RIP: Off-line recording

Hi, @Newshound!

Sorry for not being as clear as I should have been in the instructions. Turning off the recording and formatting the microSD card was likely superfluous but shouldn’t hurt anything. Thanks for the instructions and the log! I edited mine to include removing the microSD card.

@nerdland, the logs are periodically updated (I’m not sure what time frame it occurs in) but you can immediately collect a log by inserting a microSD card. :slight_smile:

Ah! Good to know, if I ever need to do that.

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Yup! Hopefully you won’t need to but this is a nice shortcut to make everything go more quickly. :slight_smile:

My intent was to minimize the log size to just this event, and not include anything that was there previously. Shutting off the recording was also a minimalist move so I would only see the 3 minutes of recordings. Just keeping it pure and to the point.

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I disagree - this is not a new feature request.
And it shouldn’t be tough, as it used to work that way.

Note that I wasn’t suggesting that the camera was broadcasting its own SSID, as you suggested. As detailed in post #1 above, the camera connected to an external AP (ie. a travel router). The smartphone + app also connected to the AP. The app communicated with the camera via the AP’s WiFi network. The app could configure the camera, set up local recording (to the SDcard), and subsequently view the recorded video. The Wyze app could Live View the camera over the WiLAN, independent of any internet connection.

As described in post #1 on this thread, this worked wonderfully last summer (June-July 2018), all without any connection to the internet. Then Wyze ‘upgraded’ the firmware, and broke offline operation, which is the subject of this thread.

I did a second test to determine if SD card recording stops 8-hours after loss of WiFi (Internet). It does not, at least with the current 4.9.4.169 firmware for the V2. WiFi was turned off globally at the router for 12 hours in my test.

My test included 7 V2 cameras, 4 of which remained powered through the loss of WiFi, and 3 that were powered down just before WiFi was restored (just to mix things up). All were functioning properly on WiFi at the beginning of the 12-hour cycle.

All but one recorded the full 12 hours, but that exception was predictable too.

The exception was a cam I had set the plug to power-cycle in the middle of the test. It unsurprisingly did not continue to record to the SD card once power was restored because the WiFi was still down. But it did continue to record to the SD card on its own without intervention about a minute after WiFi was restored, as you would expect.

The continuously-powered cams also reconnected on their own once WiFi was restored. I did not have to power-cycle them.

The 3 cams I powered down just before WiFi restoration predictably lost SD card recording during the few minutes they were off, but nowhere else in the cycle, or after they were powered back up in the presence of WiFi.

So the loss of SD card operation when powering up in the absence of Internet is still the focus here. There is currently no 8-hour bug.

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Yes, there is something still there. The one camera of mine that is in my vehicle and drives out of WiFi coverage will consistently stop recording to the uSD card after about 8 hours after driving out of coverage, It does it at exactly the same amount of time after driving out of coverage - in other words, if I leave home three minutes later, it stops recording 3 minutes later. It does not matter which of my 12 V2 cameras is operating in the car - they ALL do it. All are running whatever is the latest firmware at the time. This has been going on for at least a year.
Part two is that with a very high reliability, if the camera stops recording to the uSD card, it also will not reconnect to the WiFi upon driving back into coverage without being power cycled. If a camera is going to reconnect to the WiFi when I drive back in range, it will be solid Blue before I can back into my driveway. If it’s not going to reconnect, no amount of waiting will allow it to reconnect - only a power cycle. My WiFi management shows no attempt to connect.

You said you were using firmware 4.9.4.108. I tested with the current firmware of 4.9.4.169.

There is no longer a 8-hour SD recording limit after loss of WiFi, nor a problem reconnecting when WiFi is again available, at least with my router.

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I have tested this with EVERY firmware that has come out in the past about a year. The problem persists regardless of which firmware version it is. This has been tested with all 12 of my V2 cameras (not all at the same time). I have swapped which camera is installed in my truck (the only one that drives out of range), and they all do it. They will stop recording at about 8 hours after driving out of range. Additionally, they ALL (regardless of firmware version) will fail to reconnect when I drive back into range. It appears that the failure to reconnect is tied to the uSD stopping recording. If the recording stops, they won’t reconnect without a power cycle.

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I’m sorry @WyzeJasonJ’s (#111) and my (#135) experiences are different. I am at a loss to explain it.

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I did a test just the other day on this, I was testing to see if it would record if I booted the camera without WiFi, here is what I did.

  1. Set up cam with continuous recording to SDcard
  2. Also set a time lapse for 12 hours
  3. Unplugged cam and moved it to a vehicle.
  4. Drove away from Wifi then plugged in cam.
  5. Drove to work spent 12 hours away from home Wifi
  6. When pulling up at home cam picked up WiFI
  7. Went into app and check recording
    a. Found cam never recorded until the WiFi connected
    b. Time lapse did record the entire time power was connected.

