Not sure if you were repling to me but I was saying the “Camera’s” are the main problem. Not sure the Alarm system by itself would be a problem for most people. Also, the Alarm system can actually run from backup Cellular built into the system but that does not support Camera’s.
Hi, offroad!
I am not sure how others have their cameras set up. A long time ago in this thread I posted what I’m working with: Ring base station alarm with 3 door sensors and a motion sensor, plus 3 solar-powered ring cameras. I have a 4g router and T-mobile data prepaid for 6 gb/month, at $25/month. All hardware is run off a solar/battery system. I have had all of this in place for around 10 months, and only ONCE have I needed to add data - and that was because we spent more time at the cabin that month and used the internet to stream content. We get several video alerts a day from wildlife (coyotes, birds, the occasional wasp, etc) and still do not exceed the 6 gb/month. Reducing resolution, shutting off “snapshot,” reducing frequency, and turning on the “person detection” are all tactics for reducing your data use while still getting solid security. I hope this helps!!
Could you explain how you did these two items?
Reducing resolution and reducing frequency.
I did the other things.
Thanks
btw… Since I posted my issue I contacted AT&T (my provided) and increased my available bandwidth by 5gb (I was sharing 15gb with 4 people and 4 cell watches). With this change I will no longer get overage charges BUT my bandwidth speed will be reduced if I hit my limit which could be an issue for all 4 if that happens.
Hi!
My bad - I was thinking of a different camera on the resolution change. Ring cameras sort of auto adjust resolution based on available bandwidth. To answer the other question…
A great place to make changes is in the settings for each camera, in “Motion Settings.” There you can reduce Motion Zones (for example, I had a tree in a zone that constantly moved due to wind, and I shut that zone off) and ALSO in motion zones if you click “continue” you can decrease motion sensitivity; Motion Verification, which will shorten clips if the motion is short; and Motion Frequency, which for example will capture video when there is a motion, but then if a motion occurs immediately afterwards it may skip it. All of this can be tweaked to reduce your recordings, but still record if a badguy shows up.
Also, there is a Smart Alerts option for “people only” mode…it supposed to filter for only large objects like a person (although I have had wasps buzz really close to the camera so it thinks it’s a person).
Lastly, under “Device Settings” I have turned off the snapshot capture (a HUGE data eater), and in video settings HDR is off. Consider reducing recording length as well; mine is set to 30 seconds, and again I have “motion verification” turned on as noted above which will automatically shorten clips.
Thanks for the clarification. It would be a nice option to force lower resolution.
I am aware of the other suggestions.
But the real problem is bandwidth usage when there is NO MOTION ALERTS. They had no answer for why they are using so much bandwidth per camera when there are no MOTION ALERTS.
I don’t have the impression that my cams are using bandwidth when they are not transmitting video along with an alert.Since I haven’t gone past my 6gb/month cap I haven’t felt a need to check. When I go out there this weekend I’ll log onto the router and see if the cams are using data while idle. If I discover something I’ll post it up!
fyi… I use Google Wifi at my remote location so I can easily check usage from here per device (camera). I checked over a period of days/weeks for usage. Not necessarily in Real Time (which I can also check). I then check my history in Ring App for Motion Alerts (and other activity). Like doing a Live View will show in history even without an Alert as you know. I then looked at my AT&T usage for the Modem I use for that location to see activity for everything at that location. It is very clear that there is usage from the cameras that make up the bult of the usage. I have 2 outside cameras and 1 inside camer and the outside camers had more usage without a Motion Alert.
When I first purchased the RING system with the indoor minicam and the outdoor stickup cam I went through 23GB in about 4 days. I had motion detection/recording enabled on both. I’ve since disabled motion detection and recording since I do not have unlimited broadband internet. Even with motion detection and recording disabled on the indoor minicam, it still uses about 150MB a day just sitting on my counter. RING has not been able to provide any solutions so the camera now sits on my counter “unplugged”. (they replaced the indoor minicam and the new one behaved just like the original one - eats data like crazy) Oddly enough, the outdoor stickup cam uses less than 10MB per day with motion detection/recording disabled. IMO, this is a huge issue with the RING system/cameras. Bottom line IMO: If you don’t have unlimited internet broadband data, DO NOT BUY A RING SYSTEM. (You will regret it)
That is AWESOME to know. I never considered that different types of cameras would use more or less data. I am only using the “Spotlight” cams, powered with solar panels, and have not used the other available cameras. Sounds like I should avoid it.
Thank you for sharing this!
It doesn’t… You’ll be out of data in a day or two if they are outside cameras. If they are inside and no sun can get in, you will last about a week or so. Outside the movements will constantly trigger to record and it only records to the cloud. Inside, the sun moving, clouds, or sun shining through trees into a window (can) cause it to record. If you reduce the settings to allow that, it will not record every event you are looking for.
