Doorbell randomly ringing in the middle of the night

For the past month our ring doorbell has been randomly ringing in the middle of the night and when we check the cameras no one is there. What can we do to fix this?

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Hi @Nithak27. I would inspect the wire terminals on your Doorbell and chime kit to verify that they are securely fastened. Also, inspect the button on the Doorbell for any excessive wear. These can contribute to what is known as “ghost dings”.

If you’ve verified the above mentioned areas, but are still having ghost dings, you can reach out to our support team to run some additional tests to identify what might be happening. Please reach out to our support team at one of the numbers available here. You can also get in touch with our support team on Facebook @Ring.

I’m getting the same thing, it’s been two years and randomly this started last night!
Rarely anyone rings the doorbell, so it can’t be wear and when I tried ringing, it’s not ringing normally.
It’s hardwired and battery is fine.
All camera functions are fine.
Since the early evening it’s gone off probably 8 times and now it’s 1:30 am

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I had the same thing this morning at 3.45 my door bell just randomly went off for no reason when i checked there was no one there and the video keeped going for a couple of minutes now i have dogs and they always bark when the door bell gos off but this time they didn’t dose anyone no what it could be its not a wired door bell

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Hi @Amandayltaylor823. If its not wired and the doorbell button does not seem to be getting stuck, its best to reach out to our support team to further investigate this with you.

I have been getting phantom rings. Checked wiring nothing. New bell, wear and tear nope. Can you publish troubleshooting details so we don’t have to call and wait for hours (exaggeration a little)?

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Hi @user75160. Phantom rings are usually the result of faulty wiring or a device that is failing. If you’ve checked your wiring, then you’ll need to follow up with our support team. Keep in mind, you can always reach out to our team on Facebook or Twitter via private message. If you don’t have an account, they are simple to setup and only take a few minutes.

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Me to, this was the 3rd time it has happened since Christmas when we got it. So about a month. Middle of the night it will ring twice, but the camera doesn’t activate, just the houses chime goes off.

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Having the same issue. It only happens in the middle of the night. No video and no indication of a button push in the history. I wonder if Ring is pushing updates at this time and when the doorbell restarts it sends a ring with no button push.

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My Ring doorbell dings once randomly at approximately 3-330 AM . No one at the doors. I’m at the point where I may just go back to the old doorbell and take my chances.

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Thats EXACTLY what ours does! Once a week between 2:30-3:30 am. or so. The last time it was Saturday night at 2:47am. What is going on?? It was a Christmas gift and only been installed since middle January.

Hi neighbors. If you have tried the steps mentioned in the solution and are still having the same concern, give our support team a call for further assistance.

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Yep this is exactly what is happening to us . Doorbell goes off randomly in the house between 245-4 am.but no one is there. Does tech support have a solution for this if you call? I’m about ready to take the ring doorbell out and go back to my old doorbell.

Alright. I think I figured this out – at least for my situation. This is what I just sent to Ring Support. Hopefully this helps you.

Ok. I’m sure there are notes on my account, but in a nutshell, I purchased a Ring video doorbell and hardwired it to the doorbell circuit. Months later, the chime rang (internal, physical chime in my home, not a Ring chime) at 4 in the morning. There was no one at the door, and no recording from the video doorbell. This then started happening roughly every 3-6 weeks, and seemingly always woke everyone up on days when we most needed the sleep (big deadline, finals, etc).

When I looked at the device details, it showed that it had gone through a health check when the doorbell rang. What’s strange though is that the device goes through a health check every night. I spent an hour or more chatting with Ring support. They insisted is was unlikely to be the Ring Doorbell that was causing the phantom rings, and that I should replace the transformer.

I did just that despite that my power meter said there were no issues with the transformer. I bought a new transformer, and spent a Saturday afternoon getting it properly connected.

But this didn’t solve the issue and we had phantom rings starting a few weeks later. Ring Support then shipped me a new device, hoping that would fix the issue. …another Saturday afternoon to replace the device, which also did not fix the issue.

But I think I figured it out. My in-home chime is electronic, but not digital. When pressed, it strikes 3 different physical bars in a pattern over ~10 seconds or more. To do that, I think it uses a capacitor to build a temporary charge when the doorbell is pressed, and then the capacitor discharges over the 10 seconds or so that are needed to run the electronics.

By putting the Ring Video doorbell on the circuit, the electronics receive a trickle amount of juice which slowly charges the capacitor. When the capacitor is fully charged and the power is cut, that causes the capacitor to discharge and ring the doorbell. Because it can take weeks to fully build up the charge, the health checks don’t normally cause any issues. But when a health check reboots the Video Doorbell, it cuts the power to the in-home chime; in the cases when the in-home chime’s capacitor is fully charged, then it causes a phantom ring. So that’s the irony here–it’s not that the Ring Video Doorbell is spiking the voltage to ring the in-home chime, it’s that it’s cutting the power when it reboots, and that triggers the phantom ring (but only once the capacitor is fully charged).

The simplest solution would be for your tech support to recognize that these types of in-home chimes are incompatible with the health check process, and to advise your customers as such so that we don’t spend time replacing transformers and shipping replacement units and spending hours on the phone.

The better solution, I believe, would be to allow customers to switch from automatic health checks at 4am every morning to manual health checks that the user can perform on their own. Should be simple, I’d hope, and would solve this for a whole class of electronic in-home chimes. You could even tie this into the in-home chime type menu (analog, digital 1, digital 2, and now electronic).

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Hi @user79172. Thanks so much for taking the time to share this solution! We do have Chime Kit Compatibility lists for each Ring Doorbell showing the mechanical and digital chime kits that we’ve tested, but your chime kit seems like more of a unique case. Would you mind sharing what the make and model of your chime kit is? I’d love to pass this information onto the appropriate team.

Hi Caitlyn,
I would be happy to share, but it’s not easy to figure out. There are no markings on the chime. I’d need to unmount it from the wall to read the back and I’m a little afraid that the old wires will break. I would guess that the chime is at least a few decades old–maybe from the 70s or 80s, from a time when these things were electronic, but not digital. (We think it’s actually an elegant chime and would strongly prefer to keep it). Attached is a photo in case that helps. (This website will only allow me to attach one photo). You might be able to find some vintage 3 bar chimes on eBay to test with.
-H

@user79172 No worries, thank you for sharing this information and a photo! :slight_smile:

Me too!! A soft ring two times in a row. Not a “ding dong” full on button pushed ring!

Mine is doing the same thing. A soft ring two times in a row. Not a “ding dong” full on button pushed ring. One time per night. About a week apart. I disconnected the ring from my door bell. Stopped the intrusion.

Mine is also doing a phantom ring middle of the night. 3:41 AM last night. Mine is a good ol style door bell. We get a soft ring two times in a row. Not a “ding dong”. No video or record of the event I can see on ring.