App says solar panel not connected

Early every morning the Ring app says my solar panel is not connected.
But later on the morning when it gets light it says it is connected, without me doing anything.
I tried resetting the camera but it made no difference.
I’m sure before that it used to say connected but not enough light to charge. Does this mean my solar panel is faulty already? I’ve only had it about 6 weeks.

Hi @BobWatford. As long as your Solar Panel is registering that it is connected during daylight hours, this is normal operation. This is because the Solar Panel is only receiving power during daylight hours. This provides a slow trickle charge for your battery operated device. Depending on your wifi strength and number of event activations per day, you should see a positive trend in your battery. I hope this information helps!

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I am seeing that the app shows no solar panel yet the battery is still charging. So that tells me the panel is still working but the app isn’t recognizing it. Have you seen this before?

I have an original stick up cam and the newest version. Both have solar connected and neither show that it is , but still are charging. The original has been this way since day 1 many years ago and I’ve never needed to mess with it.
But I would like the app to show that they are connected !

Hi @Tom_Ring . I have the same issue. One of my solar panels appears as “Not Connected” whereas another solar panel says “Connected” at the same time and the panels are located next to each other (side-by-side).

Is there a list of Solar Statuses that we should expect to see at certain times? For example, full sunlight (daytime) status should say “Connected… Panel is connected and able to charge this device” vs. no sunlight (nighttime) status "Connected… Panel is connected, but sunlight is too weak to charge this device” or “Not Connected”?

Also, does the Wi-Fi signal impact the Solar Status?

Thanks.

Hi there, neighbors! As long as your Solar Panel is registering that it is connected during daylight hours, this is normal operation. This is because the Solar Panel is only receiving power during daylight hours. This provides a slow trickle charge for your battery operated device. Depending on your wifi strength and number of event activations per day, you should see a positive trend in your battery.

To ensure your Solar Panel charge is most effective, it’s best to consider factors such as usage, temperatures, and other common battery drain factors. Check out our Community post about battery drain for more tips on battery usage. Fine tuning battery usage and ensuring for several hours of direct sunlight to your panels, will ensure the Solar Panels are most effective.

If your Solar Panel is not showing as connected even with fine tuning battery usage, Solar Panel placement, and ensuring the connection is secure, please give our support team a call at one of the numbers available here. If you are outside of the US, please go here to see how to contact support.

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Late last Fall I disconnected my Ring solar panel from my Ring Spotlight camera because we had to paint our deck where the camera is installed. Recently, I plugged the solar panel back into the Spotlight camera and the status of the solar panel always says “not connected”. The solar panel receives morning sunlight and in the past when it worked the battery indicators would show that they were being charged by the solar panel. I have tried resetting the Spotlight camera multiple times with no luck in connecting the solar panel. It seems the Spotlight camera does not recognize that the solar panel is plugged into into it.

Are there any fixes for this???

I just installed two of the panels last week. I noticed that sometimes in the app the batteries will have sun rays next to them, and other times they will not. When they don’t it says that it’s not connected. I did a bit of research and found that if the battery level is 90% or higher, it will not charge, so the sun rays on the battery will not appear, and it will say not connected (poor choice of words in the app, as it makes it sound like it’s not going to work when you need it).

However, in practice, the above is not accurate - One of my cameras today shows both batteries at 100% and the battery displays have the sun rays next to them (and it’s connected), while the other as one batter at 97% and one at 100%, and neither has the sun rays displayed next to the battery symbol and it says that it’s not connected.

Conclusion - bad app implementation of the solar panels. How about instead of saying “not connected” when it doesn’t see a need to charge the batteries, say “not charging due to sufficient battery level” or something that doesn’t make you think the panel is not working!!