I have been experimenting lately with this issue. Background: I am trying to run my Ring system* using a Huawei mobile hotspot with a Google Fi SIM card for data. Date is $10 per Gigabyte. Over 6GB is free, but I’m hoping to stay WAY under that. Here is what I have found:
Ring system only (no camera connected) uses about 0.1GB every 6 to 7 days (like $5 a month). I arm and disarm the system about once a day, so I guess it must communicate with the mothership or something. I’m surprised at that. Since I am self-monitoring I didn’t think it would use any data at all.
Next, I connected ONE camera (the Ring Indoor Camera). I had “Motion Detection” and “Motion Alerts” both set to OFF. The camera icon on my screen has a line through it, there is no live video, it’s not recording anything, and for all intents and purposes the camera appears to be OFF. I monitored this configuration for 7 days and it used an average of 0.12 GB PER DAY doing NOTHING. Why would the camera upload/download any data if it is in effect, turned off? I have nothing else on this mobile hotspot except the Ring system. I monitored it for seven days each way, and I feel pretty confident in my measurement of data usage.
At 0.12 GB per day, that’s going to cost me $36 a month to operate a camera that isn’t even recording or reporting anything! I have three more cameras that I wanted to install, but I’m considering returning them. I really don’t care too much about motion alerts (since I’ve got motion detectors as part of the security system) so I was thinking that one solution might be to plug the cameras in to remotely-controlled outlets (not Ring brand) and only turn them on when I want to see live video.
*My Ring system consists of 8 contact sensors, 4 motion detectors, and a freeze/flood detector.
Kilgore - VERY COOL that you are digging into the detail!
I expect the alarm to use data when it is armed or disarmed as it shoots a status update to my phone - this means it’s sending the info “to the mother ship” for me to receive wherever I am at.
The camera using data when it’s not “on” is a weird one. I would expect that if you have the “red line” indicator it is not recording motion. Killing the camera’s power until you want to watch it makes sense, and I hope that works for you.
I just added another camera, so now 5 solar spotlight cams outside, as well as a ring alarm unit and some sensors in the house. Until installing the 5th camera, I was still well under 6GB/month in usage. We’ll see if that creeps up more. (My wife uses the live view a couple of times a day, so if we bump into the 6GB data limit, I’ll have to cut her off…)
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Mike - I’m going to have to check into the T-Mobile plan. $25 for 6GB beats Google Fi’s $60 for 6GB. 6GB would probably handle my needs and I’m fine with $25 a month. I’ll have to see if their SIM card will work in my WiFi hotspot. I know I have a T-Mobile signal here because that’s the network that Google is currently connecting to on my hotspot! My wife will probably have to remind ME not to look at the live view too much. 
Just tested data use for one camera. 20 minutes of recording used 346 mb. This is based on 52 motion detections ranging in length from 9 seconds to 32 seconds totalling 1204 seconds.
My ring device was connected to my mobile data router that I am testing before putting into use in a property with no internet connection.
I have the camera set up on high frequency detection (or what ever it’s called, but it makes it check for motion the most frequently and therefore uses more data!). I set it up in kitchen and left it on for a two hour period when we were very active in that room to determine how much data was used. I totalled the length of the 52 clips and viewed the exact data use between that time with my provider to come up with this result.
Based on this, and providing I don’t have lots of unwelcome visitors setting off my two exterior cameras for more than 2-3 times per day I estimate my data usage to be under 1Gb per month if I combine Kilgore’s helpful data and mine for estimated running-data-use.
Prior to testing this I selected a 5gb data plan for $25 per month. I will see how it works and hope that I can reduce it to the 1gb $10 per month.
I hope this information is helpful to the community!
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My minimal Ring setup uses around 60MByte / month here in the UK.
I have a ring alarm with just one motion sensor and one door sensor plus a StickUp usb powered camera that is ONLY set to record for 30sec when the main door opens. We have this in our club building and with lockdown someone only enters maybe twice a week just to check the building.
As we have it running on 4G sim in a D-Link DWR-921 modem we were concerned with data usage.
At these minimum settings we have averaged 56_MBytes / day over the past month. With a range of daily usage from 37_MByte to 108_MByte
The only thing that screwed up my planning was on just ONE day alone it used 1190_MBytes. I am putting this down to an automatic software upgrade to the Ring system. Due to this very changeable data demand I went for a monthly sim with rollover of unused DATA. I am in the UK so I chose Sky-Mobile who rollover unused data into your PiggyBank where it stays for upto 36mths. From here you can Roll it back to top up a sim. Hopefully enough will have accumulated by the time the next software update is done and I can roll back rather than top up the sim with a data bundle as I had to do this time.
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When I first set up each device, it used a ton of data for firmware updates. OK, I should have thought of that, but the really nasty problem is that when the connection is poor (bad weather?), it retries alot, burning up data and still producing unusable clips. Most “15 second” clips are just a couple frames and then 15 seconds of blank space. I’m hoping I can get a better connection with an external antenna on my hotspot, or else this whole system is unusable.