I originally got my Wyze cams for inside use, to check on my cats and be able to play back any video of their mischief. After getting a second dog, I find myself primarily using the cams to monitor my dogs now. I really need to be able to check in on them from time to time, verify that they are safe and not getting into any trouble, and play back any video if needed. With the way the app’s software is currently deployed, these cams have basically become unusable for me.
This is what is happening when I open the app and try to view my cams:
- Open app
- Click group (I have 1 for outside and 1 for inside)
- Wait for cams to load or fail
- Close app and try again
When I open a camera group, I see the video trying to load, going through its usual 1/2/3 load process. Most of the time, it never gets to 3 and just stalls on 1 or 2. Sometimes, it will just stay on 3 and attempt to load indefinitely. When they actually do load, I get 3 seconds of video at most, and the video freezes up into a still image. If video does load up, typically 1 or 2 of the cams will load video and the rest will fail. Many times, I will get “Connection failed error code 20015 or 20011”, which seems absurd because the suggested action is to power cycle or force close, neither of which works through the app. When I try to reload the feed, it just hangs on step 1. If I go back to the menu and select the group again, the feeds don’t reload.
All of my cams have an SD card as well. I won’t even bother to explain what happens when I try to watch recorded video. Let’s just say that it’s nearly impossible.
Needless to say, this is incredibly frustrating. I am getting very tired of looking at “Live Stream” and seeing 0.0 kb/s for my bitrate along with an outdated still shot. Our new dog is young, and we are just starting to leave them out back together for short stints to train him on how to behave in the backyard when we are gone. I really need to be able to watch them in real time. The camera group feature is awesome in theory, allowing you to see things move from one camera to another, but in practice it’s buggy and not practical.
System Specs:
9 cameras (4 inside, 5 outside)
8 v2’s, 1 Cam Pan
All firmware current (v2: 4.9.5.94, Cam Pan: 4.10.5.94)
Am I doing something wrong? Does anyone know what’s going on here? I feel like I’ve wasted a lot of time (admittedly not much money) trying to get these things to work properly, and I’m always fighting this app. I may just need to abandon this project and take the hit for an expensive outdoor camera system. I’ve been trying to go the DIY method with these cams, but if this is how they are going to operate then I have no choice. It may be just me, but it seems like the software never used to be this buggy, and I’ve had more problems than ever recently.
Any suggestions or ideas would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for reading!