Light Schedule on Pause

I don’t think motion is related to my issue because I will get motion notifications when there are cats or opossums in my driveway and the lights are still on. My lights continue to go off at random times. Like today and yesterday, the lights came on as scheduled, and then 30 -45 minutes later they went off again- no rhyme or reason. I keep being told “our team is working on it!” As we go into August, it will be 3 months. This is getting beyond ridiculous.

1 Like

Well as I said it was just a close association of the two that made me think it was linked and I am going to test my theory as soon as I have the time. My lights don’t go off immediately either after motion is detected but it sure seems like most of the time the lights have gone off it’s after I’ve either had a answered motion alert, viewed an alert from motion or just noticed there had been a motion alert that I’ve noticed them off later and I haven’t determined definitively if these events are linked - they may not be. I know that there is a amount of time that the lights would stay on once motion is detected if the light were setup as motion activated. Also I believe they use two separate systems to activate the lights - one for the video and one for the lights. The motion sensor for the lights covers a considerably larger area than the one that triggers the camera so you may not get a motion alert and or video when the light sensor detects motion so you may not have even realized there was motion detected by the lights motion sensor unless your lights had gone off after the motion event at some point (assuming that’s the cause) as there is no alert or log available to us of motion that the lights motion sensor detected. I know neither of us are using motion activated lighting but it sure seems like it isn’t being shut down completely when you choose to use the schedule.

I could be wrong, it was just a causal observation but I am going to test it as soon as I can. There has to be something that is triggering this behavior because there seems to be no rhyme or reason otherwise for this seemingly random behavior and usually tech (and I don’t want to start a discussion of this and get off track) like this has some error in the programming that’s causing it as there is USUALLY nothing just random that explains a behavior. What I mean is it’s explainable IF the reason can be found… If this were a physical problem with the light like a bad connection or bugs in the fixture (and it could be I just doubt it) I would expect it to not go so long or quickly between occurrences or affect more than one light shortly after install and the fact that these were new when the behavior started leads me to believe it’s something in the programming that is causing the problem and it’s not just a truly random event. Sorry, I digress. I’m just brainstorming here as it’s frustrating to have a light that doesn’t function correctly. You’d think that in this day and age you could set a timer for a light and it would be followed.

When things like this happen it really makes me hate devices that don’t let you get under the hood and try things your self such as rolling back firmware or choosing not to upgrade it when you have it working correctly. Ring just hides so much from the user in its effort to be ■■■■■ proof (for instance I can’t even tell what version of firmware I have, all I get is a statement that it’s up to date but how do I really know if I can’t see the version) and I completely understand why they do this, I just don’t like it.

Sorry for the long post.

1 Like

The Motion Sensor might be one scenario that causes the issue but I’ve also seen my light go off without a motion alert happening before it. A few nights ago, I returned to a dark house again (shocker) and I checked and there were no alerts between the scheduled start time and when I came home. But my lights were definitely off.

We’re most likely looking at more than one issue which makes it trickier to troubleshoot. Having said that, this issue has been going on for too long.

To make matters worse, my Ring Floodlight Cam just exhibited a new symptom. I got a motion alert and the video shows my light was off (it’s after the Light Schedule so that’s not the issue) but the light doesn’t even turn on until 50 seconds after the motion is detected. Here’s the video:

https://ring.com/share/6721236055713905700

<sarcasm>Progress?</sarcasm>

@Socrates99

Re: long post

I hear ya. It sounds like you’re technical and might even be a software developer. I’m not one myself but was in operations for a big software company so I know about troubleshooting software on a global scale.

I’ll get technical and people can ignore it:

I even asked to get signed up to Ring’s API because if part of the API is the ability to turn the light on and off, I was just going to schedule it outside of the Ring app and see if that isn’t a workaround. Worst case, if the issue still happened, then we’d know the scheduling part of the software isn’t the issue. I haven’t gotten a reply because I believe it was really more for other companies who want to partner with Ring instead of an individual like myself.

Another idea I had is if Ring could lend us a battery-powered Ring Doorbell. I’m under the assumption that the Ring Floodlight going on and off will trigger an alert in the Ring Doorbell and we wouldn’t have to guess if the light had gone on or off. We’d have the exact timestamp and might lead to better troubleshooting. Although this is something the Ring devs/ops people should already be doing, I’m willing to do it myself. Heck, I’d even volunteer during the weekend, for free, to help get this fixed. This is how bad it’s gotten for me.

Just checking in that my Ring Light Schedule is still broken. Light was off at 1030pm and it was scheduled to be on at 8pm.

I just wrote another lengthy post about this and it disappeared when I hit post. Accessing the “community” in the Ring app is horrible. You can’t even go back a page.

Anyway my lights are still randomly going off. Very frustrating that it’s still happening. I hope they are getting closer as my wife is close to demanding I replace them with something that works as good as the lights controlled by a $15 photocell did for years and years.

