Motion Sensitivity picking up pets when set for People Only

@Jennifer_Ring - as requested.

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Yep, the doorbell pro sensitivity increased…but it’s also wired so it may have fallen into the issues Ring is having with motion on all wired devices…I figure they are pushing software updates and breaking more stuff… at some point the news is gonna get wind of the issue and ask Ring why they are selling products that don’t work as marketed…(and then the class action lawyers will swarm in)…

Same issue here…seemed to happen just before Halloween and now with no changes of my own and working fine on Human only setting it picks up objects across the street. Rest and result zones and tried all motion settings…had to turn off completely.

I have the 3rd generation Indoor Stick up Cam and it alerts to my cat constantly. Also now that I signed up for the basic subscription plan, I no longer get motion alerts for my device. Which is a problem for me. It is not even recording me as I entered my apartment with the motion alerts on. I’m getting very disappointed and about ready to send the whole things back.

I also have two indoor wired cameras that are both recording events constantly even when set to people only mode. All it takes is for one 10 pound cat to stroll across the floor to set mine off, and sometimes he can slink along the corner of the room partially obscured by furniture and still set it off. Right now my activity log is full of video of Sylvester walking around the two rooms with cameras. I’ve just turned off People Only and adjusted it manually to the least sensitive setting, hoping maybe it’ll help, but whether the Ring employee agrees or not, the People Only mode certainly isn’t working correctly for either of my two cameras.

For that matter, I had to completely disable the motion detectors that were part of the Ring security system because although it too is set for relatively low sensitivity which was not supposed to pick up anything under whatever weight threshold (50 pounds?), a cat managed to keep setting it off one night when I was out of town and I kept getting calls in the middle of the night from the monitoring people and one visit to my house from the police. So the cameras aren’t the only product in this product line that doesn’t have working “people only” capability.

I didn’t want to do it, but I have a feeling I’m going to have to configure the cameras to not use motion detection and to only record as a linked event whenever the alarm is actually going off or entry delay is active.

Check to make sure there is nothing reflective in the sensor/camera view.

I have a stainless steel table top in view of my floodlight cam. My camera was detecting motion and recording (while on people only mode) at night with cats, windblown debris, rain etc… After reading about reflective stuff like windows causing sensor triggers, I put a tarp over the table and it stopped.

I think what was happening is, the lights come on with more sensitivity than the camera (a cat, for instance), and the light was hitting the stainless steel and reflecting causing the camera to activate. I made two motion zones that covered the areas I want and boxed away/excluded the area of the table and it has’nt triggered falsely since.

I noticed the same. I didn’t have the street in the motion zone but the headlights reflected off of a reflective object and triggere the motion.

I have my wired spotlight cams set on the people only mode and at 3am today i recieved an alert and got up to check and it was a cat that walked across my garden! (I have a dog that roams around the garden and he hasnt set it off). I was quite annoyed to be woken up by this false alert.

This defeats the whole point of the RING eco system, how many times will i be woken in the middle of the night by false alerts until it reaches a point that i start to ignore the alerts thinking its a cat ( a bit like the boy who cried wolf!) and then miss an actual intruder.

Having checked the footage the cat triggered it more or less instantly as it stepped into the motion zone, right under (below the actual camera motion sensor) from the far left.

See my reply a few up also. I have been monitoring this with mine. I have a stainless steel topped worktable directly under where this floodlight is. I finally got a reply as part of some answers from a “neighbor outreach specialist” who contacted me after seeing my aggravation. This is actually somewhere on the web site to read about too…reflective surfaces will trigger the cameras.

In my case, I think what was happening is, when the cat walked by, it triggered the lights. OK, that’s fine, these are LED’s so not a lot of electricity use and a random splash of light I don’t see in the middle of the night cant hurt security. I think the light was bouncing off that stainless/silver table top and triggering the camera motion zone.

I covered the table with a tarp and it seemed to stop (or no cats). I removed the tarp and configured the motion zones around that table and thought I was a genius and had it solved. Seemed to work for a while, then I was getting recordings at night again…but no cat. Seems like almost anything will set the lights off. I’ve been sitting outside at night and the lights go off around the corner (I didn’t set them off)… I check the video, nothing but maybe some stuff floating in the air. I don’t sleep with my phone in the room, but had figured I would start because of this new “wonderful light/camera”…until I realized it was going off with false alarms.

So, I re-covered that reflective table and since have had no camera motion alerts. Seems the table reflecting the floodlight, triggers the camera motion zone even with the motion zone configured around/excluding the table. So now, it looks like I have to either leave a tarp on that table all the time or make some kind of non-reflective cover for it long term. The table is useful where it is, so moving it is not the best option for me.

