Sad day to learn Wyse lied

Ask the Community
#1

Internet was down for 4+ hours so I thought it was a good time to test various locations for camera placement as I had just bought 4 more V2. Can NOT do it. Apparently Wyse lied when I did not want their cloud services - I am mobility challeneged so at home 24/7 350 – I wanted to see how the Wyse V2 that I got a week ago would work near locations where for years I have had wireless speakers from my stereo. Unplug cam that was working well - had captured motion and alerted me within the prior hour. Unplugged it and placed it at first test location then sat not 5 feet away with my tablet and NOTHING. Would not connect - 5 feet of open air direct line of sight and NO connection. I could still see what was happening on 4 other cameras – after a frustrating 1/2 hour I placed the camera back to where it had been an hour before and it still would NOT connect and didn’t matter if I was 5 feet or 30 feet away. Sat here with my tablet on my left leg and that camera on my right thinking I’ll just delete and go through setup again.

Surprise surprise YOU can NOT delete a cam without it running home to Wyse to tell Wyse what is happening. No internet can’t do any changes. My WiFi is fine - internet down so doing LAN things without issues EXCEPT what I want to do to Wyse cams. Reboot my Android 10 tablet a few times and the camera “Group” is gone. Now have to select each camera individually to see what is happening - they are all working fine but instead of just looking at the tablet with all four showing I have to manually scroll through them wasting MY TIME. So as I was getting really frustrated it became very apparent that these cams and software management “runs back to momma” (Wyse) before you can control them on YOUR system.

So what else are they sending to WYSE when we opt OUT of using Wyse cloud system. Are the mics sending all conversations and what video or photos are being transmitted WITHOUT our permission and for what use? Seems now that as these are Chinese built that maybe the low cost is to gain access into our PERSONAL data through a back door. We (many of us) have seen the extent of Chinese monitoring their population for some time now. Is Wyse supplying China with video and vocal from everyone of these cameras that is sold because it is very apprent the cameras are “tattle tailing” what I want to do with the products I PAID FOR. IF I walk to the bathroom nude to take a shower, WILL someone in China watch – at 71 its not about me but who else and children’s privacy being violated even by accident. So just know that what is your and you paid for ISN’T… and we do not know who is watching or listening (does “turning off” the mic really turn it OFF? - doesn’t in Amaz Alexa or Appl Sirus where it listens for its name to turn back on) without our knowledge.

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Wyze Told The Truth!
#2

With the Internet unavailable, if you turned off all your cameras and turned them on again, without relocating or resetting anything, you could NOT access them at all. They require the Internet. It is simply an accident that you were able to still reach the ones you didn’t move. (Your active app remembered their local IP addresses.). If your phone had restarted I think you would have lost them too.

There is nothing local about them. They aren’t intended to work without Internet access (except the Wyze Cam Outdoor). No one is spying on you. All settings are stored on Wyze’s Internet servers (“the cloud”). The cameras need them.

If you were under the impression that Wyze cameras and their app could work for extended periods without Internet access you were simply mistaken. No one lied.

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#3

@susan1
It is no secret these need the internet, they are cloud based devices. To setup they need the internet, to delete they need the internet to remove the information from the server. Your cam will continue to record without internet UNLESS it is powered off at all, upon powering back up it again needs the internet. No information is going back to China.

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#4

As customer said, you will not find anything from Wyze claiming what you said they claim. If some else who doesn’t actually represent Wyze led you to believe these would function differently, you cannot put that on Wyze.

If Wyze really did mislead you somehow, please include a link to where Wyze said this (on their website, their FAQ’s, their Youtube Channel, their advertising, etc)…also keep in mind that >99% of people here in the forums aren’t Wyze reps, just normal people like you who may state things that are not accurate as you just did saying Wyze made claims they did not actually make anywhere.

Regardless of all that, it really sucks when things work differently that you previously understood and assumed. That is frustrating indeed. I don’t know your timeline on purchase and return eligibility, but if it a really serious problem, you can talk to support and see if you are still eligible for a return due to your unfortunate misunderstanding/miscommunication:

By phone: (206) 339-9646 Available Monday - Friday 5 am - 6 pm PT and Saturday 8 am - 4 pm PT
Or online: Wyze.com/support

I recommend by phone, I’ve always had great response time and gotten things addressed satisfactorily. Keep in mind, it is not the Customer Representative’s fault that you misunderstood the situation, so try to be nice to them and just explain the devices don’t work the way you originally assumed they were going to. No need to take it out on them. :slight_smile: Good luck with resolving that.

9 Likes
#5

And NO WARNING that you MUST have active internet not just your personal Wifi to make these work. I can think of a number of places I have lived and worked at where internet even cell signals were not reliable. Not everyone lives and works within 100 miles of the coastlines. Even IF internet was needed for initial setup these cams are sold to individuals to use on THEIR own networks so unless that owner chooses to let others see or needs remote notification and access it should be NONE of Wyse business what the cams THEY SOLD are doing. Any trust in corporate honesty has pretty well been destoyed by MSM and the big social media conglomerates. We have seen too many lies by mulitiudes from CEOs to everyday staff to believe ANYTHING.