1 Like

Hi @Socrates99 currently, the Community is not available in the Ring App. I just tested using Safari on my iPhone and was able to log in and utilize the Community. Not to mention, I was able to go back by using the back button on the button of the browswer. If you’re not logged into the Ring Community, you will not be able to post. If you could clarify, we can definitely have a team member take a look.

The team is aware of the light schedule and working on a fix. We will continue to update the thread with more information as it becomes avaialble. Thank you for your patience.

You can access the community through the app at menu/help/visit support center/get more support drop down menu/ring community - visit us. It doesn’t send you out of the app to safari it lets your read and then type a reply to a post but then when you hit post it won’t let you post. It just disappears.

Wow! Thanks, @Socrates99. You’re correct and thank you for the steps you provided . Seems like it won’t allow you to log in at all. We went ahead and opened up a ticket with the team to get this fixed. We’ll be sure to make a note once we’re up and running. For now, if you’re on mobile, I suggest opening up Safari or Chrome and heading to community.ring.com to participate. Desktop works as well :slight_smile: Appreciate your outreach and patience.

Hi @Socrates99 wanted to let you know you should be able to log in and utilize the Community from the Ring App. Please don’t hesitate to report back with any questions or concerns. Thanks for your patience!

1 Like

In case any of you did not get a similar email, I received one on Aug 14 saying they’ve pushed an update to fix this issue. It seems to be working for me so far.

Here’s the email:

From: Ring Support <help@ring.com>
Sent: Wednesday, August 14, 2019 8:59 PM

Hi Rim,

First and foremost, I would like to thank you for your patience and understanding while we worked on improving the functionality with the scheduling of lights on the Floodlight Cam. We have just recently pushed a new update that should help keep the Floodlight Cam lights enabled for the scheduled time. If your problem has been resolved no further action is needed on your behalf.

If the light schedule is not currently active on your Floodlight Cam please set up another schedule and monitor it for a short period to verify it is following what you set it to. Please keep in mind that if you set a light schedule for the same day and that time has passed it will begin the light schedule on the following day.

If needed, the link below has additional information regarding the lights on the Floodlight Cam:

https://support.ring.com/hc/en-us/articles/115004155866-Controlling-the-Floodlights-and-Light-Settings-on-Your-Floodlight-Cam

If you have a concern not covered above or your device is not working as expected, feel free to reach back out to us by email (help@ring.com), phone (US +1(800) 656-1918 or INTL +1(310) 929-7085) or chat with us at Ring.com

Have a great day!

2 Likes

Having the same problem. Used to work but the schedule never works anymore. Only the motion sensor works.

1 Like

Just a day or two ago I had one floodlight out of several that stayed on until I turned it off. It did this for two days. The others went off as scheduled, no idea why that one light went haywire for a couple of days. I almost think something is getting confused in their system as I keep having to change the schedule because of the ever increasing run times because of the days getting shorter. I really wish they’d put a photo cell on the lights that would control the lights. That would eliminate this task of every couple of days having to either adjust the light times or come home to a dark house. I really cannot believe they won’t do this. Think how much energy they’d save when the days start getting longer and lights are still running when it’s light out because they are on a schedule from a week ago. It’s just unthinkable that they won’t put a dang photocell on the light. Especially with amazon claiming to be so green.

1 Like

Yes, it would definitely be nice if they would add a photo cell to the floodlights. It would save a lot of time when it comes to having to make time changes due to daylight savings time, etc. Also, when the weather is bad and it gets dark, it would be nice to have the lights automatically come on without having to manually turn them on.

OMG. Why couldn’t I have found this post before I purchased this thing. I’ve been a Ring customer for years, doorbell and alarm. Like others have said I replaced my simple $15 photocell with this and the light schedule just flat out doesn’t work. Turns off randomly in the middle of the night. Doesn’t come on as scheduled. I really though I was losing my mind.<br>Ring? What gives? People started reporting this a few months ago. You shouldn’t be selling it if it doesn’t work.

Ring Team, if a fix for this is not imminent, I will be returning it. I spent half the day on the phone with a support technician yesterday who had no idea this was a widespread issue.

1 Like

Still not working for me (Nov 30th). 2 Floodlight Cams, both showing “up to date” with firmware, and both with lights shutting off before their scheduled time in the light schedule.

I’ve deleted, saved, recreated, and re-saved the schedule to no avail.

Anyone have any other workarounds/thoughts? (I’ll also throw a call into support on Monday and see where that gets me).

DITTO!

Started in my home 3 weeks ago…same issue !

I’ve DELTED the app off my iPhone then went to the app store and reloaded the RING app from the cloud. Went to settings and saved them.

Will let you know tomorrow morning if this was the fix…it’s something which has worked in the past with similar bugs in the WAZE app.

BRB Tue.

I am having the identical problem and put through the same steps when contacting customer support. No fix.
I installed my unit on Dec 4, 2019.