Choosing Your Video Record Length

Everyone uses their Ring Video Doorbells and Security Cams differently to fit the coverage they need for their home. This is why choosing the right Video Record Length is an important consideration when personalizing your devices settings. There are now a variety of record length options available in the Video Settings section of your app. The length you choose is the maximum amount of time your camera will record an event for. Learn more about these options below. Note: If you have Motion Verification turned on for your device this will trim your footage. Meaning it will stop recording once your device is no longer sensing motion. This could result in the video being shorter that the Video Record Length you select. Learn more about this feature in this Ring Help Center article.

How to Update the Video Record Length for Your Video Doorbell or Security Cam

  • Open the main menu in the top left hand corner of your Ring mobile app
  • Select Devices and then the device you would like to update its recording length
  • Select Video Settings at the bottom and then tap on the record time to choose your preferred maximum record time.
  • Now that your Video Record Time is updated, you are all set!

Battery Powered Recording Lengths - These devices have seven record length options - 15, 20, 25, 30, 60, 90, and 120 seconds - for you to personalize how long your device records for. The recording length you choose will impact the battery life on your device. If you prefer to prioritize battery life for your device, a shorter recording length such as 15-30 is best. However, if charging your battery more often is of no concern than the higher recording length options might be right for your setup. Consider this if you have one of the following devices which are considered battery powered: Video Doorbell (1st and 2nd Generation), Video Doorbell 2, Video Doorbell 3, Video Doorbell 3 Plus, Peephole Cam, Door View Cam, Stick Up Cam Battery, Stick Up Cam Plug-In*, Stick Up Cam Solar, Spotlight Cam Battery, and Spotlight Cam Solar.

Hardwired Recording Lengths - These devices will have four recording length options that are 50, 60, 90, and 120 seconds. As these devices are hardwired, there is no concern for the battery draining, giving you the flexibility to allow for longer recording times. These options will be available for the following devices: Video Doorbell Pro, Video Doorbell Elite, Floodlight Cam, Indoor Cam, Stick Up Cam Plug-In*, Stick Up Cam Elite, Spotlight Cam Wired, and Spotlight Cam Mount.

Recording Length.png

*Stick Up Cam Plug-In appears in both options as it depends on if you use the battery or wired mode for your camera. Learn more about Dual Power Mode in this Ring Help Center article.

We are excited to hear how you like this feature update, please let us know how you plan to use it by replying to this post!

Updated: 10/1/2020

8 Likes

Dont see this option on any of my hardwired cams, any ETA?

Got this update yesterday late afternoon for all my wired cams. Works great and every cam is recording in 90 second or so incremenents.

2 Likes

HI @proedgebiker, are you still not seeing this option available in your app?

1 Like

Excellent. Got it!

2 Likes

Why exclude shorter lengths? I really need 10 seconds or less. Why not offer 10 seconds? I never see anything interesting the last 5 seconds. Because I was missing important activities i have set capture to frequent, so if there is continuing activity i capture most of it with small breaks in any case. Having this option would allow me to save about 30% of my battery life.

1 Like

Hey @drdbuck. Great idea! As we value our neighbors’ feedback, we’ve created a Feature Request board. Feel free to add this and any future feature requests there. This will help us to organize and share your requests with our teams here, as well as allow other neighbors to comment and add interest, all in one place. Feel free to link that post you make in the Feature Request board here so other neighbors that come to this thread can easily find your feature!

1 Like

Finding instructions to do things in the app is frustrating! Note that you can only do this from your cell phone, not the app on your computer. Also, the instructions left steps out for what I had to do. I had to do the following:

  • Open the main menu in the top left hand corner of your Ring mobile app
  • Select Devices and then the device you would like to update its recording length
  • Select Device Settings at the bottom
  • Select Video Settings at the top
  • Scroll down and select Video Recording Length
  • Tap on Max Recording Length and then tap on the record time to choose your preferred maximum record time.
  • Tap Save in the upper right corner
1 Like

I’m not seeing the option for the customizable motion zone in my app

Riley suggests that you can customise recording lengths for the spotlight camera battery. However the video settings for my device do not have this option. The only settings available are for HDR, Live View, Tap Camera Preview and Audio Streaming. How do I find the option for video recording length. I’m using the Android app v 3.23.0

Hi @MSS1. I would suggest updating your Ring app. We are currently running a newer version than what you’ve listed. It would be best to uninstall the Ring app, reboot your phone, then reinstall the Ring app. This will integrate all the new features to your phone!

