More options for snapshot capture interval on wired and battery devices

The snapshot capture is great, especially when reviewing things outside of your recording zone. However, every 30s isn’t really enough and often misses an event. Please add the option to record once every 5 seconds or even every 1second.
Thanks!

2 Likes

Well . . . I had the “30-seconds” option available before for Snapshots, but now it’s gone, and the shortest I have is the “5 minute” option. Apparently they are going in the opposite direction away from your “5-second” or “1 second” suggestion.

I have 3 Stick-up Cam plug-in (all Gen 2), and all mounted outside, and all set at “Frequent” on their Motion Frequency. All 3 of them had the “Snapshot Capture” activated, all with 4 available choices for “Snapshot Frequency” of;

– Every 30-seconds.

– Every 1 hour.

– Every 14 minutes

– Every 5 minutes.

All 3 Cams were operating fine on “Every 30 seconds” option and were providing a Snap every 30 seconds.

Then one Stick-up Cam kept having issues going “Live View” … not connecting … better described as “never connecting”. I tried several recommended trouble-shooting solutions that did not help. I eventually tried “Factory Reseting” this cam (holding the orange button for 20+ seconds) and removed the cam off my android phone app, and then went through the entire set-up procedures again. It’s been only a few days now, and the reset Cam can do “Live View” again … BUT … when it seems that this Cam updated it’s firmware (during the set up process), it now only has 3 available choices for “Snapshot Frequency” of;

– Every 1 hour.

– Every 14 minutes

– Every 5 minutes.

I lost the “30-second” option! For my purposes, a single ‘snap’ every hour, or 14 mintues, or even every 5 minutes is pretty much useless … cool to playback and watch … but not useful for security purposes. Why even have the “1 hour” option at all on a Security Camera? The “30 seconds” option was the closest thing to continuous recording and I found it extremely valuable to catch stuff that occurred between motion-activation events, or activities that were occurring beyond the motion-activation range.

To double-check, I used my phone app to view the other two Stick-up Cams, and they both still had the “30-seconds” interval option for Snapshot … BUT then on one of these cams, I toggled from the “30-seconds” to “5 minutes” option and it switched fine, but now the “30-seconds” option disappearred and hasn’t returned! The last of the 3 Stick-up Cams is still on “30-seconds” and I don’t dare change that selection! So, I have 2 Cams taking Snaps at 5 long minute intervals, with 1 cam still at every 30-seconds. What happened?

1 Like

As a follow-on to my comment above … I now know what happened.

I’m excited! My “30 Seconds" interval Snapshot option is back!

I don’t know what actually caused the original loss of the “30 Second” option. It could have been something to do with a Firmware update, or a glitch during a download, or the alignment of the stars with Jupiter and Mars.

But now all three of my outdoor Stick-up Plug-In cameras (Gen 2) have new Snapshot interval choices of:

  • Every 3 Minutes.

  • Every 1 Minute.

  • Every 30 Seconds.

When I did my original installation of my Stick-up cams, the instructions had me choose between Plug-in power or Battery power. Mine are all Plug-in powered. In each Stick-up cam there is an internal compartment for a click-in battery. Mine are empty. After setting up as a “Plug-In” device, all three cams had the following 4 choices available for Snapshot intervals:

  • Every 30-Seconds.

  • Every 1 Hour.

  • Every 14 Minutes

  • Every 5 Minutes.

After a few weeks, one Stick-up cam needed a full, hard, “Factory Reset” to correct a problem. That’s when the first camera lost the “Every 30 second” option, and I was left with only the 3 options of “1 Hour”, “14 Minutes”, and the “5 Minutes”. Shortly afterwards, another Stick-up cam also lost the “30 Second” option, and it was never “Hard Reset” nor had a ‘soft’ reset procedure.

With all three of my cams, both before and after the interval loss, the “Device Health” indicated everything was fine. The “Power Source” displayed “Power Outlet” (not “Battery”). All other “Device Health” indications were good too. I kept searching for a solution to get “30 Seconds” back, to no avail.

Today, I checked “Device Setting”, and then found and selected “General Settings.” To my surprise it displayed “Power Mode - Battery.” Huh? I’m not sure, but it used to show “Plug-in” or something like that. Now it was different and had switched to a Battery Mode. Took me awhile to realize I could click on “Power Mode” to arrive at another sub-set menu … showing “Battery Mode” and “Wired Mode” with a blue bar icon at the bottom of the screen to transfer back & forth between the two power modes!

