Motion detector repeatedly issues alerts

My basement Ring motion detector has been going off like every 2-20 minutes for the last four days. It rarely ever went off before and literally nothing has changed. It’s just my basement. This happens day and night. I have a Wyze camera right next to it and it isn’t picking up any motion and it usually gives me more alerts based on even just shadows passing by the window, so I know there’s nothing actually happening. I even watched the live Wyze can video to test and got a notice there was motion from Ring and clearly there wasn’t any motion whatsoever, not even light or shadow as this was at night (the Wyze has night vision). And it’s not a mouse or a bug. Again, I can see the live video and there’s nothing there. The Ring motion detector is set to Standard sensitivity. It was at High but I switched it to see if it helped (I want it on high though) and it hasn’t changed anything. This is really weird. What should I do?

Hi @luckylou! If this is in regards to a Ring Alarm Motion Detector, I recommend checking out our help center article about Motion Detector placement and best practices.

It is best to mount your Motion Detector about 7 feet high and overlooking a large portion of the room or area you want covered. As there is no visible motion setting off this detector, there may be a heat source nearby. Please ensure there is not any heat sources such as a fireplace, heating vent, or window that might be triggering your Motion Detector. I hope this helps! :slight_smile:

Thanks for the reply. Yes, it’s a Ring alarm motion detector, mounted seven feet high in the corner of the room where it’s been all along.

It never did this for the first year I had it, but now it alerts every 2-20 minutes. There are no heat sources, nor anything else moving. I have set the sensitivity to Low but that has had zero effect, nor has resetting the device and re-adding it.

At this point I think it’s just defective. The Wyze cam still shows nothing happening in the room either.

Again, it never did this before, nothing changed, but now it’s going off regularly around the clock, day or night, no difference.

I recently installed my Ring Alarm and found that several of my motion detectors were activating without any motion nearby and staying activated regardless of what was happening in the room.

I was able to stop this bizarre behavior by plugging in the range extender nearby, though I’m not sure how that helped. Maybe they just lost connection with the base and couldn’t properly work. The home is not that big either, so wasn’t sure why the range extender was needed.

Are the battery levels okay in the detectors?

Hey neighbors! If you’re running into a situation where you notice the Motion Detector is detecting motion when nothing is there, it would be best to follow up with our support team directly on this concern. This should also be done if you are noticing the battery draining within a couple months time from the excessive motion detection. 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.