Motion detection not fully capturing motion zone

Hi all,

I recently purchased the Ring Doorbell Gen 2 and have installed it as directed by the instructions etc. I have noticed my doorbell only detections motion mid-way through my motion zones, sometimes not even alerting me until the person is right up at the doorbell about to press the button. However, it did (up until installing the wedge) detect people outside the property and trigger when large vehicles passed.

I have since changed the position of the doorbell (lowered it and put it on the alternative side of my door). I have also purchased and installed a 5 degree wedge kit to try and improve motion detection.

I have tried the following but still the problem persists:
Turning people only mode on and off for several days
Turning the motion sensitivity up
Re-positioned my motion zones
Installed a 5degree wedge
Turned off motion zone
Turning the motion detection settings to frequent
Changed the distance when setting the doorbell up

Can anybody please advise me on what I can do to get my motion detection to work as soon as somebody enters my property? It seems a bit pointless to have the feature if it simply doesn’t work until somebody stands directly in front of it.

Frenchiebullz -

It sounds like you have a battery-operated Ring doorbell.

I am currently having serious motion sensing problems with a “wired” Ring doorbell (i.e., a Ring Doorbell Pro 2).

It has been a very frustrating, time-consuming, expensive proposition to try to get this new doorbell to work properly. Unfortunately, like you, I have not been successful.

There is definitely a dramatic difference between the motion sensing capabilities in older Ring products versus the Ring Doorbell Pro 2. It’s ridiculous that a newer model would perform so poorly.

Obviously, motion sensing problems of this type pose a serious safety/security threat.

Have you tried insisting that you be transferred to a higher level of Technical Support in the United States? (If you have not done so, be prepared for an incredibly frustrating, ridiculously time-wasting experience. It seems like both “off shore” and U.S.-based Technical Support reps have been instructed to avoid escalating calls for any reason.)

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I do indeed have a battery doorbell.

The thing is, I have only had the doorbell 30 days and have not had the function working correctly at all since purchasing it. It’s now cost an additional £20 for the wedge kit as I was convinced it was a positioning problem with living on such a busy road.

I’m mostly concerned because I purchased the doorbell to “watch over” my car which, as you can see, is parked on my driveway outside my house.

I have not contacted technical support as of yet with the doorbell being newly purchased, I was simply ruling it down to being “teething problems” and an installation issue.

After what you have said I’m now seriously considering returning the doorbell and requesting a full refund before It’s too late. I’m so disappointed as I really thought purchasing from a well known brand like Ring would mean minimal issues.

If Ring is currently having (similar) serious problems with multiple products… it would seem to be a very bad sign.

Although returning the doorbell may, indeed, be the obvious solution… you may want to try to (quickly) find out if you need to somehow “wipe out” any information that may be stored in the doorbell itself (if any). If you do find out the answer, I hope you post it here. (There may be many owners of new Ring products that would like to return them at this point, for obvious reason.)

It seems it is a more widespread problem which is:
A) reassuring because it tells me it is not simply a “me” problem.
B) Concerning because it seems the product is not working as advertised on TV as that “peace of mind” which is the biggest selling point of the product.

However, I have just been browsing the following thread: Feature Update: Customizable Motion Zones for Battery Devices - #28 by Tom_Ring - which mentions cutting larger motion zones up into smaller ones for better detection. Despite this, they do have a large amount of people complaining about having similar issues. You would really think since installing a new software update that Ring could simply send out a patch to rectify this problem.

I’ll give the chopping of motion zones a try. Failing that I am done with it and returning it to AO.com.

hi this is a 100% the issues im having with a new ring 2020 release so i can say its not a you thing but i’m coming up the the end of the 30day free and not sure if to carry on with it and just use it as a doorbell if i cant get it to work whats the point and i also cant send it back because i’ll be left with 5 hole’s in my door lol so i hope its a software thing and not a hardware issues and they can push a patch or something

I’m in the same boat, clearly. My 30 day trial ends today and I’m too debating on sending it back or subscribing and hoping it’s a software thing.

Sadly, I have 5 holes on the right hand side of my door where I first installed it before moving it to the left hand side to see if it helped, only to install a wedge kit today which only needs 2 drill holes… could have saved myself 10 holes just by installing it with the wedge in the first place.

I really do hope, like you, that it’s a software issue that gets patched, purely because of the hole issue and the fact I bought the doorbell for my elderly parents to feel more secure in their own home. So much for me and my good ideas!

Hi neighbors! Since everyone’s home and environment are different, it may take some trial and error to find the placement and settings that help your Doorbell work best for you. I’d recommend checking out some tips on optimizing the motion detection for your Doorbell in our Community Post on the topic here. If the tips in there don’t help you find a solution, you can reach out to our support team 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.

Unfortunately, I now realize that the motion sensing issues are apparently occurring in both wired and battery-operated Ring products.

For people like me… the motion sensing problems constitute a serious safety/security threat – which is why I have spent so much time (and money) trying to get the problems resolved.

Same situation here: The Ring 2 Doorbell, wired, 5 months old

I found that things worked only for a few weeks, then deteriorated into a barely functions state. I have two problems with mine:

  1. The app: motion notifications coming through even though I have a sleep plan setup (6am-9am weekdays). I still get notified on my mobile and the specified Alexa devices (Echo screen, Dot and the big one)
  2. Physical: At the moment, the motion sensor has three zones slightly overlapping each other wih sensitivity set to max, but the sensor is all but useless at this point. I’d be lucky to see the person out of the garden and half-way up the street before I get a notification (zones set to cover front yard with the gate about 10 feet away and the doorbell pointing directly at it). The sensor seems to work when I stand for 4/5 seconds only a few feet away, on the left side of the doorbell. Looks to me that it is a physical issue and that the sensors are just of poor quality.

The features all worked perfectly for about a month then just flopped, which is why I think that it is a build problem aka they cheaped-out on internal parts.

All troubleshooting done - played with motion settings (pretty much all app settings): reset/re-paired device, re-mounted doorbell at alt angles, uninstalled app, gave doorbell static IP in router, tried on pretty much all wireless frequencies etc. etc., was on with Ring tech for over an hour going through the exact steps I had been through 100 times already and the performance is the same - poor.

Is there any update on this? Are they just poor devices?