But it now makes sense, why I lost the “30 Seconds” and eventually ended up with only the 3 interval selections. Stick-up camera’s power source can be either Battery or Plug-In. Lots of repetitive Snapshots can put a high drain on the battery if interval choice is very short. My cam mistakenly believed it was Battery powered (even though there is not even a battery in the compartment).

Selecting the “Switch to Wire Mode” blue bar, another setup process attempted to start. Apparently, the camera’s Blue light was supposed to start blinking … never did … and the process had to be initiated by pressing the cam’s Orange reset button. This was not a hard reset, but rather a momentary push on the Orange button for a soft reset. It turns out that all 3 of my Stick-up cams needed the Orange reset button pressed to initiate the setup.

Now with a completed soft reset, all three of my outdoor Stick-up Plug-In cameras show “Power Mode – Wired.” They all have 3 new, significantly shorter Snapshot interval options of:

  • Every 3 Minutes.

  • Every 1 Minute.

  • Every 30 Seconds.

I discovered that some of my previous selections had remained unchanged during this soft reset. But some did change back to factory default settings, such as Alert-sounds. Also, some previous features were gone, and several new features were added. A totally new “Motion Zones” format (just like those found on Ring Indoor Cameras) allows you to move 8 blue dots to create a tailored, geometric-shaped zone.

I apologize for thinking Ring intentionally stole away my favorite “30 Second” interval. And whoever was involved in the latest firmware that permits “Wired-Powered” Stick-up (Gen 2) cameras to have short intervals . . . Thank You!

Two things I still find bizarre. How did my Stick-Up Plug-In originally have 4 interval choices? And how did the camera change the power mode to battery? Bottomline, I can again select “30 Seconds” and I’m happy!

What would make me ecstatic? Provide new firmware for my hardwired powered, Ring Video Door 2 with a Snapshot interval shorter than its current minimum of “5 Minutes.” Yes? Maybe? Soon? ?

1 Like

Please support / update the ring doorbell (especially Doorbell 2) product in the app to allow snapshot captures every 1 minute (especially if you are hardwired) or have good solar similar to the settings available in Ring Stick Up Cam Elite/Wired.

There is no reason it can’t support this if it is hardwired in terms of power. Every 5 minutes is too long.

1 Like

I agree that there should be a Snapshot interval selection shorter than “5 minutes” on my Video doorbell, which is also has hardwired electrical power. But as a point of interest . well . . . I had the Snapshot “30-seconds” option on my hardwired Plug-In Stick-Up cam, but now it’s gone. The shortest interval for my Stick-up cam is now the “5 minute” option. Apparently Ring is going in the opposite direction away from your suggestion.

In addition to my Video Doorbell, several Indoor Cams, I also have 3 Stick-up Cam Plug-in (all Generation 2), and all mounted outside, and all set at “Frequent” on their Motion Frequency. All 3 of the Stick-up cams had the “Snapshot Capture” activated, all with 4 available choices for “Snapshot Frequency” of;

– Every 30-seconds.

– Every 1 hour.

– Every 14 minutes

– Every 5 minutes.

All 3 Cams were operating fine on “Every 30 seconds” option and were providing a Snap every 30 seconds.

Then one Stick-up Cam kept having issues going “Live View” … not connecting … better described as “never connecting”. I tried several recommended trouble-shooting solutions that did not help. I eventually tried “Factory Reseting” this cam (holding the orange button for 20+ seconds) and removed the cam off my android phone app, and then went through the entire set-up procedures again. It’s been only a few days now, and the reset Cam can do “Live View” again … BUT … when it seems that this Cam updated it’s firmware (during the set up process), it now only has 3 available choices for “Snapshot Frequency” of;

– Every 1 hour.

– Every 14 minutes

– Every 5 minutes.

I lost the “30-second” option on my Stick-Up cam! For my purposes, a single ‘snap’ every hour, or 14 mintues, or even every 5 minutes is pretty much useless … cool to playback and watch … but not useful for security purposes. Why even have the “1 hour” option at all on a Security Camera? The “30 seconds” option was the closest thing to continuous recording and I found it extremely valuable to catch stuff that occurred between motion-activation events, or activities that were occurring beyond the motion-activation range.

