Smart Lighting
Solar Step Light Turn On manually and stay on
Hello, I just purchased the 2-pack solar step light with bridge to try. I want to use them a deck perimeter lights and will need 10 more. BUT...how do I get the light to stay on longer than the duration setting when I use the toggle switch in the app? I turn the lights on and they shut off 30 seconds later. Or if I set auto off duration to 1 minute it’s a minute. But the auto off feature is supposed to be when motion is detected. I have that off. Is there a way to turn the lights on and have them stay on? At least until it senses daylight?
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24-04-2020 01:25:07
Responses (5)
- D
Hi Chelsea, Yes, I did realize you can have the light saty on with a schedule. But what if I want to put them on outside of my set schedule? I cannot have them remain on for longer than 15 minutes. In addition, when I do set a schedule, if I try and increase or decrease the brightness while the schedule is running, I cannot. It defaults to the brightness of the schedule. Another "bug" which needs fixing. I really like the lights, but lack of basic flexibility of turning them on and off when I want is a major negative and may be the deciding factor of keeping them. Can you elevate this please?
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24-04-2020 06:17:43
C@dantiz Thank you for your feedback on this! I really do appreciate it and rest assured I have passed this onto the appropriate teams for you. We do not have the feature at this time to have the lights remain on outside of the auto-shut off time frame. We do not enable this feature at this time in order to refrain from neighbors accidentally turning on the lights and draining the battery from forgetting to turn it off. With the lights on the schedule, you should be able to make them brighter while the schedule is on-going, but it will revert back to whatever brightness it as at before, so please ensure you are changing brightness (when wanting to do so permanently) outside of a scheduled time. My team said they will make sure to take in your suggestions into consideration for future! I recommend to make sure to keep you app up to date so you get the latest of any new features we implement, which we will showcase in the New Features part of the Ring app. :)
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24-04-2020 10:24:50
DHi Chelsea, Thank you for your thorough reply. I have a need for about 15 lights, which is a significant $ investment, so you can see convern if I cannot operate them as desired. Is there a timeline where the App may be uodated for more flexibility? I understand the need to save battery life. But even not being able to change the brightness ( and the light remain at that brightness) during as chedule is very limiting. For example, I have the family onthe deck and would like to have the lights brighter, I can only do so for a set duration until they go back to minimum. I would like to have them remain at the new setting for the remainder of the schedule....Thanks for looking into this... Dan
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27-04-2020 01:22:58
C@dantiz That is totally understandable and I can see your need for wanting this! I'm unable to get an ETA at this time, as my team has to pass the suggestion up the food chain, work it out, and test from there before we can implement it. All new features that we bring to our apps and changes in the features will be listed in the New Features section of your app, so I recommend to check these (but you will see a red indicator if you have an new feature in there). If I do get a good, even vague or rough ETA, I will make sure to update you here accordingly. :)
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27-04-2020 05:26:32
- R
I too just purchased 21 solar lights, spent a pretty penny on them (plus 5 wired dual spotlight cams) and I would have NEVER thought that you cannot control them manually as you please… This thread has been open since last year and Ring still has not implemented this…??? I’m really disappointed and getting ready to return them all… I would like to simply be able to turn them on and off when I need them, same Thing happens with the wired spotlights, this is insane… I’m really upset about this…
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31-05-2021 04:25:52
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THi @RubioA. Have you tried using the Lights Tile in your Ring app? The Lights Tile should allow you to manually turn off/on your Smart Lights. This Help Center article [here](https://support.ring.com/hc/en-us/articles/360031677351-Adjusting-the-Light-and-Motion-Settings) has more information about this feature. Let me know if this helps!