My warning is more for those who are using cams inside than me watching traffic and for delivery drivers. There are no conversations (even though cameras are focused looking outside the mics are inside - funny when I hear myself cough or sneeze) that worry me and there is no one under the age of 70 to have video taken of. My annoyance now is IF I want to take these cams to a cabin in bear country they ARE USELESS. Solar system runs a Wifi that works great for transfering photos and stored maps from a laptop but will not add to the security from curious passerbys. Just rely on the old solar powered bear fence. Maybe Wyse is expecting Elon to eliminate the issue.

#6

I have no idea what you are talking about. If you want cameras that can operate without Internet you can buy them. Wyze does not sell them (Wyze Cam Outdoor excepted).

That you misunderstood and bought the wrong thing for your purposes doesn’t mean Wyze is evil and spying and you. You want to control your stuff, learn more about what it actually is.

Edit: technically you can load 3rd party firmware to operate some Wyze cameras off grid in straight RTSP mode.

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#7

Wyze may not have WARNED you but they didn’t hide anything either. These are cloud based cameras. The cloud requires an Internet connection. You, of all people, should know that, being a former network admin.
The 12 second event clips are stored in the cloud on Amazon servers. Person Detection and Notifications require a server to process them. No one is hiding these facts.

I do wish that Wyze cams would work without an Internet connection but, for the most part, they don’t. If you don’t restart the cameras they will stay connected locally for a while. Not sure how long. I assume someone has experimented with it.

If you want a cam for remote non-connected locations I suggest game / trail cameras.

6 Likes
#8

Not sure a trail cam (or Wyze Cam Outdoor) would suffice. Apparently he or she has multiple cameras at a home. He or she needs a regular DVR system with wired cameras to achieve localized networking with a master console, and without a phone app. Most low end WiFi cameras like Wyze’s are not intended to support off-Internet use, as far as I know. Some careful use of IP address assignment, RTSP, and recording software (Blue Iris et al.) could get around this. He or she just didn’t put in the work. Wanted all of the benefits of easy to use Internet based services without thinking about what they were doing.

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#9

I was addressing this part.

I find “Bear Country” a funny phrase. Canada is Bear Country. They come in all colours. We’re very diverse, bearly. :slightly_smiling_face:

1 Like
#10

They all come up there for the health care.

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#12

Huh…this get me thinking. I have a camera set up in my kitchen that I really only turn on when I’m not home for an extended time. I have noticed over the last couple of months, this camera that I turned OFF, I will all of a sudden see that it’s ON. I did NOT turn the camera on. This has happened about a hand full of times now. Happened just yesterday. It makes me very uncomfortable.

#13

These cameras are great BUT I dread every time they do an update. Something usually screws up. Other than that you can’t beat them. Wish they’d update the software and GET RID OF THE 24 hour military times. I spend more time subtracting 12 to see what the real time is. At least give us the option of a 12 hour version. Thanks for listening and have a good day.

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#14

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#15

They can never be actually turned off. They have to monitor Wifi or they would never know when you wanted to turn it on.
I don’t really know why Wyze even included the setting. It just leads people to believe they csn be tutned off.

#16

I’m not sure what you are trying to achieve or, alternatively, what you are trying to prevent. If you don’t want motion notifications then turn those off. If you are concerned about being recorded while you are home then pull the power cord.

#17

I assume they are trying to achieve what the Wyze software leads us to believe, when you turn the camera off it’s actually off. It sounds like a reasonable request but, as I’ve pointed out earlier, is not going to happen.
Like you said, pull the plug.:slightly_smiling_face:

#18

You need to buy a wired system that goes to its own hard drive. There are several variations on how you access them, some are easy to see who is at the door from your phone, others are not. I can’t advise as I use Ring and had issues with the V1 Wyze and still have a couple of them. I have one V2 I never tried to hookup because it was such a PITA to setup the V1s. For what you want you need wired and to access it from your phone will require Internet between the two. I am about to try Wyze again once the Pandemic is under control and the elections and inaugurations are over.

#19

Just out of curiosity, can you elaborate on what any of those things (pandemic, election and inauguration) have to do with deciding whether you should get any Wyze products or not and why you should wait until they are over with?

3 Likes
#20

I don’t believe Wyze is to be blamed on what happened. They certainly did their due diligence with the product. As consumer, we need to be responsible to research or read before buying. One thing I can suggest if you have doubts with regards to your privacy, you can convert the cams to rtsp. They provided a firmware for that. With this, you can stream your video without the cloud but by using local network. This will however disable some features. You can also use a firewall and adjust the policy to only allow sending to certain locations or regions. Just try to research and you will find some info on how this works. Just my 2 cents.

#21

Ignorance can be bliss - State of NEW JERSEY bear reports. I guess the any state can have bear issues. 10 YEARS of data.

And the reports are showing a dramtic rise so as I can’t run as fast as I did 40 years ago and can’t climb trees like 50 years ago I find using 2020 technology to overcome 60 years of aging is a safer choice. Even where there may be internet services available IF they are all locked down then a visitor may not have access unless they carry a Musk Starlink that reqires open sky to work well. Must have internet service negates the usefullness of Wyze products.

Yes I have 7 cams looking outside and waiting for a V3. Last 4 days the cable internet provider has been down almost 20 hours total. Most cams still provided outside views WITHOUT internet so why can’t the software be corrected to NOT require internet after setup is completed? As ALL my cams point outside and full public access view, my privacy concerns are for other users.