery continously?
No, I am not claiming that. I am however stating that I know the camera will create a log file when an SD card is inserted. Obviously if the camera is doing more with an SD card inserted then it is using more battery. I have no idea how much more juice it uses to create this log file. Nor do I know how much faster your battery will drain with an SD card inserted.
@Known1 I understand. The problem has been every time someone complains about battery life, the standard responses are along the lines of: limit using live view, do not use the camera where there tends to be regular activity, keep the time between clips at 5 minutes, etc… Basically, do not expect the battery to last long if used as a security camera or to monitor the areas most of us want to use an outside camera on.
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Not to pile on or rub anyone the wrong way here. With that said, I’ve come to the realization that WYZE cams are not to be used or trusted for real security needs. Is it any wonder why the home monitoring solution hasn’t shipped yet?
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I’ve been having the same issue with the battery in a Outdoor Cam.
The first time after i got it and charged it up… .it worked fine for a couple months and would take a charge and hold it. This January, it got a notice that the battery was @ 2%! So I immediately brought the camera in to charge it up. It did not seem to want to charge at all. After several attempts, it finally did take a charge and indicated that it was @ 100%. So I put it back outside and the next day it was “dead” again. Now the app says it is @ 0% and it will not take a charge at all.
Is it possible to get a replacement unit? Or battery?
Unfortunately, it does NOT appear to be “User Serviceable”. 
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(Wyze Cam Outdoor Firmware 4.17.1.027 Released - 2/10/21)
4.17.1.027 (February 10, 2021)
- Fixed a bug that caused Cam Plus Events to not detect people properly
- Fixed a bug that caused accelerated battery drain with weak WiFi signal
nO Ive read enough I think and will go back to electric supplied cams to avoid the short life and more or less widely variable life expectancies. If I could leave batt cam on electrical only Id get more of them. I preferr the detection grid that is with the batt cam for outdoors,because of the ability to choose and block out shadow,and plant movements. The indoor are basically worthless for outdoor if its windy and there are plants that move from it.
The outdoor cams record moving trees also even if they are blocked out in the detection zone. I even turned the zone off and my one cam set on PIR only records a tree moving in the wind every day. 
Wow thought I was the only one with this issue. My WCO does’t last a day anymore. I will try to back out the current firmware as some have suggested, I used to love this device now not so much.
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Yes, ddm653, you are not alone.
I have pretty much given up on Wyze all together.
They don’t respond to my queries and based on results, their devices are NOT Dependable.
I bit the big one an bought their Security System and paid in advance for the first year… Since then I have removed it all and gone back to SimpliSafe. What a waste of $$$!!! I also have 2 PAN CAMs that will not stay connected, even though none of them is more than 20 ft from the WiFi router.
I do have a couple of lites that seem to still work and so far the dead bolt door lock is ok. But I just can’t “TRUST” that their stuff is up to “Mission Critical” capabilities.
Almost every time I really want to access any of the devices they are either ‘OFF’ or asking for an update. Subsequent updates have brought no improvement in operation… therefore i have nothing good to say about Wyze and when anyone asks me, ‘what do you think about Wyze? Should I buy it?’, I have to reccommend against it. I was so hopeful when they first came out… but now I just feel like I’ve been “date-raped” and scared for life.
“Back out the firmware???” I doubt that will do any good even if it is possible.
Good luck to the rest of you.
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