Ok, it took me a few days but I was able to test this, I was able to record in both modes, continuous and events only to the SD card after losing internet, but if the cam lose power it will not start again until it regains internet.
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Wow this thread started May 2019! There are several videos on YouTube.
Search: “wyze dash cam” or “wyze cam without wifi” etc
Thanks for taking the time to look into this.
Interesting, maybe the power went off for a short time without causing the microwave and stove clocks to reset, but long enough to power cycle the cameras…
What’s disappointing is that Wyze support insisted that offline recording only works when recording is set to continuous.
I am curious, when you tested, did you turn off your router or did you disconnect the internet line to the router? In my case, the cameras are wirelessly connected to an access point (range extender) but the internet cable connected to the access point was in effect disconnected. The SSID was still up so the cameras were still connected to the access point, but had no internet connectivity.
It’s connectivity to the Wyze servers that matters. Whether your WiFi is transmitting makes no difference in the failure mode. If the camera can’t communicate with the Wyze servers, the camera will play brain dead after powerup. Does not matter why it can’t communicate with the servers.
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Tested with the V2, V3 & Pan Cam.
- If the WiFi net is UP and the WAN is DOWN you can view Live stream and Playback from the same sub-net.
- If the WiFi is down (e.g. using as a dash cam) cam will record to uSD card either continuous or time lapse.
Accessories and Smart functions depend on AWS via WAN and will not work.
Loosing power at any time will require authentication to an AWS server.
I actually removed my camera from all internet, I powered it in my vehicle and drove away, so it had zero internet and zero WiFi
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Ok. I was just wondering though if the camera being connected to a wifi access point without internet might be treated as a different state than not being connected at all…
It’s the only other thing I can think of aside from the cameras actually losing power without having any of the indications (clocks in the home did not lose power).
Alt: Intermittent power supply, bad cable, loose connector.
Some f/w has been known to cause reboot.
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I had 5 cameras (2 V2s and 3 V3). None had any event recording when internet went down.
Event to the cloud won’t work with the Internet is down. Local recording (events or continuous) will work fine as long as the camera was able to check in with the Wyze servers after powerup. It will continue to work as long as the power is not killed to the camera.
As I commented earlier, the two cameras in my truck drive out of WiFi range every day when I leave the house. They record to the uSD card just fine.
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Ah, terminology, I’ve seen pictures of the Wyze Car, now I’m picturing 2 cameras driving your truck 
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No. My Dodge pickup has a V3 pointed forward out the windshield from behind the passenger side of the rear view mirror, and a V2 pointed at the driver (which also gets the drivers window) from behind the driver side of the rear view mirror.
I meant none of the 5 had event recording to the local sdcards.
I wasn’t expecting event recording to the cloud since the internet is down.
I’m hoping to be able to check the two scenarios this weekend:
- Power off the router after the cameras have connected to the wyze server, so wifi is completely disconnected.
- Disconnect the cable from the wan side of the router. Wyze camera will still be connected to the router, but of course won’t have internet without the cable. This is essentially the equivalent of what happened to my cameras.
If both still records events to the local sdcard, then power probably did go off for a short time, just not enough not to disrupt the clocks on the stove and microwave…
Though it still doesn’t explain why wyze support clearly told me that only continuous recording (and not event record) to the local sdcard works when the internet is down.
Finally had time to test this.
For the two scenarios (router powered off, router powered on but internet cable unplugged), the event recording on my Wyze camera (V2) continued to work.
So whether the camera’s wifi connection state is on or off doesn’t make a difference.
The power must have gone off very briefly a fews ago, enough for the cameras to be rebooted but not for the clocks on the stove/microwave to reset.
Like everyone has said, recording to the microsd card only works after the cameras connect to the wyze server. I still don’t think this is reasonable, especially now that wyze is selling home monitoring. What good is a security camera that can’t record if the power goes off and there is not internet…
Thanks everyone for the help. I wouldn’t have gone through this trouble if Wyze support did not give me incorrect information about the event recording to sdcard.
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This still doesn’t work FYI. Very easy to replicate on the latest firmware.
Record to sd card with camera on network.
Remove network.
Unplug and replug camera power.
It will not resume recording to sd card (you can check in-app or plugging the sd card into desktop).
Wyze Cam V3 firmware 4.36.8.15
App version 2.27.33
How is this still happening three years later…?
Yeah, unfortunately, that’s just how Wyze intends it to work. For some reason, they want a camera to initially connect to their server whether you want it or not before it records anything to its sdcard. I was hoping to use this for my cottage as a security camera, being able to record what might have happened during the winter. With the power and internet being unreliable, there’s a good chance it will miss events even if the power comes back on.
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It’s not though! Gwen says as much midway through the thread.
Yes it is. When Gwen said that it would record to the uSD card after power up, that was 2 1/2 years ago. At that time, you could record to the uSD card after power up without internet. That changed a couple years ago.
Unless you have several years old firmware in the camera, it will not record to the uSD card until after it checks in with the Wyze servers. Wyze has stated that this was an intentional change, and they are not changing it.
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