Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

I installed several v3's 7 months ago. They worked well. However, Wyze was constantly requiring me to install endless updates. It seemed like every week or two. Well, the last update bricked all of my camera's. Power cycling did nothing. So I took a couple of the camera's down and reset them. All of them went back on line without a problem. However, as soon as I unplugged them to reinstall them, guess what! Dead again. I reset them again--three times same result. Each time they were power cycled they went into the install mode and wouldn't come out of it so they could reconnect. I called Wyze tech support and they made me repeat all the steps I had already done multiple times. Why? Because the support person doesn't know much about the cameras. They're simply reading from a help desk script, and they have to check off the boxes, or they get in trouble. They tried to convince me it was my fault. The network router wasn't good enough. Too many things were connected to it. On and on. I'm an engineer so I know BS when I hear it. All the cameras worked fine including the previous updates until this last one. Then bricked. That's not a coincidence, and they know it. They've had the brick problem happen numerous times, so tech support has heard it all before. Any little info packet problem, minor power spiking, wifi signal wavering or any other type of interference can cause the flash update to go wrong. All of these things are normal and should be expected with any wifi connected equipment. Wyze finally agreed to replace all of the cameras, but it took about three hours going in circles with them. I've already spent close to six hours taking cameras down, testing them, talking to tech support twice, and now I've got to reinstall all the cameras again. These are good, inexpensive cameras--when they work. Tech support is available, but watch out because every problem is caused by something on your end. They really love to blame the router. Bottom line--they just don't want to replace the cameras if they can convince you everything is your fault. This time they did replace them, which I appreciate. They asked me to return the failed cameras, which I don't mind, but it's just more of my time. Of course, their engineers want to look at them. Really! They'll be sitting in a box somewhere with the other few thousand failures. They'll get to mine around 2026 when someone throws them in the trash bin. They want the cameras back to insure I'm not trying to get over on them, and get free cameras. When the time I've spent is taken into consideration, these cameras aren't very cost effective. My time isn't free, even though Wyze acts like it is. We'll see how long the new ones last. If their "technical team" keeps updating every few weeks like they're doing now, they'll brick some more cameras. It's the risk of e-prom updates. I would skip the updates, but they pop up a nag screen every time I open a camera. It's annoying. Clicking "don't show again" is just another waste of time. Customers aren't sitting around waiting for every minor change in the software. One or two updates a year would be adequate. Let me decide if I want the updates. Oh, that won't work because some of the updates are about taking away stuff like the 12 second videos that originally came with the cameras. What a crock! It takes at least an hour to set up a half dozen cameras. Each camera has to be updated from 1 to 4 times during the setup process, depending on when it was manufactured. That takes a lot of time. Then it will take me another hour plus to reinstall them. In total, this brick update will cost me 9 to 10 hours of my time, at least. Wyze has better tech support than most security camera companies. It's just slow having to go through the help screen over and over no matter how many times something has already been done. One tech support person was willing to sit on hold while I uninstalled one camera from the roof. Ok, let me whip out the ladder, climb on the roof and do that for you. I guess they wanted their lunch break. At least they replaced the cameras, THEY ruined. I took one of the old bricked cameras that I didn't have to send back, and I re-flashed it with a clean update. That failed also, so whatever happened during the update is permanent. That's another design flaw. There's no way to reverse an update and fix a problem. That's also a problem that should be addressed. Tech Support 3 or 4 stars--depending on who happens to answer the phone. Cam V3 (when it works) 4 stars Constant Updates 1 star Camera Software 3 stars Wasting my time 1 star Wifi issues 2 stars I'll use them without EVER updating them again--at least until they force an update which they do from time to time. Maybe they have a hardware problem that needs fixing! When lots of people are reporting their cameras have bricked after updates, or after a power recycle, it's not a random glitch. When I was buying the camera's, Wyze didn't mention anywhere in their advertisements or product descriptions that I needed to have them within 10 feet of my router, or whatever they think the maximum distance should be, for them to update properly. They didn't say I had to have less than X devices connected to my wifi. Smart home devices (especially switches) show as connected even though they don't degrade the wifi signal strength except for the split second when one is activated, and the loss of signal strength is marginal. The problem with their wifi strength argument is if my cameras are in a location where they have a constant, stable wifi connection 24/7 with no problems recording video to the micro SD card, then that should be adequate wifi connectivity for an update. The previous 10 updates completed with no problems. Again, they should be asking a lot of questions about why some updates and a few random power cycling events are bricking v3 cameras. There's a solution to this problem, if they want to find it.