Ring 2 solar charger not charging

Same issue. Just recently received my solar panel and I do not believe it is working.

Hi,

My solar charger seems to be working fine now. We have had a number of sunny days here, and when the level was down to 40% and the sun then came out it charged right up into the 80% range. I haven’t taken it off to recharge since January.
I would keep it going, even if you have to charge it a couple times. Once it gets going it seems to work.

Hi guys, I think this is the right thread and didn’t want to start another. I see that there is a “new” solar charger for the new Ring Video Doorbell 2nd generation. Is that the one we are talking about here that is not available until July? Maybe you all got your hands on it.

I have the original doorbell that was 720p and $99. I got suckered into buying the old solar charger and it literally does nothing. I have plenty of direct sunlight. Company just gave me the stock “needs direct sunlight” answers to my complaints.

I am definitely open to getting the new gen 2 $99 1080p doorbell only if the “new” solar panel acutally does something other than provide a nice looking back plate.

If this is the wrong thread, I will start one. Please share your thoughts.

Thanks.

LarryJoe33,
Yes, mine is the “Ring 2” doorbell and solar charger.

I’ve had a similar experience. Just absolutely awful. My poor installer keeps coming out, time after time, to try and fix this. We are up to three complete installs of the Ring doorbell, two of them the Ring 2 and the final one the Ring 3. None of the solar chargers have worked, the original and two replacements. Latest info from someone at Ring is that the Ring 3 will NOT work on the original solar charger, and that there is a new Solar Charger just released this week. It all sounds like a crock of BS to me. I shouldn’t have bought a product that has zero quality control and which is, apparently, experiencing a massive across-the-globe quality issue.

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I agree! DO NOT BUY THE SOLAR CHARGER! And a side note I would be hesitant to do business with any company that you can not call for any reason. As I am trying to solve this problem I am sent to this page where you can read everyone’s journey with trying to solve a problem rather that talking to a person from the company that can perhaps help. This all would have been helpful information before ordering this product.

Wait until you try to return it and they charge you $5.00 to do so. That’s the real kick in the stones.

Same problem here. Our solar charger for the Ring Doorbell 2 worked for a while after we installed it. It’s not an installation or direct sunlight issue. We live in Hawaii and it gets plenty of direct sunlight. Now the battery is draining. The app sometimes says Solar Status is Connected and other times it says to install a solar charger. Firmware says Up to Date.

is your solar light getting enough sunlight and did you charge your battery first before installing it?

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I have this same problem, and I keep getting notifications to get solar whenever it’s time to charge the battery. So frustrating!
Also, the new setting where you can have it capture every so many minutes requires solar or a wired connection to capture every 5 minutes, but it’s greyed out for me. Granted that doorbell is on 9%, but it does have solar! Maybe it isn’t registering because as I type this it’s the middle of the night. Not sure… Anyone ever figure this out?

I wish I had seen this before I bought the “Solar Charger for Ring Video Doorbell 2” from Amazon. Here on Long Island I have a southwest exposure on my front door and I get consistent sunshine in the early afternoon through dusk. I have had this hooked up for three weeks now and my battery has dropped every day at the same rate as before.

I’m also getting the “Solar Status - Add a Ring solar charger to Extend Battery Life” message in the app (posted in a snip here).

What’s the deal with this? Does it actually work for anyone?

I’m sorry to inform you that this is a scam from Ring, this is my second solar charger and is not working either, Ring told me that my set up was perfect, sun OK, connection OK, they thought that maybe it was the solar charger that has an issue but it seems none of their solar charger work!!! Like you if I would know better I even bother in buying this piece of crap!!!

Hey neighbors! Thank you for working with each other in this thread to resolve your concern with your device not registering the solar panel for your Doorbell as connected in the app. We did have this bug in the app before where it would ask you to add a solar panel to extend your battery life, which has seen been resolved. At this time, if your app is not showing the solar panel as connected under your Doorbell’s Device Health page, you will want to ensure the device is connected properly. I recommend detaching the solar panel from your Ring Video Doorbell and then attaching it back, while also ensuring that there is no dust and debris on the solar panel and at the connection.