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01-06-2021 04:42:51
- R
Hi Tom, Ok, same as others have posted above, there is no "Manual" way to activate the lights... I have 21 lights as noted and and I would hope that you don't expect me to go into 21 individual lights to turn them on and off... So I go into the group I have created and the options on top right, which one would assume are the "manual" settings, when activated only turn the lights on for the duration of the motion settings, 1 minute in my case, so its not "manual". According to the instructions in the link you posted above, that "manual" option overrides ALL settings on any part of the app, and I quote "1. **Manual On/Off:** This control overrules any other setting or controls that are set with the Ring app. Regardless of time of day or scheduled settings — this control will always turn on or off your lights." I want to be able to turn my lights on and off when I want, manually, as noted on the link you posted... As you can see this thread has been going now for over a year and no fixes/solutions have been released, plus I have invested not only on 21 lights but many other Ring devices in excess of $2000, so I'm really upset I cannot control these lights properly. Now, in the mean time, I thought while this is fixed, I'll just create a schedule that I can just enable or disable when needed to turn these lights on and off... Easier said then done, I noticed that the schedule feature does not work properly either, I create a schedule and what happens instead of creating a schedule with devices listed under it, what it ends up doing is creating 21 separate schedules, in other words one schedule per device... Would be fine if I can just again manually turn off the "main" schedule... If I have 2 or 3 devices it would not matter, but I'm not going to turn off one device at a time and even if I did it literally takes about 8 seconds for each device to interact with the bridge and finally turn off, very inconvenient and not very nice when you have guests over and you are left in the dark... Very frustrated and considering returning ALL your equipment... This is crazy its like going to a furniture store to buy a lamp and can only turn it on for X amount of minutes... BTW, yes I did go to the Lights Tile on the App, I have tried any and all possible combinations to no avail... Appreciate your help, thanks...
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02-06-2021 09:48:05
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RAre you guys actually Ring Employees or just customers that assist others when possible? If so, how do I take this up to Ring, I'm really concerned about this given the large investment I have here... Thanks For your help, greatly appreciate it...
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04-06-2021 01:26:09
THey @RubioA. Sorry to hear that this is not working for you. I suggest following up with our support team so they can deep dive into this issue and create a solution for you. Please give our support team a call at one of the numbers available [here](https://support.ring.com/hc/en-us/articles/213608406). And yes, we are real people and employees of Ring. We are here to help facilitate a positive environment for all of our neighbors. Feel free to come back to this post and let the Community know what our level 2 support was able to find out about this.
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04-06-2021 05:02:20
- R
Hi Tom, I'm extremely upset at Ring, I called support last night and after a long time on the phone I was transferred to an "engineer", David was his name, he told me to give him 2-3 minutes to look into it, put me on hold and after 20 minutes hung up on me. No call back, no e-mail, and what is really odd no confirmation e-mail after call to support... I have tried everything to get these lights to turn on and off when I want and they do not. Scheduling is not working properly either... Tomorrow I'm returning the 21 lights I purchased and telling all the neighbors that I was encouraging to purchase these lights, to not do so under any circumstance... Tom, please take this to management, maybe they will think about being a little more responsive to customers... Thanks for your help and your responses though...
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07-06-2021 03:38:10
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THi @RubioA. This isn't the experience that I hoped you would have. I'm not sure what happened, but this does not sound like the standard procedure for a call. I would advise to follow up with your open support ticket and ask to speak to a Neighbor Solution Expert Team Supervisor. Once verified, they'll be able to look at your account notes and follow up with this escalation. I would also check your junk/spam folders for an email, as sometimes it gets filtered out. Nonetheless, I can pass this feedback along to the appropriate team. :slightly_smiling_face:
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07-06-2021 11:10:57
RHi Tom, I again called today to request a refund and explained everything to the rep, she put me on hold while she spoke to her manager and they absolutely refused under no circumstance to issue a refund, no consideration give to the fact that I have been dealing with this for weeks. I understand that I'm past the 30 days, but I would have at least expected a partial refund, something... No, nothing, so I was transferred to technical support, she explained to the tech what I was experiencing and she walked me through the creation of schedules and proceeded to tell me there is no manual settings, blah blah blah, reading from a script... Completely dissatisfied with Ring at this point, I was SO excited to have these lights on my patio, they looked fabulous. Unfortunately I will have to eat the $200 cost of the 4 pathlights and bridge. But I already packed the 17 remaining lights ($560) I purchased from Amazon and they will be picked up and shipped back tomorrow... Words cannot explain the frustration and disappointment I have. Something SO simple to add/fix and they refuse to do so... I might consider purchasing again in the future if they fix this, but as you can see by this thread here alone, there are TONS on the internet complaining about this very thing, that has been active for over a year... I also proceeded to write a review on Amazon, I'm sure people will think twice about getting products from a company that just ignores customer like that... BTW, I found these instructions: [Controlling Your Smart Solar Lights with Light Schedules – Ring Help](https://support.ring.com/hc/en-us/articles/360041290112-Controlling-Your-Smart-Solar-Lights-with-Light-Schedules) There is a Note there that reads " **Note:** Schedules can be created at both the individual device and group level." Which we now know it is false and not true... I even created a new group with my two wired floodcams and once created there is no scheduling option for the group, yet on that same instructions page from the link above: **What Products have the Light Schedules feature?** The following products currently have the Light Schedules feature: * Smart Solar Steplight * Smart Solar Pathlight * Smart Solar Floodlight * Smart Light Floodlight Wired * Smart Lighting Transformer * Smart Lighting PAR38 LED Lightbulb * Smart Lighting A19 LED Lightbulb So, I leave it on your hands Tom, maybe you can talk to the higher ups and make a difference... Greatly appreciated...
