It appears that neither the Wyze nor the Ring home security cams allow you to store video locally (with the caveat that Ring does allow it but only if you purchase another $250 device). Both of them seem to be using a business model that forces you to subscribe to their own online storage service.

Is anyone aware of any work around that would allow one to store the video locally, such as on an NAS? Alternatively, is there a competing home security camera system that does make it easy to store video locally. I am just trying to avoid the ongoing expense of subscription services. Those services can start adding up considerably if you are not careful.

Jabin said:

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It appears that neither the Wyze nor the Ring home security cams allow you to store video locally

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That isn't accurate at all. The Wyze cams have a microSD slot to allow for local storage.

txag2008 said:

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Jabin said:

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It appears that neither the Wyze nor the Ring home security cams allow you to store video locally

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That isn't accurate at all. The Wyze cams have a microSD slot to allow for local storage.

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Thanks for pointing that out. Is there anyway to save the video permanently to either a hard drive or to something like in NAS without removing the microSD card?

Sure, once you're playing it back (through the app) you can save it to your phone/ipad/etc. There's no way that I'm aware of that you can automatically transfer to a HD or NAS.

I use Reolink cameras with my Synology Nas and that setup works great. Synology surveillance station is free for up to two cameras.

I have an old school 4 camera BNC connection with a dvr that works well. I think I have a 500gb HD in the dvr that overwrites when full. But if something happens, you'll have plenty of time (3-4 weeks) to view footage before it gets overwritten.

I have a PC running Blue Iris software and several generic IP cameras. It records everything locally and allows access via phone app or web remotely. It's not a turnkey solution like Ring but it's great for the DIYer that wants to set it all up themself.

txag2008 said:

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Sure, once you're playing it back (through the app) you can save it to your phone/ipad/etc. There's no way that I'm aware of that you can automatically transfer to a HD or NAS.

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Perhaps. If I can save it to my phone, my phone automatically backs up all photos and videos to both Google Drive and One Drive.

Another vote for Blue Iris. You can customize it to do anything you want. As Jethro mentioned, it is not turnkey, though, and takes some time to setup.

Wyze can record to sd but you have to start it in the app and does not always continue when you close or disconnect. There are versions of the wyse firmware for most older than v3 cameras that can stream via rtsp to things like blue iris. Have a few setup to do this. Works fine and cheap.

UmustBKidding said:

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Wyze can record to sd but you have to start it in the app and does not always continue when you close or disconnect. There are versions of the wyse firmware for most older than v3 cameras that can stream via rtsp to things like blue iris. Have a few setup to do this. Works fine and cheap.

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I have no idea what most of that means but am willing to learn. Any suggestions on where to go to learn? For example, what does rtsp mean? Will blue iris automatically notify you if it detects movement or a person within the frame of a camera?

It sounds from your post that Wyze has killed that ability for v3 cameras. Is that correct?

Jabin said:

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UmustBKidding said:

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Wyze can record to sd but you have to start it in the app and does not always continue when you close or disconnect. There are versions of the wyse firmware for most older than v3 cameras that can stream via rtsp to things like blue iris. Have a few setup to do this. Works fine and cheap.

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I have no idea what most of that means but am willing to learn. Any suggestions on where to go to learn? For example, what does rtsp mean? Will blue iris automatically notify you if it detects movement or a person within the frame of a camera?

It sounds from your post that Wyze has killed that ability for v3 cameras. Is that correct?

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I tried this. I was hoping for an all wireless solution (battery/wifi) and so I tried a variety of cameras to try to make this work. There are forums that talk about how to download the RTSP firmware and getting running on Wyze again, but that path is not a fun one. Not to mention the security concerns, specifically with Wyze's old, outdated firmware.

RTSP is a streaming protocol that a camera could use to send video to something like a NAS or computer running Blue Iris or Synology Surveillance Station.

Reolink has cameras that are wifi with a power source, or POE. I'd highly recommend you go with POE over the wifi version (although I have a Reolink wifi camera that works great, AND it's fully supported), and run it all on something like Surveillance Stations or Blue Iris... and forget about trying to force a Ring or Wyze camera to do something that's not supported.

Yes, Blue Iris and most other surveillance software packages you'd run can notify you for movement. And you can set up sectors to ignore, sensitivities, etc.

https://support.wyze.com/hc/en-us/articles/360026245231-Wyze-Cam-RTSP

https://www.reddit.com/r/wyzecam/comments/upnjn9/rtsp_firmware_no_longer_on_website/
Yes there are nice poe rtsp cameras, but i used this when i needed cameras immediately to record an area where nursing staff were not doing their assigned rounds and the director would not believe it.

There's no need to run the Wyze RTSP firmware anymore. This works great on the V3 cams. Even nicer that I can block all connection to Wyze cloud. Just load the files on the SD card and boot up the camera

https://github.com/gtxaspec/wz_mini_hacks

First config may take a few attempts, but it's been stable since. Have several pumped into Blue Iris and storing footage on my NAS.

That said, I wouldn't use Wyze (or any battery cams) for a primary camera solution. I have POE cameras for areas that matter.

Is it the battery that bothers you or the Wi-Fi connection? I have some old Wyze cameras, but they are not battery but do use Wi-Fi connection.

Jabin said:

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Is it the battery that bothers you or the Wi-Fi connection? I have some old Wyze cameras, but they are not battery but do use Wi-Fi connection.

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Both. I have some battery cameras. Even with solar panels, you can't RTSP them. They frequently miss motion even when turned up to nearly 100% sensitivity. Wifi cameras can be easily knocked offline with software so they aren't "secure". For the price, wyze cams are decent, but I don't like the power cable being unprotected. If they're up high, probably not a problem, but most of mine are 8-9' up.

My POE cameras have the ethernet in the ceiling and it's secured by the camera mount. There's no external access w/o taking the camera off the soffit.

Jethro95 said:

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I have a PC running Blue Iris software and several generic IP cameras. It records everything locally and allows access via phone app or web remotely. It's not a turnkey solution like Ring but it's great for the DIYer that wants to set it all up themself.

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I ran blue iris for years but got tired of having to mess with it more often than I liked. I recently swapped everything out to unifi cameras (I have unifi network gear) with their NVR. Wasn't cheap but it is pretty set it and forget it.