Wyze Pan CAM constantly rebooting

The Pan Cams are not my favorite due to all the issues I have had with them. I swapped power cable and that USB adapter with a working V2 Cam but it made no difference. I pulled the bridge out as well but again no difference. It stays up for no more than 30 seconds and then goes through the reboot cycle again. :frowning:

Open to other suggestions.

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Something crazy simple… But I’ve had issue where if the microusb cable itself is not situated tight enough into the camera, that would be enough to cause it to have an issue with it going on/off…

Are you using the original usb power cord or is it a generic microusb cable?

I replaced the cord and pulled that micro USB cord out and reinserted the new one. The cord I was using was not OEM but the cord I replaced it with was the original cord from a working V2.

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I found the problem, I took the SD card out and it stayed up without rebooting. I put the SD card in the PC and it said it was corrupt. I allowed Windows to repair it and put it back into the Pan Cam. All seems well now. Hmmmmm … . I will continue to monitor but the problem seems to be resolved.

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what kind of card are you using?

That is interesting, I second @Bam what kind of card is it? Also I would make sure that card is not defective, if the card has some sort of short on it it could ruin your cam, SD cards use 1.8v Low Volage or 3.3v (conventional), Most likely the Conventional in Wyze, but if it was me and after removing the card fixed my problem, i would not put it back in my cam.

Edit: although windows “fixed” the corruption on the disk that may not mean it fixed what is wrong with the card, it could have just relocated the memory to not use the part that is bad.

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It is a Wyze card that I purchased from Wyze. All 15 of my cameras use Wyze 32 gb cards and I never had an issue with them in the past. I assume that something or some part became corrupted with a power outage or something. But these Pan Cams are finicky. Thanks for the advice. I will update with any changes.

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I had the exact same issue! I couldn’t figure it out so I went through the support process and had a new one sent out but it did the exact same thing. It wasn’t until I pulled the SD card that both the new and old started working.

It’s a bit odd that a bad SD card would do that without any logging/indication that it was related, but I’m glad I’m not alone.

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This was discussed here:

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The reboots are totally random with these cameras. All I had on all 2 cameras are single reboots ( not stuck in constant reboot mode) during a period of times, sometimes reboots repeat at interval anywhere from half an hour to half a day to every so many days. The issue is absolutely random occurance. Note that reboots continue with or without SD card installed. All running latest firmware and all stock wiring including power supplies.

I have one that rotates fully counter clockwise and stays there until it is rebooted

2 others are fine

Welcome to the community, @Coco1. Sorry to hear about the issue with your Pan. This sounds like a replacement case.

Keep in mind that this forum is primarily a user to user community. If you don’t get a helpful reply here, please file a Support Request. You can also submit a request from within the Wyze app by going to Account > Help & Feedback > Report an Issue. The latter method will allow you to include an app log for diagnosis.

I don’t want to bother them when the profit margins are so slim.

Power supply was my issue too. I’ve complained several times here along with many others about this problem with the Pancam continuously rebooting.

I went through all the suggestions here. Turned off Motion Tracking and Scan - still rebooted. Removed SD card - still rebooted. Was using a USB extension cord and removed that - still rebooted. Tried USB cord from one of my V2 cams - still rebooted.

Then saw the post here by kyphos about the power supply. Finally I grabbed a 3rd party 2.1A power supply I had. Was hesitant to try for fearing of overpowering the camera, but got to the point that I didn’t care anymore. If it blew it up, I’d just pitch it for good and forget about it. I got the 2.1A power replacement cube online in a 3-pack for $11 which is why I had a spare laying around.

But much to my pleasant surprise it actually powered up fine and has been stable ever since.

Replaced the original SD card in it now and still working great. Turn Scan feature back on and still stable.

So if you are struggling with this, just as kyphos said, try a 2A+ supply cube. Worked for me!

For those chasing the SD card corruption as a cause - personally I feel like it is still more likely a power issue which corrupts the card and ALSO reboots the camera. So if you format the card to get it working again, but still have issues with the card re-corrupting and rebooting again. It might be the power cube, not the SD card.

