Hey everyone,
I’ve been using Wyze cameras for a while now, and I’ve got to say, they’ve been a great addition to my smart home setup. But recently, I’ve been running into some issues with the timelapse feature and the camera thumbnails not showing up as expected. I wanted to share my experience and the solutions I’ve found, in case anyone else is dealing with the same problems.
The Problem with Timelapse
I set up a timelapse on my Wyze camera, thinking it’d be a cool way to capture some long-term footage. However, after a month, I checked the SD card, and there was no timelapse footage to be found. The camera was powered off before the timelapse ended, so I expected at least a partial recording. But nothing was there. The only thing I could find were motion event snippets in the record folder, which I thought I had disabled. It was frustrating to see all that empty space on the SD card.
Thumbnails Not Showing Up
Another issue I noticed was that the thumbnails for my camera feeds weren’t appearing in the Home Assistant interface. Instead, I just saw the default icons. I tried adjusting the entity_picture in my customize.yaml file, but nothing changed. It was a bit confusing since the thumbnails worked fine in the top badge. I wondered if there was something I was missing in the configuration.
What I Did to Fix It
After some digging, I found out that the timelapse files are stored in a specific folder on the SD card, and if the camera is powered off before the timelapse ends, it doesn’t save anything. To work around this, I made sure to keep the camera powered on throughout the entire timelapse period. I also adjusted the motion settings to prevent unwanted snippets from cluttering up the SD card.
As for the thumbnails, I realized that the entity_picture path I was using wasn’t correct. After some research, I found that I needed to use a different syntax in my customize.yaml file. Once I fixed that, the thumbnails started appearing as they should.
Lessons Learned
This experience taught me the importance of checking the file structure on the SD card and ensuring that the camera remains powered on during long timelapse recordings. It also highlighted the need to carefully review configuration settings, even for something as seemingly straightforward as camera thumbnails.
I’d love to hear from others who might have encountered similar issues or have tips for optimizing Wyze camera performance. Let’s keep the discussion going!
Best regards,
[Your Name]