Does WiFi Signal drop stop Cloud & SD Card Recording?

I have a Wyze Pan that’s the furthest from
My WiFi router. The WiFi is weak but at this point I’m planning to live with it until I have more disposable income :wink:.

The problem is that the cloud upload of events and SD card recording of events stops randomly which I can attribute only to dropped WiFi. However, it occasionally starts recording events again when I assume the WiFi signal is strong again. Sometimes it will go 12-14 hours without recording.

The questions I have for other users (if Wyze answers it would be good) are:

  1. if this is normal behavior ? If the Wifi drops during a cloud upload or SD card recording, does the recording stop until it reconnects to WiFi ?

  2. If the Pan Cam cannot get a strong enough WiFi signal to connect to, does it time out and wait for some time before trying again or does it keep trying over and over again. If it does wait, what’s the wait time ?

  3. Any other suggestions other than getting a WiFi repeater or a mesh ?

My experience in tests of the past is that if there is no WiFi signal at the time of upload, then the cloud clip upload will never occur.

You mention SD card, but the SD card is a totally separate system. The SD card should maintain the recording regardless of the WiFi signal, so long as the WiFi signal was viable when the camera booted (the camera has to be authorized). If it wasn’t, there will be no SD card recording.

I have had the SD card recording drop out when the camera exceeds operating temperature range though, so be sure it is shielded from the sun if it is not in a breathable environment, especially if it is black in color.

Thanks! That helps. In my case, I think it’s probably a combination of a dirty lens along with weak signal. Person detection is very unreliable unless its directly facing the person. In this case the camera is looking down on to my backyard.

So the followup question is: I have
Event Recording; Schedule/ALL DAY; Detects Motion/ON ; Detects Sound/OFF
Notifications: Send Notifications/ON; Person/ON; All Other Motion/OFF; Sound/OFF
Advanced Setttings / Local Storage/Local Recording to SD Card/ON; Record Events Only/ON

In this scenario, I dont seem to get reliable recordings of all Events Involving Motion. I should still get SD Card recordings of ALL Motion (not just Person) isn’t it ? Notifications should have nothing to do with Event Recording ?

Most of those are 12-second clip settings.

The ‘Event Recording’ & ‘Notifications’ settings are for 12-second cloud clips. The ‘Advanced Settings’ > ‘Local Storage’ is for your SD card. One exception to the general rule that the normal camera settings are only for the 12-second clips is the ‘Detection Settings’ item. There your ‘Detection Zone’ is valid for both 12-second clips and the SD card. I’ve seen people talk about the ‘Sensitivity’ setting both ways. I think support told someone once that is fixed to 50% for the SD card, but you can set it to whatever you feel comfortable with.

The camera will record to the SD card in the absence of a WiFi signal, so long as the WiFi signal was available when the camera booted.

The Event Recording > Schedule is for 12-second clips also. To stop the SD card from recording you would need to turn off the camera using the app or a shortcut (or a Plug). Or reboot it in the absence of WiFi where it couldn’t get authorization to start up.

Person Detection is for 12-second clips. Only generic motion sensing is available on the SD card.

So other than Detection Zone, your SD card settings are all in Advanced Settings > Local Storage.

Just FYI, there is also no cool down for the SD card. If it senses motion at 30 seconds into the minute it will show you the complete minute the motion was in. If it senses motion 30 seconds into the next minute, then you will have 2 full back-to-back minutes recorded. So as long as you have motion, you will have continuous recording.

Your issue may be your camera is too far from the action. As an example, I have a camera looking down from my second story clerestory windows, and me walking around my back yard doesn’t change enough pixels to get a 12-second clip when the 12-second clip sensitivity is set to 90%. So the bigger a person can be in the image the better chance you will record something.

Thus, you may need to move the camera closer to the action to get the SD card to record motion reliably.

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