Live view while internet is down

Hi all. Looking for some assistance.

I have recently set up my mother with several cameras around her house as she lives alone and gets nervous with noises and such. She is connected to the same network but when her ISP drops (which is frequently - the one in the news lately), she is unable to view the camera feed even though she is connected to the same LAN. We have her on an android phone with 3 WC V2 and 1 WC Pan.

Am I missing a setting or did I misunderstand the capabilities of the camera? Thanks in advance.

This is happening because when the app initially connects to the camera it has to do an authentication handshake with the Wyze servers first to make sure the account is valid. If it is unable to contact those servers, then you will not be able to access the cameras. These are not CCTV type camera connections.

2 Likes

@DreadPirateRush
Thatā€™s not been my experience. As I type this, the internet connection to the router used by my Wyze cams is down (I pulled the WAN cable). Yet I can view the Live Stream from my cameras using the Wyze app on my iPhone, which is on the same WiFi network as the cameras.

I can also tap View Playback, scroll through the timeline, and retrieve video stored on the SDcard, all with no internet connection.

1 Like

@kyphos What happens when you force close the app and then try it again? What I described is how I understood it to work. Iā€™m curious what your results are. Thanks! :slight_smile:

2 Likes

My experience has been that if you had an internet connection when you started the app, you can continue streaming without it on the local network. However, if you force quit the app with no internet connection, it will require you to log back in and that canā€™t be done with no internet.

1 Like

If thatā€™s the case, then the OPā€™s mother shouldnā€™t have any problem viewing her cams during internet outages as long as she hasnā€™t force-quit the app. I use the iOS version of the app, and rarely have to force-quit it. Itā€™s frozen on me a couple of times, and I occasionally force-quit it to troubleshoot something, but for day-to-day use it just keeps on running, just like the Energizer bunny (as do most iOS apps).

I note that OPā€™s mother is using Android. Perhaps it deals with backgrounding of apps differently.

1 Like

Iā€™ll do some testing next time Iā€™m there and post just in case anyone is interested. If anyone at Wyze is listening (ortheNSA) may I suggest being able to connect to the camera as long as it is registered under your app and on the same network. I like the idea of some Web connection but why canā€™t we use it without the Web as well?

1 Like

Because the credentials to access the cameras via the app are not stored on the cameras. They are stored on the WYZE servers.

This is true of most smart home / IoT devices. My smart plugs, smart bulbs, video doorbell are all the same way.

2 Likes

Your phone is still connected to the Internet, which will allow the Wyze app to continue.

I did an experiment where I setup a hot spot network for a new camera. Then I put aluminum foil around my cell phone. I could keep the WiFi network running but the cell phone connection to the tower was lost. As soon as the tower connection was lost the Wyze app stopped working.

Since your fellow users and mods seem to have been unable to help you, keep in mind that this forum is primarily a user to user community. If you donā€™t get a helpful reply here, I suggest you file a support request including the log files 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 itā€™s already resolved.

@sjgschwend
Curious - thatā€™s not been my experience. Iā€™ve used the app (on iPhone) and my Wyzecam in the middle of the Norwegian Sea, where the iPhone most assuredly had no connection to the internet. Not over cellular data, and not over shipā€™s WiFi. I travel with a little travel router that includes a tiny 2.4GHz AP (and a battery pack, which powers the camera). The cam and the iPhone both connect to the AP. I can view the camā€™s Live View, set up Time-lapse recordings, download TL recordings, etc. All with no internet connection.

To verify this mode of operation, Iā€™ve just turned off Cellular Data on my iPhone. The app continues to work fine. It authenticates with my Wyze cameras over WiFi, and letā€™s me Live View, and Playback from SD card.

I canā€™t explain why your Wyze app stopped working when you wrapped your cellphone in tin foil.

1 Like

Perhaps because the tin foil prevented any kind of data connection all together?

I infer that when @sjgschwend said ā€œI could keep the WiFi network runningā€¦ā€, he was implying that the WiFi connection from his cell phone to his LAN was still solid. And that he verified that the tin foil had no impact on WiFi connectivity, quality, etc.
But of course, if the tin foil compromised his WiFi connection, then of course the app would cease connecting to the camera.

1 Like

I will try it again. Will turn data off to try and duplicate your results. I can setup an AP too. It could be that my carrier shutdown the hot spot when the tower link dropped but left the icon active.

Thatā€™s plausible. The design intent of a smartphone hotspot is to allow a WiFi device (typically a laptop) to access the cellular data connection. If your tinfoil caused the cellular link to drop, itā€™s quite plausible that your smart phone would have disabled its AP, since there was no cellular data channel for it to connect to. With no data channel, your Wyze cam would have been high and dry, unable to connect to anything.

1 Like

OK, I have completed retesting my Hot spot setup and also tested using my cable TV WiFi router. It looks like the Verizon Hot Spot Icon does stay active even when phone data is turned off. Things do not work in that mode where the data is turned off in the cell phone.

I did setup my phone using WiFi data only by turning the data off in the cell phoneā€™s settings. I donā€™t know why but it took more than one attempt to make that work. At first the Wyze App was stuck in the verification screen. I did turn the phone data on to get everything working. After that point I could turn the phone data off and I could do anything I wanted including power cycling the camera and phone and the WiFi data only mode worked without any problems. It is almost as if my credentials were approved and active for certain amount of time

Next I will fire up a WiFi router with no Internet connection. My understanding the Wyze app will work that way too.

I have setup a stand alone AP with no Internet; connecting my phone and camera. As of yet I can not get the cameras to connect. But have a buddy coming over to see if we can figure out what the camera connection issue is, my phone connected with no trouble.

Are the cameras yet registered on your Wyze account? In order to first set up the cameras on the new AP, they (and your phone) need internet connectivity.

So first connect your standalone AP to internet. Make sure phone has internet connectivity. Then go through the Add Device procedure to get the cams registered with the app. If successful, verify that you can view the Live video, enable Local recording to SD card, view video Playback.
Once thatā€™s in place, you should then be able to disconnect the internet connection to the AP, and continue using the app to view/operate the cameras.

Then you can power down the AP and the cams, relocate the entire setup elsewhere if you want, power them back up. The cams will associate with the APā€™s WiFi (and so will your phone), and you can continue to view them Live, watch playback, etc.

1 Like

The camera I am using was registered on my Wyze account.

Today I setup a standalone AP and connected it via LAN to the Internet. My phone was WiFiā€™d to the new AP setup. I added the new device and I got as far as the last step of the camera connecting and it timed out without making the final connection. I did notice that the Wyze app would not accept a short router password, but I did get past that step by making the password longer.

Is there a issue with setting up a camera that was already setup on another network? Perhaps some Wyze security protocol?

Thanks for the help

Steve Gschwend

Tested the cameras today on my momā€™s android. If the app was open when the data to the router was unplugged she could still live view the cameras. If the ā€˜focusā€™ was taken off of the Wyze app then you can no longer access the app or cameras. (the app was still running in the background but if you then opened another app and tried going back to the Wyze, then nothing worked). Iā€™m dissapointed :frowning: but I appreciate all of the input and replies.

1 Like