To double-check, I used my phone app to view the other two Stick-up Cams, and they both still had the “30-seconds” interval option for Snapshot … BUT then on one of these cams, I toggled from the “30-seconds” to “5 minutes” option and it switched fine, but now the “30-seconds” option disappearred and hasn’t returned! The last of the 3 Stick-up Cams is still on “30-seconds” and I don’t dare change that selection! So, I have 2 Cams taking Snaps at 5 long minute intervals, with 1 cam still at every 30-seconds. What happened?

To make Security matters even worse, before my Stick-Up cams were all recording motion-activations for 30 seconds, but now I’ve recently noticed that they all record for a maximum of 20 seconds! Has anyone else noticed this or is this just happening to my Stick-Up cams? Even with “People Only Mode” motion detection toggled ON or OFF, the maximum motion-activated recording is now only 20 seconds. What’s going on?

Whatver Ring’s logic is to make the interval longer instead of shorter, and reducing video recording time from 30s to 20s, my gut feeling is that we won’t see Video Doorbells with intervals less than the current 5 minutes.

This post is to address my previous … when I had lost my “30 Seconds” Snapshot interval.

I’m excited! My “30 Seconds" interval Snapshot option is back!

Finally solved!

I don’t know what actually caused the original loss of the “30 Second” option. It could have been something to do with a Firmware update, or a glitch during a download, or the alignment of the stars with Jupiter and Mars.

But now all three of my outdoor Stick-up Plug-In cameras (Gen 2) have new Snapshot interval choices of:

  • Every 3 Minutes.

  • Every 1 Minute.

  • Every 30 Seconds.

When I did my original installation of my Stick-up cams, the instructions had me choose between Plug-in power or Battery power. Mine are all Plug-in powered. In each Stick-up cam there is an internal compartment for a click-in battery. Mine are empty. After setting up as a “Plug-In” device, all three cams had the following 4 choices available for Snapshot intervals:

  • Every 30-Seconds.

  • Every 1 Hour.

  • Every 14 Minutes

  • Every 5 Minutes.

After a few weeks, one Stick-up cam needed a full, hard, “Factory Reset” to correct a problem. That’s when the first camera lost the “Every 30 second” option, and I was left with only the 3 options of “1 Hour”, “14 Minutes”, and the “5 Minutes”. Shortly afterwards, another Stick-up cam also lost the “30 Second” option, and it was never “Hard Reset” nor had a ‘soft’ reset procedure.

With all three of my cams, both before and after the interval loss, the “Device Health” indicated everything was fine. The “Power Source” displayed “Power Outlet” (not “Battery”). All other “Device Health” indications were good too. I kept searching for a solution to get “30 Seconds” back, to no avail.

Today, I checked “Device Setting”, and then found and selected “General Settings.” To my surprise it displayed “Power Mode - Battery.” Huh? I’m not sure, but it used to show “Plug-in” or something like that. Now it was different and had switched to a Battery Mode. Took me awhile to realize I could click on “Power Mode” to arrive at another sub-set menu … showing “Battery Mode” and “Wired Mode” with a blue bar icon at the bottom of the screen to transfer back & forth between the two power modes!

But it now makes sense, why I lost the “30 Seconds” and eventually ended up with only the 3 interval selections. Stick-up camera’s power source can be either Battery or Plug-In. Lots of repetitive Snapshots can put a high drain on the battery if interval choice is very short. My cam mistakenly believed it was Battery powered (even though there is not even a battery in the compartment).

Selecting the “Switch to Wire Mode” blue bar, another setup process attempted to start. Apparently, the camera’s Blue light was supposed to start blinking … never did … and the process had to be initiated by pressing the cam’s Orange reset button. This was not a hard reset, but rather a momentary push on the Orange button for a soft reset. It turns out that all 3 of my Stick-up cams needed the Orange reset button pressed to initiate the setup.

Now with a completed soft reset, all three of my outdoor Stick-up Plug-In cameras show “Power Mode – Wired.” They all have 3 new, significantly shorter Snapshot interval options of:

  • Every 3 Minutes.

  • Every 1 Minute.

  • Every 30 Seconds.