2 Likes

that worked thanks

2 Likes

How do I decrease the time it takes for my cameras to begin recording again while there is continuous motion? My videos are cutting off too soon, and or not recording something important after something else activates them initially

Hi @Jaipe. You may want to look into adjusting the Motion Frequency setting on your Cameras, which you can read more about in our Help Center Article here. The default setting is Standard, so swapping to Frequent may work better for you! :slight_smile:

1 Like

Ring has a very frustrating habit of referring to features that don’t exist and then not clarifying which camera versions have which features. Motion Frequency doesn’t appear to be an option on the Stick Up Cam Plug In or Stick Up Cam Elite, but is an option on the Stick Up Cam battery.

I also need to extend recording to capture the entire event, otherwise this is a toy and not a camera. I can’t respond to all notifications to have the ability to record the entire event. So if unresponded events are limited to 120 seconds and there is no way to Lengthen or Trigger another recording session you miss the balance of the event.

(Edit: In another post Motion Verification is mentioned, but this isn’t available with Advance Motion Detection. The documentation is abysmal.
-Both Battery and Plug In/Elite have Motion Sensitivity

  • But under “Advanced Settings” - yeah - the Plug In/Elite only has Schedules while the Battery has Advanced Motion Detection, Motion Frequency, and Schedules.

I understand that the battery model needs to reduce activity, but the ability to record what you want or need to see is also important on all cameras and the documentation needs to be less general and more specific to each model.

Edit 2: Maybe Motion Sensitivity would solve the problem with length, I need to test it. But my overall impression of the Ring app is that finding the right setting is not that intuitive given that several important video settings are spread out to 2-3 of the setting categories and website is frequently confusing and frustrating trying to find the setting referred to when it isn’t there or doesn’t apply - and trying to distinguish between models (Stick Up Cam Battery vs. Gen 3 or whatever - forget it, very poorly documented, thank goodness I still had the box.)

2 Likes

My video skips while in playback mode causing me to miss critical information. How can I fix this?

Would it be possible for it to record video with no time limit? Sometimes I need to record a video that lasts about half an hour and I have to do this using another screen recorder. I would be much grateful if I am allowed to record longer videos.

Hi @DaisyC. It is not possible to record longer than the listed times. If you need to save a video, check out this Help Center article here that has information on how you can do that. I hope this helps!

1 Like

I have my motion verification off and recording set to 120sec and it still DOES NOT RECORD for 120sec. It stops at 15-30 sec and my ring is hardwired. I dnt understand why it doesn’t record for the full 120sec. Plz help!!!

I think this post talks about what I’ve been trying to figure out. You have a part in here about the motion being trimmed if it does not detect motion any longer. if the motion for one event goes longer. I feel like I’m missing events.

Example: a delivery truck pulls up to my house. The man walks up to the door. He does not ring the doorbell, he does knock. I still go to answer the door. The timer runs out. And I do not get any of our interaction on video. Then a new video starts of him driving away.

Is there any way to make the video record longer if there is still motion?

This is just a recent example. I was able to answer the door.

But I also had some person walk into my driveway. I don’t know what he was doing. The video recorded him. He was still in the frame. The video ended. I did not see him ever walk away. I was curious as to what he was doing.

Do I have to have the video set to the longest setting? And then this smart option might trim it if the motion stops? But what if the motion is still happening and it still doesn’t record the whole event at the longest possible record time?

Ultimately my question is:
Is is there a cool down. Before the next motion can be sensed?