Possible solution for lost person detection announcements in alexa

Tips & Tricks
41

OK but please don’t break anything on my account, @spamoni . Thank you to carver too - I’ll try a firmware upgrade against my usual policy.

But I was kind of hoping someone had figured out the special sauce / series of secret magical incantations that would get everything working by now. :frowning:

There are my first V3s so I was hoping I’d just missed something. And yes, all are on Lite.

Edit: Upgraded from 4.36.8.15 to 4.36.9.139.

No change in Alexa (Still "In order to enable this feature you may need to upgrade your Wyze plan.).

Edit2: On my second (not first) attempt after the upgrade I got a successful person event recorded. But still no Alexa announcement capability, despite another round or three of renaming camera and reinstalling Skill and rediscovering, etc., etc.

42

I will try on mine. I cannot do anything to your account.

I was trying to find out if you have only CPL or if you also have CamPlus.

43

@Customer is saying don’t break your setup trying to find the issue.

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44

Alexa announces people on two cameras I’ve had set up for a couple of years. If I try to change the announcement Alexa informs me that I have to Update my Cloud cam subscription to enable it. The routine is shown as disabled but works fine.

I just added a routine to announce people at the front door using a V3. The routine was added with no issue. If I try to edit it I get the same message about Cloud subscription and the routine is shown as disabled.

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45

LOL, oops read it a different way. Thanks

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46

Now I am wondering what your first response was. :sweat_smile:

47

Lol. When he said don’t break anything on my account, I made the assumption that they were talking about their account.

I wanted to see if I could reproduce the issue. I have no issues with Alexa

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48

Geez I guess next time I’ll use “behalf”. :wink:

Thanks for the replies.

Hmm that’s fascinating. I do this only with the Devices, Cameras settings - I’ve had bad results trying it with routines. And I’ve never seen a message about “cloud cam”, just the “upgrade your Wyze plan” message.

Certainly worth a try handling these new V3s with a routine, even if it’s suboptimal for my normal use. Thank you!

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49

…and it doesn’t work. :frowning:

Trying to add by routine, Smart Home, device V3…

And this is dimmed and unselectable:

Other non-V3 cameras in the same Lite subscription can be selected for PD in routines.

So at present I still can’t use my new V3s to replace my V2s. I might have to return them.

50

Dang. Wish I knew what else to tell you, but you already tried all the standard tricks to get Alexa to recognize and allow things like this. It sounds like other people are able to use it just fine with CPLite and Alexa person detection. I can’t think of why it would be different for you.

I wonder if you activated your Cam Plus trial, then activated the Person skill, then switched to CPLite if it would fix it. That’s the only other thing I can think of that might do it. go through setup, activate a CP trial, set it up, then switch to Lite and check that it still works. Maybe Alexa has a bug where it needs that first but then allows it afterward? I could potentially see that as a bug…

51

Thanks. One reason I did it this way (avoided the trial) was precisely to avoid any kind of service integration interruptions. :frowning:

I guess you’re right, there’s nothing left to try really, other than more waiting for Alexa to get the hint.

52

Ugh, @carverofchoice the Plus “free” trial won’t start without a new credit card (it is also ignoring the 3 months that were supposed to come with these cameras and defaulting to 14 days). This is not acceptable.

53

I get nearly the opposite result.
My single V3 and one of the V2 cameras have person detection available, either through the Device setting or Routines.
Three V2 cams and a Pan cam will not allow Person Detection.

The message in Device setup is; "In order to enable this feature you may need to upgrade your Wyze plan.” The Routine message is; “Please update your Cloud cam subscription to enable this routine.”

One of the disabled V2’s and the disabled Pan cam both do the assigned disabled routine. The Pan announces that someone is at the back door, the V2 turns on a light for 30 minutes.

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54

So you must have been able to assign the devices at one point before the routine/function got disabled? Because I see no way in Alexa to create a person detection routine for this V3…

55

Yes, the cameras that don’t allow PD now, did at one time.
I don’t think they’ve ever all worked at the same time. If they did, I wasn’t looking that day. :slight_smile:

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56

Sigh, I sure wish someone could provide the required special incantation. I’ve made so many attempts to get this V3 to work as it’s supposed to. I can still try the paid CamPlus route if I have to.

57

Just re-initiate the camera and get the free Cam Plus trial.

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58

But it will still require a credit card?

59

No. New cameras always default to a free 14 day trial. Until recently the only way to avoid it was to force close the app before agreeing to the trial.

I forget the exact wording but it may as well have been; Do you agree to these terms. Yes.

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60

@customer you and I have been in the throws of Ms. Alexa’s tantrums in the past together. I have unboxed a V3 and diving in to see what’s up.

So far…
Added the new V3 w/32GB SD card to my environment
Alexa sent notification that the device was Auto added to my Wyze Skill
Updated to the most current V3 FW
Applied a CPL License to the Camera

Went into the Alexa App and the there the Camera Was BUT,
Tells me the Camera Version does not support live stream and Tells me that I need an upgraded plan to do person detection.

You and I both know that Live Stream is supported on the V3. In addition I cannot pull up the V3 on my show devices at this time.

This is where I (and I know you have to) let Alexa percolate a bit… I will keep watch let’er steep and see what happens then dive in a little more once we get to the next phase with good ol’ Alexa.

UPDATE: 12/20/22 3:02 PM EST
I am now able to View the Camera on My Echo Show Devices
Alexa still shows that live is not supported in the Alexa app
Alexa still says I need to upgrade my plan for person detection

UPDATE: 12/20/22 10:55 PM EST
Alexa still shows that live is not supported in the Alexa app
Alexa still says I need to upgrade my plan for person detection

I also noticed that a V3 I deployed about a week and a half ago that has a Cam Plus license assigned to it is exhibiting the same exact behavior as related to the person detection and Alexa announcements. I am almost willing to bet there is something broken in the integration somewhere as related to new devices. All of my other V3s, V2s, Pan Cams etc that support this capability and that have been in service for awhile are fine.

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