Hooked up a Ring solar panel one week ago and confirmed it is charging my spotlight cam, keeping both batteries near 100%. Installed panel on my roof where it gets 6-8 hours CA sunshine every day. Annoyed as many others with reference in Device Health to the non-functioning “Solar Panel Status” – confused me until reading all the other comments in this subject thread. You would think Ring would be on top of, up front, and clear about these kinds of questions/issues – disappointing. Fortunately learned about Rapid Ring app from this discussion, my other Ring complaint being slow iOS response time to my Ring door bell alterts and rings – will see how it works.
There is now yet another ‘feature’ in the app that doesn’t recognize my solar panel despite the panel working perfectly fine. Under Device Settings > Snapshot Capture there is a grayed out option for “Every 5 Minutes” with a description “Substantial battery impact. Requires solar powered or wired device.”
Well… My device IS solar powered so why can’t I enable this feature?
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I have a Video Doorbell 2 with the Solar panels. My IOS app is version 5.25.0. The Solar panels are working but my app still reports: Solar Charger Status Add a Ring solar device to Extend Battery Life.
I have opened the Video Doorbell 2, verified the connections are good. Then unplugged and re-connected it. The Solar panels are still working but the app still reports the same.
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Hi neighbors! I’ve accepted our previous answer as a solution for quick and easy reference for information and any troubleshooting steps that can be taken. Regarding the solar panel status in your Ring app, rest assure this is not an indicator of your solar panel not working. Check out the accepted solution in this thread for this information and steps to optimize solar panel charging.
Marley,
Does Ring have any comment with regards to the obviously broken ‘Add a Solar Panel’ feature in the app? Devices with no solar panel or no hardwire report good solar panel stays, where as hardwired devices or devices with working solar panels suggest that the user can add a solar panel.
This has been broken for MONTHS with no comment on potential resolution.
Hi neighbors – it would be great to see photos of current set up of your Solar Panels. Of all the testing we have conducted, all Solar Panels are working as expected. In order to assist further, please let us know your current set up – wide photo showing the exact positioning of your device compared to the sun – and we can continue to educate and work together to ensure your device is working properly. Thank you
There are two issues at ply here.
- Ring pushed out a software update that deactivates battery charging below a certain temperature. Many people though charging ‘broke’, but it was an intended design change. Once that was made clear, this ‘problem’ has been resolved. Now that temperatures are warmer, people aren’t having problems with solar panels charging.
- The current problem is with the fuel ‘Solar Panel Status’ on the Device Health Page. My Spotlight Cam has a fully functional solar panel. I know this because the batteries recharge to 100% every day. The Solar Panel Status field however says ‘Add a Ring Solar Panel…’. My Ringdoorbell, which is hardwired but has a battery (no solar panel though) says Solar Charger Status Connected.
Obviously this is wrong and a bug in the app. This bug has existed for months. It doesn’t have to do with where the solar panels are placed.
@iowegian just to clarify, our batteries used in our products are lithium-ion batteries, which are effected by cold weather. This has nothing to do with a software or firmware push. I will also push back that the positioning of your Solar Panel is extremely important when providing a charge for your device. However, I will agree with you that the messaging in the Ring App, “Solar Panel Status” is not up to my personal standards and I have opened a case with the appropriate teams. I look forward to delivering results as they come in. Thanks.
If you go to the very beginning of this thread, this exact issue has been raised to the developers since December.
Also, I understand that lithium ion batteries performance degrades in cold temperatures. However: https://support.ring.com/hc/en-us/articles/115005939463-Cold-Weather-and-Battery-Powered-Ring-Devices
At the very end of that page it says, “ If the battery is too hot or too cold, on-board software will keep it from charging in order to avoid damaging the battery. Bring the battery inside and allow it to change to room temperature before trying to recharge the battery.”
Completely anecdotal, but in the winter of 2018, I never had to take camera down to charge inside. The solar panel kept it charged year round. When the latest software was pushed last fall, suddenly I had to bring the battery in weekly to recharge it. The climate didn’t change that much between 2018 and 2019.
If it is intended functionality to protect wear on the battery, I’m completely fine with that. But if there was a change, Ring did not communicate it whatsoever. The cold weather article was published Jan 10, 2018 so it’s possible that this has always been the functionality.
I’m having the exact same issue. Solar panel is working fine, keeping the camera charged to 100%, but it still tells me to add a solar panel, and doesn’t give me the option to select snapshot capture every 5 minutes because that requires a solar panel.
this works now !!!
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Not for me 
Just updated my app. My cameras that are connected to solar are still telling me to connect it to solar power to extend battery life. My solar panels do work just fine and have since December when we installed them. My doorbell (which is hardwired with no solar panel), states its solar panel is fine. Seems like the coding in the app is still backwards (I have an iPhone)
Well about 10 minutes after I posted this went back into my ring app and now it shows solar panels connected. So all I can suggest is upgrade the app and give it 12-24 hours to correct itself lol.
@CarlsonFamily wrote:
Well about 10 minutes after I posted this went back into my ring app and now it shows solar panels connected. So all I can suggest is upgrade the app and give it 12-24 hours to correct itself lol.
I just updated my app. For my Doorbell 2 under Device Help –> Solar Status it just tells me to Extend Battery Life with a Ring Solar Charger. But my Doorbell 2 is actually now connected. When I called Ring some months ago, the agent told me that he could see where my Doorbell 2 was getting a trickle charge. But that there was no way to push that information to end users via the app or webpage.
It was also clear that the charger for the Doorbell 2 could not provide enough energy to totally obviate the need for charging the battery. That seems to be clear even as the days get longer and warmer, and the sunlight impinging more and more on the charger.
The agent suggested I move the charger and Doorbell 2, which was really annoying. My door is where it is, and the connecting cables are only so far. I’m not sure why I would have a doorbell not at my door.
The bottom line with respect to the Doorbell 2 charger is that the solar panel is too small to provide a meaningful amount of energy to the battery. The Ring app provides no way of letting the user know what is happening with the charger. Maybe unless the sun beat down directly on the charger for many hours in the day, and the use settings are battery-sparing, the charger does not relieve you of your recharging needs.
So money is better spent on additional batteries, or rigging a charging situation using house power.
So I have 4 battery Spotlight cams. One is now showing “Solar Status - Connected” and the three others are showing “Solar Status - Extend Battery Life with a Ring Solar Panel”.
So we know two things.
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Chelsea_Ring was making stuff up when she initially replied to this thread, as expected, and…
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Ring’s code is incomplete and unreliable, and it took 6 months for them to actually fix and implement this feature.
Good stuff, Ring!
I just noticed today thas Solar panel got detected for cams and for doorbell. (For the latter I wasn’t even sure if it’s working, didn’t charge due to my door facing north. Just recently it started with slight charge +1% day.)
I checked that the app updated to 5.26.1.
On my ipad it still has shown “Add solar panel…”, updating app there helped for the issue.
I am on 5.27.1 and this issue persists. I have a Stick-Up Cam (2nd Generation) and the solar panel charges the battery but doesn’t show one as connected. Further, under the Snapshot settings the 5 minute option is grayed out because it requires a solar panel and one is not being detected by the app.
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This is literally why I’m here. Solar charges it just fine but it’s not recognized in the app.
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Why does my app tell me to connect a solar panel when I already have one? Also, my ring pro chime doesn’t work wither
The app now shows that the solar charger is connected to my Doorbell 2. But in dealing with this problem I learned that the the charging data is available to Ring, but not to end users. I would like to know how much charge is being supplied to the device.
The advertisement for the solar charger suggests that if you buy a charger, your battery changing days are over. That turns out to not be the case.