How to Make Wyze Cam Record Longer

Evan Gower October 16, 2019

The Wyze Cam is a popular and affordable security camera solution for your home. It performs the function of a motion sensor, a security camera, and even enables you to communicate with whoever’s in front of the device. However, there’s a recording limit set by Wyze that allows you to record only certain lengths of footage. This can be somewhat inconvenient and you may want to prompt your device to record longer shots. Here’s how to make Wyze Cam record longer.

How Does It Work?

By default, the Wyze camera comes equipped with a motion sensor. This motion sensor works as long as the Wyze camera is active and set to record as soon as it sees movement. This footage is accessible through your phone and can be found on your personal Wyze cloud. However, by default, every time movement is detected, the Wyze camera will go into recording mode for exactly twelve seconds.

To make things even worse, the motion sensor won’t activate recording within the next five minutes after the twelve-second video, which can be incredibly frustrating, especially if you want to use the footage as court-admissible evidence in the case of a burglary or other criminal activity. What good is the twelve-second recording if the burglar only starts walking towards your door after fifteen seconds? In this case, all you’re left with is a broken-in home and nothing to show for it. Here are some solutions.

Add an SD Card

One of the neat things that Wyze offers is an SD card slot at its base. While the twelve-second motion sensor-triggered videos are uploaded to the cloud and stored there, not only are SD card-stored videos directly accessible if you have an SD adapter for your computer, but they record one-minute of footage when activated by the motion sensor. This is much better than the default alternative and will bring more footage to the table.

Additionally, if there’s constant movement, the recording will continue after the minute runs out. In other words, no five-minute window.

Another option with the SD card is continuous recording. If you select this option, the footage will be recorded onto the SD card, well, continually. However, once there’s no space left on the card, the footage will be overwritten. Typically, the top video settings will allow for about forty-eight hours of uninterrupted footage. This is a fantastic setting and a great solution, but you have to be careful not to end up with overwritten footage.

Installing the SD Card

To use SD card recording, it’s recommended that you get a class-10, 32GB microSD card, formatted in FAT32. Other options may work, but you should stick to the outlined specifications, just to be safe.

First of all, unplug your Wyze Cam from the power source, whether it’s a part of a daisy-chain, or plugged directly into the socket. If you don’t do this, the device might malfunction. Now, find the small SD slot underneath the Wyze Cam. Insert your microSD card here. Plug the camera into the power source and you should hear a sound, letting you know that the microSD card was installed correctly.

Now, go to the Wyze app, select the particular cam that you’ve inserted the microSD into, and tap the gear icon in the top-right corner of the screen. Then, navigate to Advanced Settings and flip the switch for Local recording to micro SD Card on. You’ll see two options: Record alerts only and Continuous recording. Select the mode that you want to use and you’re good to go.

If your Wyze device is having issues detecting the microSD card, unplug the device and plug it back in. This should fix the issue.

Screen Recording

One of the main benefits of using the Wyze Cam is being able to access live camera footage, as long as the smartphone tablet that you’ve used for installing the Wyze Cam is by your side. You’ll also get alerted every time the motion sensor is triggered, so that you can assess the situation and consider what actions to take. If you aren’t using a microSD card and see an event that you want to record, you’ll only get twelve seconds of footage, automatically, from the Wyze Cam itself.

Naturally, you’ll be able to access this footage from your personal cloud environment, but what if you want longer footage? Well, the answer is fairly simple: use screen recording while looking at the live footage. This means that, essentially, you’re the one who prompts the camera to record, except when using a, let’s say, third-party solution.

Typically, all modern smartphones and tablets come equipped with a screen recording option, but if your model doesn’t have this option by default, there are many third-party apps that you can find on your smartphone’s dedicated app store. This isn’t the ideal and the most straightforward solution, but it certainly does the trick and the footage will likely be court-admissible. Oh, and you’ll get a video that’s as long as you want it to be (taking into account your smartphone’s/tablet’s disk space limits).

Making the Videos Longer

With the Wyze Cam, there are ways that allow you to make longer videos of whatever is happening in front of the camera. Sure, the motion sensor-triggered videos will only be twelve-seconds long, but by inserting a simple, affordable microSD card, you’re allowing your device to record much longer videos, sensor-activated, or continuous. Of course, there’s the screen capture alternative that can do the trick.

Which recording method do you use with your Wyze Cam? Do you have any microSD cards to recommend? What do you think about the screen recording method? Feel free to hit the comments section with your thoughts, experiences, and advice regarding the Wyze Cam.