I discovered that some of my previous selections had remained unchanged during this soft reset. But some did change back to factory default settings, such as Alert-sounds. Also, some previous features were gone, and several new features were added. A totally new “Motion Zones” format (just like those found on Ring Indoor Cameras) allows you to move 8 blue dots to create a tailored, geometric-shaped zone.

I apologize for thinking Ring intentionally stole away my favorite “30 Second” interval. And whoever was involved in the latest firmware that permits “Wired-Powered” Stick-up (Gen 2) cameras to have short intervals . . . Thank You!

Two things I still find bizarre. How did my Stick-Up Plug-In originally have 4 interval choices? And how did the camera change the power mode to battery? Bottomline, I can again select “30 Seconds” and I’m happy!

What would make me ecstatic? Provide new firmware for my hardwired powered, Ring Video Door 2 with a Snapshot interval shorter than its current minimum of “5 Minutes.” Yes? Maybe? Soon? ?

I agree and would like to see options for Snapshot Capture more frequently, e.g. 30 seconds or 1 minute intervals.

1 Like

My thought is ‘cloud space’.

@JDFromOz wrote:

Please support / update the ring doorbell (especially Doorbell 2) product in the app to allow snapshot captures every 1 minute (especially if you are hardwired) or have good solar similar to the settings available in Ring Stick Up Cam Elite/Wired.

There is no reason it can’t support this if it is hardwired in terms of power. Every 5 minutes is too long.

More pictures take up more cloud space…which costs more money.

1 Like

The time options > One hour, 14 minutes and 5 minutes, I have to ask the question why 14 minutes seems very odd, would prefer 30 minutes to be added to this time option or make it completely variable by the user…

Good evening, while i am happy with my ring devices can you please explain why i now have 15 min snap shots on my battery doorbell and not the 5 mins i used to have in order to conserve the battery and the only way i can have 5 mins is by mains powering or solar powering my door bell which is an added expense to myself when the products are already on the pricey side…If it means i need to charge my doorbell more often to have the setting I want and not somebody else then so be it…Id really like,and im sure others will also like to have the 5 mins back and to be able to control my device how I want to or i might have to move to a different range of devices…many thanks Paul

1 Like

Many people have solid solar recharging, so the camera batteries never dip below 98%. More-frequent snapshot options might drain the battery or might not. Users can figure that out.

For that matter, offer most wired features in battery mode/solar.

1 Like

I have my Ring Video Bell 4 hard wired. But I can still only set my snapshot as often as 5mins. I miss the 30s interval snapshots on my old Ring Video Bell Pro. Could you please update the app settings to allow as often as 30s when the door bell is hard wired even it’s a dual power options version?

Thanks,
Michael

1 Like

Since I have limited bandwidth, I would like to see a long interval for the snapshots. It seems like Ring needs/wants to restrict the choices. Why can’t they offer a large range from a few seconds to several hours?

Add a new snapshot customizable time frame, or at lesst an hour long setting. TIA

I have a lot of Ring devices around the property, both battery and wired variations.

I much prefer the options the battery operated devices have for snapshot capture, with the setting for snapshots every hour as the minimum as opposed to every three minutes on the wired devices.

In some places I don’t need a snapshot capture every three minutes as the location does not get a lot of motion, so there is no need for that many snapshots in the timeline.

For me, It just clogs up the timeline and causes things to load slower. Whereas the timeline on the battery operated devices loads up quicker and is generally more reliable when quickly scrubbing though footage.


it is odd, the newer the camera, the less options you have for snapshot times. i have 5 cameras, and two doorbell cams. Video Doorbell 2-lowest setting is 5 minutes, Video doorbell 4-lowest setting is 14 minutes! ugh!!!,Thinking about putting the old one back in the front since the new one only allows 14 minutes. Or replacing with a different brand. The wired cams’ allow 30 seconds for shapshots and the solar cams only allow minimum of 5 minutes, WHY? I have two batteries in each of the solar cams, and the batteries have always been near 80-100% for two years. Hate the minimum of 14 minutes for newest video doorbell 4 and solarcams only 5 minutes… Ring is certainly going to just worry about the bottom line, Plans changed, and storage changed to reduce cost… Well, ring was great before…maybe other vendors have got up or passed my tried and true Ring Cams…ugh, oh well

1 Like