Cam was powered for a total of 12 hours but off of WiFi, recorded time lapse but did not record continuous until it found WiFi.

The other test I did a few weeks ago was a 12 hour test that only invovled removal of WiFi but cam stayed powered

  1. Set up continuous recording
  2. Turned off Wifi
  3. Turned on WiFi after home from work about 12 hours (at least 11)
  4. Camera recorded entire time

The only time I lose continuous recording is when I power off the cam until it grabs WiFi again

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I see. So basically, you were able to access it over a LAN before? Interesting. I’m honestly kinda surprised that worked. That’s not something that I’d really expect to be able to do. But it’s cool that it used to do that.

Yep - the V2 camera used to work off-line, with no dependency on an internet connection to WyzeHQ. I could travel to far-away places (way off the grid) with my HooToo travel router - a dandy little gadget containing a router, a WiFi AP and a USB battery pack. The camera would power up just fine. The Wyze app on my iPhone would connect to the camera, which would record locally to the SDcard. I could Live View what the camera was seeing, set up and capture time-lapse recordings, download them from the camera into the iPhone, etc.

Then they broke the off-line functionality with a firmware update:-(.
“Sad”, as some would say.

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In the same boat. Paranormal investigator and got these JUST to use on the go in the dark, in locations with no wifi or power, significantly far from home. Can I downgrade the firmware and do it that way? Who has firmware archived earlier than the ones available here on the site?

When is someone going to delete this article then?

https://support.wyzecam.com/hc/en-us/articles/360031483211-Can-I-use-my-camera-offline-without-internet-connection-

It is fraudulently telling people before they buy these that offline recording still works!

Funny you should say that. @sodcam just made a great post explaining that it can sort of still work, just not by the @kyphos Norwegian Fjord Method (SM).

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That article could use some clarification. @WyzeTanvi? The camera will not currently work offline unless it had an Internet connection at startup to be authorized to function.

Some clarification? Well, perhaps.
Frankly, I think that article needs a complete re-write, by someone who actually tests the use case described and understands the limitations of the camera.

The article says:

To view your recorded footage, you can … remove the microSD card from your Wyze Cam to view the raw video files (mp4 format) on a computer. When you return the microSD card to your Wyze Cam, it will resume continuous recording.

This might encourage the Wyze Customer to pull the SDcard while the camera is still powered up at the remote location. That’s generally not advisable. Memory cards can be corrupted if the power vanishes while memory operations are underway. For example, if the camera is configured for continuous recording.

The current Wyze app has a button to Eject SD Card (under Advanced/Local Storage) which presumably enables safe removal from a powered camera. However, if one is off-line at a remote location with no internet (the point of entire article), the app is unable to access the camera, so one can’t click the EJECT button.

If the wise Wyze user powers down the camera to safely remove the SDcard, views the raw video files on a computer (as suggested by @WyzeTanvi), reinserts the card, and then powers the camera back on, it will not resume continuous recording. It won’t boot up properly since it has no internet connection at the off-line location.

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I’ve been reading many of the articles in this interesting thread. Last week, the router in my vacation home crashed. I figured no big deal, I’ll just check the microSD using the app once I reboot the router… I have my 2 Wyze Cam V2s and 3 V3s set to record to the microSD card on events only.
To my surprise, nothing was recorded on any of the cameras during the time the router was down. It only started recording immediately after the router was rebooted.
I discussed with Wyze support and in the end, the conclusion is that the cameras will only record offline when the “record to microSD” is set to continuous, not on events.
I haven’t tried pulling the microSD card yet and checking with a computer, but from the discussion, it is unlikely it will have any recording.

This is now concerning since as a security device, you’d at least expect to be able to use the local microSD card as a backup in case the internet goes down.

This is contrary to last winter when I left one V2 camera on for the whole winter with no internet. I can’t remember what firmware version it was, unfortunately (not sure if I was diligent updating the firmware at the time). Anyways, I was able to go through the microSD card after winter to review any movements. It had events recorded the whole winter and since not a lot of motion was expected, the 32GB was enough. Now I’m being told that it has to be on continuous recording to work without internet, which obviously won’t be any use for the whole winter as it can only retain about 3 days of recording…

Based on this thread that has gone for over 2 years, it doesn’t look like this previously working feature will ever return… perhaps it’s one way to encourage users to sign up for the CAM plus (which I do have several subscriptions for anyways), but it’s no good when the internet fails…

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I have been a staunch supporter of Wyze and had not had to test this.
Nope, it’s the one thing that will get me started looking for other systems.
We don’t all live where the net stays up 24/7.
:frowning:
And what good is Cam plus when the net is down?

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