How to Continuously Record All the Time on Wyze Camera

Wyze offers affordable surveillance equipment in the form of small- and medium-sized cameras that actually bring more to the table than large, expensive security systems. These pieces of security equipment contain CO, fire, motion sensors, as well as many other features. They even have a person detection option.

Therefore, as cameras, they can record, right? Well, yes, but things aren’t that simple. Primarily, these devices are used for notifying you when movement is detected and letting you communicate with them. So, is recording possible on Wyze cameras?

Can Wyze Cameras Record?

The short answer here would be: yes. As a matter of fact, Wyze Cameras are set to record footage as soon as the motion sensor is triggered. This allows you to review who’s been visiting your home and provides you with rock-solid, court-admissible evidence.

The recorded footage, however, is uploaded to the AWS, end-to-end encrypted cloud that only you can access. To access these videos, you don’t need a subscription, trial, or any other fulfilled condition, other than your login info.

What’s the Downside?

Well, for starters, one huge downside is that the recording takes place for 12 seconds and then stops. This can be useful but may become a problem in court, for instance. If your burglar happens to stand on the pavement for 12 seconds and only then moves on to approach your home, for instance, this feature won’t be very useful in front of the jury

To make things even worse, after the 12 seconds, the motion sensor won’t trigger recording until the first minute expires. This isn’t too convenient.

However, if the device was to record for longer than 12 seconds and upload minutes of footage onto the cloud, the servers would get overloaded, your network would start lagging, and a whole avalanche of similar issues would ensue.

Is There a Solution?

Most of Wyze’s peers are suffering from the same issue – short motion-triggered recording. Some of them offer pricier subscriptions, while others pay per Cloud storage space. Wyze, however, has found a unique, yet the most basic of solutions – a microSD card. Put simply, all you need to do is take a microSD card (which is incredibly cheap) and stick it into the corresponding drive on the device’s bottom. This will enable you to store the recorded footage on the SD card, rather than in the cloud.

Life Is Better with MicroSD

First of all, it’s recommended that you use a class-10, 32GB, fat-32 formatted microSD card. It may work with other cards (even as large as 256GB), but Wyze recommends sticking to the mentioned type.

Once you’ve inserted the SD card (unplug the Wyze Cam from the power source, first!), start your Wyze app and select the camera you want to set to continuously record. Now, tap the gear icon in the top-right corner of the screen and select Advanced Settings.

Now, toggle Local recording to micro SD Card to on by tapping the slider to the right.

This will automatically change the 12-second video length to one minute, which is significantly more and provides you with enough recording time for court, for instance. Additionally, with every motion sensor trigger, the recording timer is dialed back to the beginning and another recording “session” begins. To put it simply: as long as there is motion in front of the camera, it will continue recording.

Continuous Recording

Although the default recording setting with the SD card is pretty close to continuous recording, as soon as there is no detectable motion for a minute, the recording will cease. This is usually completely fine, even preferable, but if you’re looking for real continuous recording, there is a solution.

To turn continuous recording on, go to the Advanced Settings and below Local recording to micro SD Card, you’ll see two selection choices: Record Alerts Only and Continuous Recording. By default, the former will be selected, which is the one-minute recording option. As you’ve probably guessed, all you need to do now is select Continuous Recording.

Footage Space

Whenever the disk space limit on your microSD card is reached, the camera will automatically begin to overwrite the oldest footage. This is why some people prefer the Record Alerts Only option, as it preserves the space on your SD card. Alternatively, the Continuous Recording option will record the footage constantly and overwrite the footage automatically when the SD card is full. Additionally, the continuous option will leave you with much more footage to review, on account of it recording 24/7.

Whichever one of the two options you decide to use, you should set a reminder for yourself to back up the footage before it gets deleted. 32GB should last a few days on Continuous Recording, just for reference.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I format my MicroSD card?

Formatting your MicroSD card is incredibly simple. From the Settings on your Wyze camera tap on ‘Advanced Settings’ then, tap on ‘Local Storage.’ Finally, tap ‘Format.’ Use the FAT32 format for your MicroSD card with the Wyze camera.

Which video recording settings should I use?

The Wyze camera gives you the option to record in 360p, SD, or HD. If you’re using the continuous recording feature, your content will automatically record in HD if you set it to 360p. The video settings that you choose depend on the size of your MicroSD card and how long you plan to record. Remember, recording in HD takes more space than recording in SD.

How long can I record HD content on my MicroSD card?

One common question is how long can I continuously record? This all depends on your video settings and the size of your MicroSD card. If you have a 32gb MicroSD card you can record HD content for two to three days. Whereas with the SD settings you can record for seven to eight days straight.

Continuously Recording with Wyze

As you can see, enabling Continuous Recording is entirely possible on Wyze Cam devices. Using the MicroSD card is much better than having your 12-second footage uploaded onto the cloud, but you should carefully consider whether you opt for the one-minute Record Alerts Only, or for the 24/7 Continuous Recording option. Both of these come with their own upshots and downsides.

Do you use a microSD card in your Wyze Cam? Which of the two continuous options have you chosen or would you choose? Do you have any tips or advice to share or questions to ask? Feel free to hit the comments section below with anything Wyze-related.