Wyze Camera Playback Not Working? – (07 Easy Solutions)

What to do when Wyze camera playback is not working? You will find out below!

Wyze sells custom cameras you can use to record whatever you like and access those recordings at any time.

However, you must pay note to the difference in the types of recording available and the subscriptions sometimes attached.

If your Wyze’s camera playback is not working, you must check the SD card and its settings on the app. Furthermore, the issue will be solved when you clear the app cache and ensure you have a good connection.

We will teach you all about the Wyze camera playback functionality!

Wyze Camera Playback Not Working – Find 7 Fixes!

Solution #1: Check The SD Card

Is the Wyze camera app playback not working? One reason that happens is related to your SD card.

It could be a physical or software-caused issue.

Because of that, we will take a look at all the things you must do to ensure that the SD card is correctly configured so you can access all recordings from your Wyze Camera. 

First, do the following:

1. Locate the SD card slot in your camera.
2. Remove the SD card.
3. Check whether it is locked or unlocked.
4. Unlock it if necessary.

Note: SD cards have a "lock" feature preventing access when engaged. This might be why your camera can't access or record playback.

Manage The Settings

Once you have checked that the SD card is unlocked and inserted correctly, you must ensure the app settings are adjusted properly.

Here is how you can navigate and find those:

1. Open the Wyze app on your phone or other smart device.
2. Locate the camera you want to access.
3. Click on its “Settings.”
4. Go to “Advanced settings.”
5. Head to “Manage SD Card.”
6. Ensure “Record to Micro SD card” is checked.

The app should also tell you whenever problems happen with your SD card.

If the settings section doesn’t point to issues, you should be fine in that regard from now on.

Solution #2: Clear The App Cache

Depending on the glitch that happens whenever you try to access the app’s playback capacities, the issue might be a cache one.

The apps on Android build a cache to help you navigate them once more data is collected. 

What To Do?

The cache can overload or get corrupted, which causes some functions to collapse.

It is an excellent idea to do the following:

1. Open your Android phone’s settings.
2. Locate the “Applications” tab.
3. Click on the Wyze app.
4. Tap on its “Storage.”
5. Click on “Clear Cache.”

After that, restart the app and try checking the camera footage again. 

Solution #3: Check Your Network Connection

Are you sure that the footage you want to watch is available on the SD card?

While the Wyze camera records a lot of footage and saves it to the SD card, that depends on the settings applied.

Otherwise, some footage is only available on the cloud service, which requires a good internet connection.

So let’s do the following:

1. Move close to your router.
2. Ensure you get a strong connection on your phone.
3. If the playback still can’t load, restart the router.
4. Also, disable the phone’s Wi-Fi temporarily.
5. Enable it again and connect to the Wi-Fi.

Test The Connection

Cloud-based services are not always the strongest in terms of data transference.

Although most of the services we use nowadays are cloud-based (streaming services are the most common), others less used are flimsy.

That could be the case with Wyze.

Thus, you need to test if your connection is enough:

1. Open a browser.
2. Type “test internet speed” on it.
3. Choose the Google’s test.
4. Wait for it to finish.

If your current internet speed is at least 20MB/s, you should face no problem accessing cloud-stored videos.

Solution #4: Verify Your Account

The Wyze app has two ways through which you can access the camera’s playback. Moreover, each of those is supported in one manner.

While the “Events tab” is exclusive for cloud-based playback/footage, the SD-stored videos are found through the “View Playback” button. 

Nothing On Cloud?

You must note that recording on the cloud requires a subscription.

Unless you have it, the camera won’t send data to the cloud automatically, so the “Events tab” will only show you the options you have to subscribe. 

Right now, you have two options for subscription:

• Cam Plus – $2,99 per camera or $9,99 for unlimited devices.
• Cam Plus Lite – Free if you want, but it counts with very limited features.

Don’t you want to spend on the Cam Plus right away? Then, you can go to the “Events tab” and select Cam Plus Lite.

When the app asks you how much you want to pay, enter “0,00”.

Solution #5: Ensure Events Are Recorded

Did you click the Events tab, but nothing is there to be seen? That is due to an error in the settings.

Perhaps you have disabled the event recording or never even enabled it in the first place.

So let’s take a look at how to manage the event recording so you take advantage of this amazing feature:

How To Access Recording on Event Tabs?

Here is how you must access and manage the recordings through event tabs:

1. Open the Wyze app.
2. Tap on the Wyze Cam.
3. Click on the Settings gear (top right).
4. Go to Event Recording.
5. Click on Schedule.

Do you wish detected Events footage to be saved every single time? Then toggle “All Day” to on.

Configure The Detected Events

If you only wish detected Events’s recordings sometimes, you must do this:

1. Click on the toggle next to All Day (it must become off and grey).
2. Select the Start time. 
3. Select the End Time.
4. Click on the back arrow so it saves your preferences.

You can choose which Events you want to trigger a recording:

• Detects motion: Any Event that triggers the motion detection will be recorded.
• Detects sound:  Any Event that triggers the sound detection will be recorded.

Changes in this setting are saved automatically.

Note: It is necessary to update the Event Recording Schedule for each device you have individually.

Solution #6: Update The Camera’s Firmware

Have you noticed that the camera’s functionalities change every once in a while? That is because the company pushes new updates.

But the updates sometimes don’t get installed because of a connection error.

Whenever that happens, you will see glitches in the app, and you must look to update manually. 

Do the following:

1. Open the Wyze app.
2. Tap Home.
3. Go to the Wyze Cam Outdoor.
4. Click the Settings icon (top right).
5. Tap Device Info.
6. Go to “Firmware Version.”
7. Check if there is an Update button.

If no update button is available, that means your camera doesn’t have any pending updates. But if there is an update button, just click on it and wait for the update to get installed.

Solution #7: Reset The Camera

Finally, the issue could be on your camera’s firmware deep down. Instead of updating it, you must reset the camera to its factory settings.

However, you will not lose any of your data as long as it is saved on the microSD.

That’s because the resetting procedure involves removing the SD. Thus, such data is salvaged. 

1. If you have a microSD card on the device, remove it.
2. Plug the Wyze Cam into power.
3. Keep the setup button below the camera pressed for 10 seconds.

For Wyze Cam v1 only: Press and hold it for 20 seconds.

What After?

To ensure that the camera has been reset, ensure that the following steps are possible:

1. You must wait over 30 seconds for the device to initiate.
2. The LED status light should shift from Solid Yellow to Blinking Yellow (Wyze Cam v3 only: The light will turn red).
3. You must set the device from scratch now.

Alert: The camera could take up to 5 minutes to turn on completely. Yes, that sounds a bit too much, but it could happen after a hard reset.

Quick Recap

What to do when the Wyze camera playback is not working? You have just learned that the issue is sometimes very simple: the SD card is not well inserted, or its settings are wrong.

Moreover, the issue would stem from the network, firmware, or subscription details.

Fixing the Wyze app is simple, but keep reading the blog to learn more tips and tricks!