I recently purchased 2 battery security camera. 1 for the garage and 1 to overlook the font door. The garage one is working as we expect it to but the one over the front door is going off all the time for seemingly no reason. I have it set for people only mode but it won’t always even pick up people. An example would be I went out today to get the mail and it picked me up coming back into the house but a few hours later a delivery person dropped off a package and nothing. It did not even register there was movement. I get notifications that there is movement when there is nothing there. There is a tree close by and I have a flag that is in its view but I would expect with people only mode turned on it should only pick up people and not flags or trees.
The motion settings for the front are motion verification is on. Motion Frequency is standard, and the sensitivity is about 3/4 of the way to max. I am really not sure what to do or what setting I need to turn on to get that camera to pick up all people movement. Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.
Hi @cthrelkeld. I’d be happy to take a look and see what recommendations I can make to help optimize the motion detection on your Camera. Can you let me know what model of Camera you have and provide a few screenshots of your Motion Zones? This will give me a better idea of what the Camera is seeing.
Occasionally when in People Only Mode, light reflection, as from an outside window or something like a flag pole, can activate motion detection. Since you are receiving a larger number of motion notifications with People Only Mode on, I’d recommend disabling this setting and seeing how it works for you.
I have the Ring Spotlight Cam Battery HD. Attached is a screenshot of the motion zones. I did turn off people only mode and a few less notifications but there were still quite a few.
@cthrelkeld Thank you for sharing that screenshot with me. Based on the view the Camera is getting, it looks like the solution to your concern will be to readjust the positioning. For optimal motion detection, it is recommended for the Camera to be about 9 feet high, and the motion sensor at the bottom of the Camera should be parallel to the ground. I’d suggest reviewing this Help Center Article here, which will go over some tips on how to position your Spotlight Cam.
To the bottom of the motion sensor it is about 8 1/2 feet off the ground which is as high as I can get . I tried making it parallel with the ground and then it was not really picking up much at all. It is currently installed on the wall and angled to view the door. Do you think it might work best if I change the position of the camera and hange it from the ceiling of the porch? Would that give me more flexibility with positioning it correctly?
Do you also think the flag/tree is causing the unneccessary motion alerts, or do you think it is something else?
@cthrelkeld Thank you for those details. You can definitely try playing around with where it is mounted to see if you’re able to get a better angle for the Camera. With how its view is now, there are a fair amount of objects and potentially reflective surfaces that could be triggering the motion detection when someone is not actually there. Mounting the Camera in a different spot may allow you to get the motion sensor parallel to the ground while giving it a better overall view.
If this concern persists after adjusting the positioning, please reach out to our support team at one of the numbers availablehere. They’ll be able to look into this more closely and provide additional troubleshooting steps. 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-19here to see how to contact support.
Thanks. We are going to try it in a different position to see if that helps. One other question. Do the motion sensors learn over time what is normal movement? Meaning if there is something like a tree or bugs at night will it remember that and not notify me as much from it over time.
@cthrelkeld The motion sensors do not learn and adjust their behavior based on the environment. Typically bugs can trigger the motion sensors because they will be attracted to the light from your Ring and get very close to the device, which will register the movement. If the new position you try with the Camera doesn’t work, definitely reach out to support and let us know what they recommend! 