RIP: Off-line recording

Hello @kyphos!

I apologize for my late chime in on this matter & the confusion. I attempted this on one of my cameras and was able to confirm that time lapses are no longer working while the camera is offline. I followed up with our camera Product Manager and was able to confirm that this feature still work the way you were originally using it, so we got a bug filed with the Devs and will get it repaired.

I will post again as I have further updates on this!

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Hello @MaxS
Thanks for the late “chime-in”. I’m pleased to hear that you could reproduce the issue (no time-lapse if offline).

Can I also mention to you a related problem? I found that even if the camera is on-line, it’s not possible to download the TL video if using a hotspot. Here’s the set-up:

  • camera connected to WiFi hotspot created by iPhone.
  • iPhone is in a cellular region with LTE service.
  • camera starts up, connects to Wyze servers through the iOS hotspot, registers, etc etc
  • camera records a time-lapse.
  • the Wyze iOS app then attempts to download the TL video.
    But the app reports an error: must connect to the same WiFi to download.

In this scenario, the iPhone (app) and the Wyze cam are on the same local network, the network that is created by the iOS hotspot. They both have IP addresses in the same/24 subnet, assigned by the DHCP server in the iPhone (part of the hotspot feature). Yet the Wyze app thinks that the camera is not on the same network, and refuses to download the TL file.

Thanks.

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Yes, please eliminate the “same network” check for TL videos. It causes many more problems than it solves, and is a frustrating user experience.

@MaxS, will you be fixing all SD card modes to work without Internet? I.E. Continuous record, Event-only record, etc? And I mean fixed so the camera can work with no Internet available, even at power up.

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Yes… This please! I would really enjoy being able to have the cam record without the use of a internet connection.

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Should we start chiming in for the return of this method?

It’s got my vote.

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It’s got mine too!

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I too really would like this to work.

I wanted a simple solution to use it to have a record of activity at temporarily unoccupied real estate properties - no internet available. Seeing as this seems to be an unresolved issue since at least the new year, I will have to look for another solution.

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Been really busy and not here much lately. I had noticed the 90 minute “bug” got corrected some while back, but the cameras will absolutely reliably stop recording about 8 hours after leaving WiFi coverage. And once they stop recording, they will not reconnect to the WiFi after coming back into the coverage area without being power cycled. If however, I am out of WiFi coverage for a short enough time that the recording continues, the camera will reliably reconnect to the WiFi as soon as it gets in range. I have been logging this activity to make sure I am not missing something.
This is with V2 cameras set to record continuously with firmware 4.9.4.108 being used as a Dashcam.

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Hello, everyone!

Would you be up for sending in a firmware log after trying this again? The devs are looking into it further. :slight_smile:

Since this is an issue with OFFLINE recording, we’ll need to use the microSD card route for the log collection. In this case,

  • Wait until the problem is likely occurring
  • Remove the microSD card
  • Insert the microSD card while the Wyze Cam is still powered
  • Wait for the “ding ding” sound
  • Remove the microSD card
  • Please check to make sure that the offline recording wasn’t working (if it was in this case, please try again so we can see data from when the problem was occurring)
  • Attach that log to an email that includes a brief description of the problem, the app version, and your firmware version
  • Send the email to abao@wyze.com
  • Tell Gwendolyn you did this so they can follow up on your log. :slight_smile:

Please let me know if you have any questions!

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I’m a little confused. The original problem, off-line recording, shouldn’t be something they need a log of. It’s the way they designed the firmware. The camera wants to connect to the Wyze servers before it will start up. No servers, no start, no SD recording (or anything else).

This morphed into other things like having to be on the same network to download time-lapse videos. Same thing applies there – it’s how they designed the app. They have installed an error routine that says if you are not on the same network, you can’t download your time lapse. Unfortunately this is carried to an extreme, saying if you aren’t on the same branch of your network (the 2.4 GHz branch), then you can’t download either. That causes a lot of frustration for users.

Would be very happy to have either or both of those ‘bugs’ eliminated, but they are actually the way the cameras were designed to work.

The only thing up in the air at the moment is @K6CCC’s observation that the cams stop recording 8 hours after the loss of Internet. My 9-hour test didn’t see that, at least not that I noticed (my test was 5 months ago). Is this what you would like to see logs for? I wouldn’t think logs would help on the first two issues.

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Just to add, I also did a 12-hour test and did not see any stoppage of recording.

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Gwen,
I concur with Newshound’s assessment. Has the latest camera firmware revised to allow the camera to power up properly in the absence of internet connection to WyzeHQ?