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Then how would you explain my issues with reboots, when reviewing footage, reboots always occurred on the starting of the next minute. There seems to be multiple issues with these cameras, some have power supply, some have SD cards corruption, mine is quite unique in sense that SD card is not corrupted, power supply can’t cause the reboot on the start of the next minute couple of seconds into it, as it does not know what time it is. Reboots also happen with or without SD card, ruling out card corruption.

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If a Pan Cam is “working better” after a stronger power supply is attached I would not say that my problem is solved,
When using a USB power supply that can supply for example up to 3 Amps is used, it doesn’t just push out 3 amps to the device,
The device itself requests the amount of power that it needs to complete its task or operate UP to the max amps that the USB power brick has to offer, If a stronger USB power brick “solves” your problem then there are other outlying problems within the camera that is causing a higher resistance and therefore needing more power to compensate for the same result.

So I would think twice before just adding a stronger power supply to your cams, because if its needing to Draw 3 amps (just an example) to achieve its operating power of 2 Amps the resistance build up will eventually burn out internal electronics and the cam will fail.

I have a pan cam. Sometimes it goes into reboot loop. Removing the micro-sd card often alleviates the problem, but sometimes it happens with no micro-sd card inserted. I noticed this morning that it began rebooting just after sunrise (camera facing east, sun was very bright this morning). Maybe it’s being caused by the camera being overloaded with light.

I just noticed this reply. - Yes, thanks! - I understand your point about the larger power supply being a risk.

As I stated, given the state of my camera being fairly useless already due to constant reboots, I was aware of, and willing to risk the camera if it burned up. I was ready to watch it go poof and prepared to go buy another (different brand) camera if it did. This was last resort for me.

So - you give good advice to anyone else considering this. - If you do try to go with a bigger power supply the risk is on you. Results can and will vary and you might not be as ‘lucky’ as I was.

To this date (Dec/2019) my camera is still operating fine. No reboots and no issues. All the magic smoke is still contained within the camera. If I wake up tomorrow and it is dead, I’ll take the blame and move on to something else.

You won’t ‘overpower’ the camera by using a power supply with more current available. That’s not how electricity works. All properly functioning power supplies for this camera will supply 5V. The amount of current the camera draws is up to the camera. If the camera attempts to draw more current than the power supply can provide, the voltage will sag, and the camera will probably crash/reboot. As long as the power supply is rated to deliver as much as the camera will draw under maximum load, OR MORE, there will not be a problem. In other words, if the camera requires 5V at 2.1A, you may connect a 5V 3A or 4A power supply without risking any damage. The extra capacity will just go unused.

Regarding the rebooting problem, I have two pan-cams in an east-facing window, and one or both of them often reboots numerous times in the morning when the sun is very bright and the camera is facing it. I suspected he extreme amount of light coming in to be related to the rebooting, and this was further supported by the observation that during a week-long interval of overcast skies, there were no rebooting occurrences. Once the strong sunlight returned, the reboots returned.

The rebooting happens whether there is a micro-sd card present or not. The problem has happened with and without a hub attached. The camera is always set to record when motion is detected. Crash/reboots happen with the free cloud 10 sec recordings and the paid record-whole-event recordings.

Perhaps the strong sunlight on the water (cameras look out over a bay) causes and excessive amount of motion to trigger the camera to record.

After a period of 30 minutes of near-constant rebooting, I moved the camera out of the window, facing an indoor area with little/no motion. The rebooting stopped.

Firmware version 4.10.5.34

Does the camera write any crash logs when micro-sd card is present? Maybe some details to confirm cause?

Just an update here regarding my success with the 2.1 amp power supply. Been rock solid for almost a year now with no issues, however after the last firmware update recently it has gone back to the reboot behavior.

Could just be the camera getting older but the timing of it restarting the constant reboots with the application of newest firmware is suspicious.

Already planning a replacement for it but it will not be a Wyze. These are ok “toys” but too unreliable for places you want reliable consistent coverage.