Doorbell records what I don’t want and won’t record what I want!

So we just got a new Ring Doorbell, I really want to love it…but…we live on a fairly busy street. We’ve set the settings to record closer to the house and not out by the street…or so we thought. We get recordings and notifications for cars all day long, especially buses and trucks but yet it didn’t not record the mailman who walked up within two feet of the camera, it didn’t record my husband and the kids leaving the house for school yesterday even though it had just recorded a car, and it just recorded me pulling in the driveway, halfway getting out of the car, and then stopped and didn’t record the minute or so of me bringing stuff into the house! So frustrated. We’ve played with all the settings! If I increase sensitivity, it will record more cars just to maybe be able to record us closer to the house! What am I missing before I return this thing!

Hi @Racinehome. Typically, concerns like what you’re describing can be resolved with some adjustments to the settings and positioning of your Doorbell. First, which model of Doorbell do you have? Our battery-operated devices are designed to record for up to 30 seconds at a time, while our wired devices are designed to record for up to 60 seconds at a time. If you have a battery-operated device, I would also recommend reviewing the Motion Frequency settings in our Help Center Article here, as this can impact what events are and are not recorded.

In regards to positioning, would you mind attaching a screenshot of your Motion Zones from the Ring App? I’d be happy to take a look and see if there are some changes that can be made to improve your Doorbell’s motion detection. Once I know which Doorbell you have, I can share some helpful articles on the motion detection as well. :slight_smile:

I believe it’s the Ring 3 plus. It should have the 4 second pre-roll but does not always do that either. Again, my husband left the house this morning and the doorbell is obviously next to the front door. It never recorded him walking out the door or to the car and backing away out of the driveway but it gets the cars in the street. Here is a screenshot of the motion areas.

@Racinehome Thanks for sharing that screenshot here. Approximately how high is your Doorbell mounted? We recommend a mounting height of 48 inches, but it does look like your Doorbell has a lot of the street and sky in its view which is going to impact the motion detection. You can take a look at this Help Center Article here, which covers the recommended positioning for the Doorbell 3 Plus. If there are any steps leading up to your front door, you may also want to consider using a Wedge Kit to help angle the Doorbell’s view down so it has less of the road in its view. Making some adjustments to the Doorbell’s positioning and angle, as well as reviewing the Motion Frequency settings should help with the Doorbell capturing events closer to the door rather than in the street. :slight_smile:

We are using a wedge as it is resting oddly on siding. There are a few steps up to the door so if we go any lower, we will not capture a face by the door. And we are using a wedge to aim it down more because the siding would make it tilt a few degrees back up more. Like I originally stated, we’ve tried tons of different motion settings. Today again, it did capture my husband twice leaving the house but never captured him (in the driveway to the left) pulling in, getting out of the car, walking up to the door, putting the keys in the door, and opening it up. But it will randomly capture cars or even no cars throughout the day. It’s getting a bit frustrating.

@Racinehome Thank you for letting me know. In this case, it may be best for you to contact our support team directly so they can take a deeper look at your device and work with you to find a solution for your motion detection concerns. You can give our support team a call at one of the numbers available here. They can offer more advanced troubleshooting steps in an effort to optimize the motion detection for your home. We’re taking additional steps to protect our team and help reduce the spread of COVID-19, so this has resulted in longer than normal wait times. If you are outside of the US, please read our response to COVID-19 here to see how to contact support.