However, I’m quite willing to collect logs and send them in, but my question is "what is the ‘this’ that you’d like us to try again? Since I’m the one that started this thread back in May, I feel obligated to define what is meant by “Off-line recording” that titles this thread. However, it’s become apparent over the ensuing months that there are a number of different ‘off-line’ scenarios.

  1. The camera powers up (and then does local recording to SD card) without any internet connection whatsoever. No connection to Wyze servers, to NTP servers, to mystery servers in China. No network connectivity of any kind. The camera is truly stand-alone, with no infrastructure other than a power supply (usually a USB battery pack). This environment includes a number of different recording methods, that had previously been configured in the camera:
  • continuous recording to SDcard,
  • event- triggered recording,
  • time-lapse recording.
  1. A similar, but different, environment is when the camera has a WiFi connection but no internet connection. A typical scenario is the use of a portable travel router or hotspot at a remote (off-net location) to which the camera and smartphone associates, If properly designed, the Wyze app should be able to connect to the camera over the WiLAN, configure the camera’s settings, Live view, initiate local recording to SDcard, etc., in the absence of internet connection. Note that this configuration used to work in a previous Wyze release.

  2. Another scenario is when an internet connection is present when the camera powers up, thus allowing the camera to start local recording to SDcard (continuous, event-triggered, or time-lapse). Subsequently, the internet connection is lost. Some users have reported that the local recording ceases when the internet connection terminates. Others (notably @K6CCC) have reported that recording continues for 8 hours after LOI (Loss of Internet), and then ends. Jason21271 just reported a test in which the camera continued recording for 12 hours.

There may be other ‘off-line’ scenarios that I’ve missed, but I think these are the ones that have most frequently appeared in this and related threads lamenting the shortcoming in the Wyze cameras.

Gwen, please let us know which of these use cases the Dev team has been focused on fixing.

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Wyze Cams should record to a microSD card as long as they have power and were previously configured to do so. Example use cases would be if someone set up their Wyze Cam and installed a microSD card in their house and then moved it out into their barn or if they wanted to use it as a dash cam. So they shouldn’t stop recording when the network connection is lost but they’re still powered and you should be able to set them up to record while using a battery pack. But the configuration would need to happen in a WiFi environment.

Did that help?

That sounds like how the cams work today, if you are saying the cam was powered all the way to the barn after starting up with Internet in the house. Same thing for the dash cam scenario.

What I think this thread is about is wanting the SD card to work even if there is no Internet available at startup.

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I agree, they are looking for the cam to record even without the initial handshake with WYZE servers at startup. Just plug in and it records.

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Almost. Yes - just plug it in and it records locally, assuming that it had previously been configured for local recording to SDcard (continuous, event-triggered, or time-lapse).
But also be able to connect to the app over WiFi, so the recorded video can be viewed from the SDcard. And/or see the Live view. All in the absence of internet connection to WyzeLand.

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Sorry for the delay! I wanted to confirm with the team in case I was accidentally leading all y’all astray. It is confirmed that this use case should function:

  • Setup Wyze Cam in a WiFi environment
  • Install a microSD card
  • Configure the Wyze Cam to record locally to the microSD card
  • Unplug or otherwise remove power to the Wyze Cam
  • Power the Wyze Cam again in a non-WiFi environment
  • Wyze Cam follows configuration and records to the microSD card

If this has NOT been happening for you, please follow the log collection instructions above. You shouldn’t have to finagle keeping it powered between locations.

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Reads like you are wanting “wifi direct”.

sounds good.

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Not at all. The use case is what I described in item (2) above. The scenario is a WiFi access point (perhaps a travel router, perhaps a WiFi router in a cabin in the woods), but without any backhaul to the internet. Camera associates with the AP. Smartphone associates with the AP. The camera powers up and starts working, without connection to WyzeHQ. The app should be able to Live View, view recordings that have been made on the SDcard, download time-lapse recordings that had been captured, etc.

When I got my first Wyzecam early last year, this setup worked fine. I took the cam, a battery-powered travel router, and my iPhone to various off-net locations, and made local recordings (to SDcard) FAR from any cell towers or internet service providers,

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Would it be feasible to just roll the firmware on one cam back to a version that was working for you, and pick up an inexpensive android device secondhand ? The .apk files for all the older app versions are easy enough to find and install. It sounds like the Wyze cam and the firmware and software are all easy enough to work with. Nothing offensive meant, but it sounds like Apple is your specific problem here. If you’re off the grid anyway, the iphone probably isn’t a necessity.