headlights set off motion detector

Products Video Doorbells
#1

I saw a another thread where people noticed a sudden increase in sensitivity.

This is NOT related. I’ve had this issue for the past year, ever since I installed the doorbell. I live in a cul-de-sac, and in the cool evenings, a car turning around in the cul-de-sac will set off my motion detector on the door bell. I have it set for ‘people only’, but that doesn’t make a difference. The Motion Sensitivity is set to about a third of the way from the left, so not terribly sensitive. Yet after dark, every time a car comes through, I get chimes.

The odd thing is that it isn’t the car itself that sets it off…it is the light from the headlights sweeping across the doorbell/side of the garage.

any ideas?

2 Likes
#2

Same here…how about a response, Ring?

1 Like
#3

This is a issue that has been there from the start. The problem is that the headlights are tracked as movement especially on mains powered cams. It seems be more prevalent on wet days where additional reflections come into play as well. There does not seem to be any way to remediate this apart from angling the cam, adjusting zones or if there is a future motion algorithm update. The problem would be that is headlights are somehow ignored, one could simply shine a light on the cam and walk up to it without trigging a motion.

It should be noted that, unfortunately in some cases an outlook is not suitable for Ring or maybe any cams at all based on local positioning and conditions.

#4

Same issue here, I have played with all motion settings… Zones, sensitivity, People only, etc… to no avail. I have angle and corner wedges coming to see if they help.

#5

Same here. Just got the doorbell and already annoyed that I get numerous alerts every night. I have it on lowest sensitivity and still every car going by at night sets it off. Mine is hard wired so I can’t just move it. Practically have no motion zone, trying to alleviate the issue but still does it. It’s the “doorbell that cries wolf” all night.

#6

Just recently installed 3 ring camera’s and i am having this issue, the headlights setting off motion. Has anyone had any luck with this? any update from ring? i have them on the lowest setting, my this freaks out my teenage girls at night!

#7

This is not isolated to just Ring systems. I had to resign myself to switching it to People Only in the evenings. I tried adding wedges, corner wedge, zones, and none really helped. Would be nice if they added a feature where you could set to People Only on a schedule.

1 Like
#8

I have been dealing with this for a long time… played with all the setting as much as I could and backed off on the coverage area. So much so it’s almost not worth having the unit. Ring went off 22 times last. Igor from 11pm to 6am all headlights! What’s the point! Frustrating. Let’s get this fixed Ring Engineering!!

#9

Just purchased and installed the Pro. Overall I like the device, but I am experiencing this headlight phantom tripping the alert as well. It is frustrating. I have decided to mute all devices before I go to bed --otherwise I would wake up every hour by headlights going around the culdesac. My motion field is set to 20’ from the street. The engineers at Ring should fix this asap.

#10

May want to try to angle the doorbell downwards with a wedge kit.

1 Like
#11

exactly the same problem.
Only real answer is to turn off motion at night, which sort of defeats the object

#12

I live on a country road, and I have this problem with my new Ring Pro Doorbell. Seems like a different zone map to switch on and off as the camera switches from day to night mode would work. Other setting changes could also change with day/night mode. I’ll likely be returning the doorbell till there is a solution to this problem.

#13

I just made it a habit of changing to people only when the sun goes down. That combined with zones and angle brackets works for me.

2 Likes
#14

Also, based on my research, Ring isn’t the only system that suffers from this.

1 Like
#15

The doorbell gives lots of alerts from headlights at night. I though PIR was supposed to help prevent that. Do the doorbells use PIR to detect motion?

#16

Hi @otatop. That depends on which model of Doorbell you have, as there are two different types of motion detection. Which model of Doorbell do you have? Our battery-operated Doorbells use PIR motion detection, which can be triggered by the light that reflects from headlights. You can learn more about the motion detection on our devices in this Help Center Article here.

#17

We live on a corner lot so we have leadlights coming from 3 directions, all of which set off a motion alert. We also get a motion alert from our stick up cam on the back side of the house when headlight coming from an alley reflect off the garage door. Really annoying.

#18

Has Ring ever addressed or responded to this?

I have the same issue, I have a house located on the corner of the street and any turning cars trip the Ring sensor at night. As the car turns, the headlights sweep over my camera and trip the sensor and all the alerts go off. To make things worse I have all the Alexa echos in the house alert me that there is motion at the front door.

I tried a wedge kit to angle down. I tried setting the motion zones almost to my front door steps, no where near the street. I even tried people only. However for some reason, the headlights of the cars continue to trip the camera. (Ring Doorbell Pro)

Can we get an official response from Ring?

#19

I have the same issue with my Ring Doorbell Pro. I have a house located on the corner of the street and any turning cars trip the Ring sensor at night. As the car turns, the headlights sweep over my camera and trip the sensor and all the alerts go off. To make things worse I have all the Alexa echos in the house alert me that there is motion at the front door.

I tried a wedge kit to angle down. I tried setting the motion zones almost to my front door steps, no where near the street. I even tried people only. However for some reason, the headlights of the cars continue to trip the camera. (Ring Doorbell Pro)

Can we get an official response from Ring on how to fix this?

#20

Hey neighbors! The Community is a neighbor-to-neighbor forum rather than a direct line to support. If none of the suggestions provided by other neighbors in this thread were helpful in resolving your concern, then you’ll want to touch base with our support team directly. They’ll be able to pull up your account and your device and see if there’s any other troubleshooting steps they may be able to offer regarding the motion detection on your Doorbell. You can give our support team a call at one of the numbers available here. 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. Feel free to report back on what our support team recommends, as it may help other neighbors here as well. :slight_smile: