WARNING - Beware of "Wyze Test" Android app V2.6.371

Hey all,

Thank you for helping us test this version out. I’d like to jump in and help clear up some points.

First and foremost, we are sorry that we did not get a response in here more quickly. While we knew the video upload would incur greater data usage, we should have provided a better heads-up and promise to do so moving forward. This is a test version which is being used to help us improve the video lagging issue. App version 2.6.371 is not intended for wide-spread release.

If the data usage is a concern for you, please revert to a release app version or to the current beta. If you have any questions, please reach out to me. Again, thank you very much for helping us test this version and we apologize for any inconvenience it caused.

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Any idea why the video upload defaulted to using my “mobile data” although the phone was connected to my home wifi?
I have a recently upgraded to 500GB data plan from Consumer Cellular (it was 250GB a few months ago and CC just upgraded it at no cost), which I never come close to using.
BUT I cannot send/receive a phone message with a picture unless I turn ON mobile data.
So I am careful with my data plan.
@NumberOne or @WyzeLi can you confirm that the JUST released version (2.6.40?) does NOT send the videos?

By definition, yes.

My production iOS app doesn’t leak much, but it does leak data on Cellular when I am on WiFi. For this reason I have prohibited the Wyze app from using Cellular. If I need it on the road I turn it on manually, but @NumberOne I would also love someone to look into why data leaks to Cellular happen when you are on WiFi. The iOS app runs fine without access to Cellular if WiFi is on, so why a data leak?

P.S. – I have done no recent testing on this, the app has been prohibited from using Cellular for a few months now. I’m saving my data for a Christmas trip I am going to take.

Same on iOS, so I turn of Cellular for the Wyze app alone, and not globally.

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@gemniii & @Newshound,

We’re actively investigating this and I’ll update you when we have more information.

@Newshound, have you sent in an app log for your iOS device? If so (or if you do), please let me know the associated ticket number the log submission generates so we can look into your case.

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I just reset statistics and started a test. Let’s see what happens!

This test is for the iOS production app. Someone else may want to do the Beta app if @gemniii’s original post in any indication. Also we need Android volunteers.

Edit: I am on WiFi, and I’ve turned on Cellular for the Wyze app. It as been maybe a minute or two since I reset statistics, and I already show 9.7 MB of Cellular data used while on WiFi. So there will be something to report.

Edit 2: It’s been a little over 30 minutes, and I’m up to 58 MB used. ALL cellular data used while on WiFi has been used by the Wyze app so far. That’s roughly a gigabyte every 10 hours, so I suspect I will abort this test soon…

I tested for about an hour, then stopped the test. I think you will have all you need in the log, and it was using 100 MB of my cell data an hour. My router sits right next to me in my man cave, so it wasn’t for lack of signal strength. In contrast, my cell signal is always 1 or 2 bars.

The ticket number is 379089. iOS production app, cellular leakage while using WiFi.

Let us know when it gets fixed!

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I am using iOS beta 2.6.58 but I have had the Wyze app entirely blocked from cellular. I will check and see what shows up.

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Yeah, I had the app blocked from cellular data usage too the past few months because I knew it was leaking when I was on WiFi. I didn’t realize how bad it was leaking, tho. It is back in the blocked position again now.

Where are you pulling the cellular usage data from? The Cellular page in settings? I want to make sure I am comparing apples to apples.

I used a poor choice of words, to describe it as leaking is like saying the Titanic was leaking after it hit the iceberg.

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The following settings were for my iOS 12:

Settings > Cellular > Reset Statistics (bottom of page)
Turn on Wyze Cellular data (same page)
Turn off WiFi Assist (same page)
Run the app
Note the time
Call up some cams (I had a group of 4 up)
Test for no more than an hour. I quit and reloaded the app a few times during that hour to show initial connections vs ongoing connections.

At the end of the test, note the data usage for the Wyze app in Settings >Cellular, then reverse the settings you changed.

