32gb sd card only getting 4 days on continuous recording

I just installed my wyze v2 security cams I installed them with continuous recording enabled to the local 32gb samsung micro sd cards. I was under the impression in the documentation that in sd mode the 32 gb card should be good for 7 days of continuous recording, but I am only getting 4 days. The card has a total size after formatting of 29.79 gb. Why is it only getting 4 days?

You are correct that Wyze estimates that a 32GB card will hold 7-8 days of video as shown here:

https://support.wyzecam.com/hc/en-us/articles/360012429891-What-size-and-kind-of-microSD-cards-does-Wyze-Cam-Pan-support-

However, it is important to remember that this is only an estimate. The amount of compression (and thus the amount of video that can fit on a card) varies by the nature of the scene and the amount of movement. Scenes of more complexity (fewer monotone areas) and scenes with more movement will result in less compression being able to be performed.

So I can offer two suggestions…

  1. while 32GB is the max officially supported size, almost universally everyone who reports using 64 and even 128GB cards has not had an issue with them, and

  2. you might want to try the Event Only mode. This will give many more days of storage (depending of course on how much motion there is). Most people find that the non-motion video being saved is not really of any value anyway. It also makes finding areas of interest for playback much easier since you can jump from one saved event segment to the next.

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So the estimate is 7-8 days, yet I am only getting half that…half? Really. I can’t use event based, I need it running all the time. I would have bought 64 gb cards had I known I needed them to get the stated 7 -8 days. But I bought 32gb because that is what the documentation stated. Apparently it is only 7-8 days in a completely black and white scene that almost never has pixel changes in sd? Perhaps that is what should be stated.

I run mine in Event Only, so I don’t really have any direct experience myself. The only thing I could suggest is to file a support request on this so they can look and see if there’s anything else going on. If they don’t find anything, perhaps that might prompt them to reduce the posted estimates.

As a comparison, I’m getting about 4 days of continuous HD on a 32 gig. It’s a high-alert area, front yard, every car, squirrel or bird that goes by triggers it. Not sure the comparison between SD & HD but I’d guess yours does sound maybe low.

I can go back over 3 weeks (have only had it about that long) on a record on event-only, HD, 32 gig card that’s in a very low alert area… inside of garage so typically only 4-6 events per day of coming and going.

What type of SD card? Or should I say where did you get it from? How about some cheesy ones cheap and they didn’t work out well.

Also does anyone know what video coding the cameras use?

The amount of time is going to depend MASSIVELY on the activity that the camera sees. I just looked at one of my V2 cameras with a 32GB card. It has about 4 days on it and I will call it a torture test. The camera is pointing at the most active part of a music synchronized Christmas light show (within it’s field of view is about 30,000 channels of lighting).

Fun story, just for giggles I changed the camera to hd mode and it is actually storing more now its up to 4 days and 4 hours so far. Its not the card its a samsung evo select card from amazon. So should I submit a ticket? Why would I possibly be getting more storage in hd mode?

Definitely submit a ticket. Could be a configuration issue on your camera or a bug in the firmware, either way best to get some Wyze eyes on it. Just for reference I get about 3-4 days recording continuously in HD, but I’ve never tried recording in SD.

@Loki regarding your suggestion #2, if the motion detection area is the entire frame on high sensitivity I agree Event-only mode definitely makes sense since the non-event video would be completely static. However, I have several cams with partial frame detection zones so I don’t get a constant stream of alerts for every tree branch, car, or pedestrian. For those cams I may still want to go back and see something that happened outside my detection zone (car accident in front of my house, kids vandalizing neighbor’s mailbox to name 2 recent examples).

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If you think about it,if something happens let’s say a break in to your vehicle that last all of 15 secs or so,home robbery maybe a few minutes