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08-06-2021 12:21:27
CHey there @RubioA, stepping in here for Tom. I wanted to clear up any confusion that there may be on the Lights tile feature/turning on/off your device all at once, as well as the Light Schedules. In regards to the Solar Smart Lighting devices, these devices will behave in the same matter that our Battery Smart Lighting devices do. This means that when you go select the option to turn on a device, whether you are tapping the button within the Lights tile from the Dashboard to turn them all on/off at once or doing it individually within Devices, that the lights will be on for a **maximum of 15 minutes**, and then turn off. Just to ensure you're aware of the option to manually turn on/off the Lights, please make sure you have the Lights tile enabled from your Shortcuts, so that it appears on the Dashboard. After you've selected/tapped on the Lights tile from the Dashboard, you will be directed to a page that give you the option to turn them on all on from a group. It looks something like this (a screenshot from my Lights tile, and my group of my Indoor lights):  Although, because of the 15 minute limitation, we recommend neighbors to create a schedule, as the schedule will help you keep your lights on for long during certain times. We also state in the [Help Center Article](https://support.ring.com/hc/en-us/articles/360041290112-Controlling-Your-Smart-Solar-Lights-with-Light-Schedules) that you've pointed out as well that the lights will not be on full brightness during a schedule, as when scheduled, all of the Ring Smart Lighting solar products have a single brightness level specifically designed to maximize battery life. You can visit the Help Center Article to see more of what brightness level your device may be on during this schedule. With this in mind, I wanted to dive deep into the point you made about the schedules being available to create at the individual device and group level, but you were seeing a schedule under each individual device. This is due to the way the Light Schedules must be executed within the Ring App to ensure all device turn on or off when prompted. For example and like your situation, if you have a group with all 21 devices and you only want one schedule for that group you should see 21 schedules - one for each device. This does create the schedule for the whole group, as it applies the schedule to each device in the group, individually. Therefore, the statement of schedules being able to be created from the individual device and the group level is true, as you can apply it to a whole group or an individual device if you'd choose. Because of the way the way this is set up, you will need to edit the schedule on the individual level for each device, if you wish to change the group schedule from something you may have previous set up. This means that if you set up a Light Schedule from 6PM-9PM, only to want to change it to 6PM-10PM, you would have to delete all the schedules for each individual device and then make the new schedule on the group level, to then apply it back down to each individual device. We understand that this can be a taxing process, especially when you have as many devices as you do, but if you end up seeing more than one schedule for a light, you will need to address that to avoid issues with them turning on or off appropriately, so I recommend checking that to verify that you are not running into that if you still want to make this work. I apologize that you had this kind of experience over the phone with our support team, and I apologize that there is nothing that we can do on the Community in regards to the refund, as this is a neighbor-to-neighbor support forum and not a direct line to support. We are able to talk with our teams here to gain insight on what issues our neighbors in the Community run into so we can provide feedback to the internal teams as well as our neighbors, but we cannot aid in refunds, [returns](https://support.ring.com/hc/en-us/articles/360022409351-Return-Policy), or help with the personal devices on your account. I appreciate your feedback on this regardless, and hope that I may have cleared the air on expectations of our devices and how they function. I will make sure to pass on your feedback to our teams so we can work on making the experience better for our neighbors in any way we can, as well as making our information clear for all to understand. Thank you, @RubioA.
•2
08-06-2021 09:55:50
- S
Why the hell, User can't choose what he wants. You are not my parent to decide on our behalf. It is ridiculous that 1) You are not letting light to run for more than 15 mins when it is started manually 2) You are not letting me choose the Brightness level for light during light schedule period For God's sake please make those changes. After all it is going to be just a software upgrade. Otherwise advertise properly that system is super smart and make decisions on behalf of dumb users like us. It is like Apple teaching its users, how to hold iPhones correctly.
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28-03-2022 05:25:47
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Chelsea_Ring
Hey @dantiz. You can definitely achieve this with a schedule! If you take a look at our Ring Help Center Article [here](https://support.ring.com/hc/en-us/articles/360041290112-Controlling-Your-Smart-Solar-Lights-with-Light-Schedules), it will help you learn how to create a schedule to keep your lights on during certain times. :)
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24-04-2020 05:58:07
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