After checking the connection, if you find that it is still not showing as connected in the Device Health section, please try resetting your Ring Video Doorbell by pressing and holding the setup button for 20 seconds. After this reset, re-establish the connection your device has in your Ring app by tapping on Reconnect or Change Wifi Network under Device Health. This will take you through another setup of the device in the Ring app. Once completed, check the Device Health again to see if the solar panel is showing as connected. If the device is showing as connected, please ensure you are getting 4 or more hours of direct sunlight to the solar panel during the day.

In the event you may not see the solar panel connected still, please 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. 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.

UPDATE: I’ve spoken to Ring support via phone (less than a five minute wait time - Thanks!) and their suggestion is to return the solar charger that I have.

I see that a “new” version of the solar charger is coming out in July, so I’ll very likely wait for that unit to hit the market. It’s a shame that the current model is so very bad.


Original reply below


Chelsea, thanks for the suggestion. I’ve done the suggestion twice. Below are the steps I’ve taken. It has NOT resolved the issue. At this point, I’m simply ready to return the solar charger (to Amazon) since I’m still within the 30 days of purchase…and NO consumer should have to work this hard to get something to function as it is supposed to.

The last health check shows today at 2:19 PM EDT. Firmware shows “Up to Date”. Device Health report says “Your Doorbell 2 is online. Congratulations, your Doorbell 2 has a clean bill of health! Your Doorbell 2’s Wi-Fi signal strength is Good and its power level is Good”

I’ve tried the reconnect solution twice now. Each time I:

  • Disconnected the solar panel from the terminals
  • Checked to see if it the terminal was clean
  • Cleaned the dust from the solar panels
  • Reconnected the terminals.
  • Held the reset button for 20 seconds
  • Reconnected the Wifi connection
  • Waited for 5 minutes for “the door software to update”
  • Checked the device status in the app
  • Found the Solar Status still says “Add a Ring solar charger to Extend Battery Life”
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Shouldn’t the app > Devices > doorbell, top right corner battery icon show as charging using the green lightening image?

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Same as everyone else. Purchased the solar, installed , reinstalled cleaned etc…nothing! I just have an extra battery fully charged waiting and a useless attachment on my ring doorbell. Glad to see a community manager finally comment, but as others noted, ring support recommendations do NOT resolve this issue.

Mine too originally worked but recently stopped charging battery. Having to recharge battery often. Just under a year old. Not sure if I can get any help at this point but is pretty frustrating. Certainly thought it would last longer than this. Has anyone gotten help with this issue?

I wish I had gone through these reviwes before throwing $50 in drain for doorbell solar charger. Solar charger for Ring door bell does NOT work. I have gone through all recommendations mentioned in these reviewes. Ring app shows solar charger is ‘connected’. I have east facing entrace where we have minimum 5 Hrs direct sun where doorbell is installed, that too its summer. Installed a week ago and first charged to 100% using plug. Even though its connected then also battery is going down everyday though i thought it will remain constant say 95-96% or will charge to go up. I will test this out for a week to finally return it. A company like Ring should not do like this with huge customer base; this model can sustain for few days but not long term.

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% as recommended by Ring, plenty of direct sunlight but the battery charge continued to decrease. It never stabilized much less increased battery strength. I then decided to Google issues on Ringg Video Doorbell2 and found page after page of disgruntled customers. This is frankly very disappointing and borders on fraud to continue selling a product that is known to be such a failure. I sent mine back and received $44.00 refund. Ring should have paid for the shipping.

I’ve tried all of the steps recommended by Ring support, including cleaning and checking the connections, resetting the device and running set up again, updated the firmware…and still nothing. The app still doesn’t show that I have a solar panel connected. I really wish that I’d read the reviews before purchasing.