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That’s crazy. I wonder what’s causing it? I’m going try the same test. Out of curiosity, were you actively using the app during this time (Viewing videos, etc) or was that all background?

I just reset my cellular statistics on iOS, about 5 minutes ago to test it out. I’m connected to WiFi. I pulled up a live view, I looked at SD recordings, and looked at a few cloud event videos. With that activity, it used 301KB of cell data. It’s not terribly high usage, but since I’m on WiFi, it should probably be zero.

301KB isn’t enough for nearly any actual video data, so it doesn’t seem like THAT is going over cellular while connected to WiFi. (For me at least)

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Thanks for comparing this, that is useful. In my test I called up a group live feed of 4 cameras, and every once in a while I quit the app and reloaded it so they could see any ‘initial’ links that occur. So over the period of an hour, it was mostly group live streaming, with about 5 app reloads.

I also wonder what is causing it. When you are on WiFi, the data should go there, and not over cellular.

If you used 300KB of cell data when connected to WiFi, that is an issue. In theory, there should be NO leakage to cell when you are connected to WiFi, as you said.

I agree, it’s an issue. I was just trying to determine how large of an issue.

I’m doing a little more testing now. I’ve already determined that the cellular leak is related to live view and/or SD card playback. It does NOT happen when viewing event videos. I’ll update in a few more minutes. I’m trying to determine if it’s a steady leak while Live View or playback is happening, or if it’s a momentary leak when the stream begins/ends. I’m streaming steadily for a few minutes in order to determine this, so give me a few minutes.

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Thanks! For me, I didn’t see much leakage before I turned cellular off for the Wyze app months ago, but I didn’t use my iPhone much for watching feeds when I was in WiFi. I used my iPad for that. Your new information about it not being related to event videos may help them track down the issue. :grin:

Okay, so I just tried two five-minute tests (Almost to the second) In my testing:

  • 5 minutes of live view streaming for one camera used 3.6MB of cellular data.
  • 5 minutes of SD card playback for one camera used 2.8MB of cellular data.
  • No amount of “event” playback causes any cellular data usage, nor does anything else I’ve found in the app.

That rate may vary a bit. I’m not sure if live view is always more than playback, for example. I’d have to test further to figure that out, but it’s not super important anyway.

Based on that rate, it doesn’t seem like video data itself is going over the cellular connection, because I would expect that usage to be higher. But it DOES seem to be a constant leak while in live view or playback. (If they’re sent as separate streams, that amount of data might be the audio feed, for example.)

It could also be audio UPLOAD. (Not necessarily either/or, but if so, that may be why live view uses a bit more data than playback. Although I’m not sure if that’s consistent or not) I didn’t manually start a two-way audio session, but I know that if you view video in the car, for example, the way it connects to Bluetooth implies that it’s listening to you as soon as the video starts streaming, even if you haven’t tried to start the two-way audio session.

I might be able to do a little more testing and figure this out… If the data usage stays about the same while I DO use two-way audio, for example, it would seem to imply that this is part of the culprit.

I could also test the difference with a multi-camera view, but since @Newshound’s usage was more than twice as much as mine would be at 1-hour scale, it would seem that more cameras streaming = more cellular leaking

Not the first time this concept has been brought up.

Yes, but the first time we have Wyze’s attention to the issue, so make the most of it. The base fact is, there is a leak over cellular when using WiFi. Why? There should be no leak, and the app works fine when you turn cellular data off for the app.

Yeah. I was aware of that, that’s why I thought to make the connection to two-way audio. (The Bluetooth behavior is a separate thing, but since it’s obviously engaging the microphone when you’re in live view and the amount of data seems about right for an audio stream, it makes sense that this might be where the cellular leak is occurring.)

I just tried a third 5-minute test – this time with the two-way audio button held down the entire time during a livestream. During this test, it used 4MB of cellular data. But compared to the other results – 3.6 and 2.8 – this difference might just be matter of stream quality/signal strength. I think I’ll try the two-way audio test one more time and see if the results are any different.