Cheap and cheerful, Wyze security camera has starting to be ubiquitous in the past year. With Wyze camera, you can get advanced home security features for way less than a hundred dollars.
The dedicated app for Android and iOS offers live streaming of what’s going on in your house, and you get free cloud-backed 14 days of event recording.
However, what if you don’t want to use the cloud features? Fret not, Wyze also supports microSD card (not an SD card) for memory expansion. With a microSD, you can turn on the local recording feature, and you can choose continuous recording or events-only recording.
The videos stored on your microSD card can be played back in Wyze app. Just like using the cloud features and the best part is that you don’t entirely lose cloud features – it will still make 12-second alert videos that are captured and stored on the cloud, based on the camera’s motion detection settings.
With the feature enabled, you can rest assured that you have some kind of backup when disasters strike.
Want to buy microSD for Wyze cam? Read on this article to find out the microSD situation details.
SD cards accepted by Wyze cam
As stated in their support page, Wyze cam can only take microSD cards that are 32 GB or less, formatted as FAT32. While larger microSD cards with exFAT file system is also supported, the support page says that larger microSD cards could introduce system instability. So you are advised to avoid larger cards for now, including using an SD card.
As for microSD card speed, Class 10 microSD cards are advised because the speed is enough to record HD videos. Slower microSD card might make recording stutter. It is advised that you buy the highest capacity microSD readable by Wyze cam, as the price difference in lower SD card capacity is negligible.
Installing and formatting the microSD card
To install a microSD card to your Wyze camera, you need to unplug your Wyze camera to avoid corruption of any recordings saved on the camera. Afterward, you can push the microSD to the slot. When inserted correctly, you will hear a “ding” sound from the camera. If you don’t hear the sound, unplug your camera, then reinsert the microSD and plug the camera back in.
After the camera is inserted, you will need to format your camera through the Wyze app. Tap Home, then choose Settings. From the Settings menu, choose Advanced Settings, then choose Local Storage, and finally, Format.
The microSD will be initialized for usage with Wyze, and all previously stored data in your microSD will be wiped. Therefore, if you are using an old microSD card, you are advised to back up the contents of your microSD card before continuing.
Recording video to microSD card
After installing and formatting the microSD card, it is now time to put the card to use by enabling the local recording feature of your Wyze cam. To do that, tap Home, then choose Settings. From the Settings menu, choose Advanced Settings, then choose Local Storage, and turn on “Local recording to microSD card”.
Wondering how many recordings that you can save in a microSD? An 8GB microSD will be able to hold 2-3 days’ worth of SD-quality continuous footage or 0.5 to 1 day of footage in HD. Likewise, 16GB microSD can hold 4-5 days of SD-quality footage or 1-2 days of footage in HD.
The largest card recognized by Wyze, the 32GB card, can hold 7-8 days of SD-quality footage or 2-3 days of HD footage.
You can set the recording quality of your Wyze cam by going to the Home tab of the Wyze app, select the camera, and choose HD, SD, or 360p setting on the top left of the screen. If you choose 360p, the camera will record SD footage to the microSD card.
Playing back the recorded video stored in the microSD card
What use is a recording if it never gets played? You can playback the recorded footage that is stored on your microSD card through the Wyze app. To view recorded footage, you can start the live stream view of your camera and tap the “View Playback” button. The playback controls will be displayed on your phone’s screen.
In the playback screen, you can tap and drag the timeline to view recorded video from a specific point in time, tap the date button to select a date in the calendar view, and pinch to zoom the timeline to make it easier to select a specific point in time.