Look for stuff that may reflect the floodlights. I suspect even a vehicle does because our van going in and out of the garage triggers the camera (while set on “people only”). It triggers before the van gets all the way out of the garage so I don’t think its picking up the human behind the glass. I think it may be triggering on reflection from the paint on the top of the van (even on cloudy days…go figure) and or the windshield glass when coming back in. It’s a pain, but not the end of the world…but my wife is on the subordinate app and cant turn it off when she comes and goes. I can spy on her, but I can turn the zones off when I come and go from the app as the owner to stop me being recorded as I come and go from the driveway.

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Reporting that my wife left from the garage in the van today and the floodlight-cam did not motion alert then or when she returned as it had been. But did motion alert when she walked in front of the camera later. THATS the way its supposed to work. Dont know whats changed. The only thing difference I can think of is I moved the zone out away from the garage door 4-6 feet because it was picking up on activity right outside the garage door like loading the van at the back lift gate. This was daytime, moderate sun/cloud mix.

EDIT!: 6:45AM this morning 1/3/2020 the camera motion detector was activated by a possum. I know it wasn’t a reflection from the lights setting it off because the beginning of the video was in night vision and the possum didn’t set off the lights until it got close to the floodlight.

So, its a fact that this thing is STILL activating on small animals while in people only mode. So, you can either be woken up at random times by non-human activity or turn your notifications off or leave the phone outside the bedroom and have no idea when an actual human is approaching the camera until you look at event history. Anyone who purchased this light for real-time security is likely going to lose some sleep. You might as well get a $20 motion detector and just get up and look out a window when it goes off. It’s useful when away if you can connect to it and you can always answer a motion alert, but the device is not functioning as advertised for this feature.

Hey neighbors! Thank you so much for your feedback and for sharing the details about your experience. As we are always looking to perfect our devices, features, and integrations, this feedback is definitely valued by our teams.

There are mentions of People Only Mode and the People Only motion adjustment in this thread, so I wanted to clarify for all neighbors.

People Only Mode is a toggle, within your motion settings in the Ring app, which allows you to only receive alerts for activity that matches human-like behavior. Other events, such as cars passing, will record but should not notify.

People Only on the motion sensitivity slider is an adjustment to motion which allows for the fine-tuning of which events or objects it will detect. Using both People Only features together can certainly improve the experience.

The best first step to improving either experience, I always recommend utilizing all the zones available and avoid using just one big zone. Multiple zones can emphasize and optimize movement detection, as well as help to avoid any common culprits of false motion. Of course, trial and error is always helpful for tailoring your settings to work best with the environment. I hope this helps! :slight_smile:

Marley, Thank you for replying.

1- People only mode: So you are saying it will record other motion but should not alert unless a person is the motion? That’s not what people are reporting. People here are reporting receiving notifications of “other movement” than people. So, the devices are not working even as you have reiterated. I’d be happy if mine did.

2-People only on the motion sensitvity slider: On the app for my device, you have two choices. You can select “people only” and it fixes the slider at about 1/3 sensitivity. The only way to change that slider position is to toggle off people only mode. There is no adjustablility while in people only mode available that I find. In fact if I try to move the slider the app tells me if I want to do that I have to toggle off people only mode.

3-Multiple zones: I cant imagine how this helps with this specific issue. A motion zone is a motion zone. How would one motion zone behave any differently than another? Sure, you can box a zone around a sidewalk for example, but the hypothetical cat can still walk across that zone. The issue is the devices NOT discerning the difference between people and a cat for instance, and notifying of that cat’s motion, instead of not notifying and staying silent while still recording the event as you described above.

So, thanks for the reply, but it doesn’t really address this specific issue the best I can tell. I’d love to be corrected and my device work as specified.

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Totally agree with the points made below

@Dude wrote:

Marley, Thank you for replying.

1- People only mode: So you are saying it will record other motion but should not alert unless a person is the motion? That’s not what people are reporting. People here are reporting receiving notifications of “other movement” than people. So, the devices are not working even as you have reiterated. I’d be happy if mine did.

2-People only on the motion sensitvity slider: On the app for my device, you have two choices. You can select “people only” and it fixes the slider at about 1/3 sensitivity. The only way to change that slider position is to toggle off people only mode. There is no adjustablility while in people only mode available that I find. In fact if I try to move the slider the app tells me if I want to do that I have to toggle off people only mode.

3-Multiple zones: I cant imagine how this helps with this specific issue. A motion zone is a motion zone. How would one motion zone behave any differently than another? Sure, you can box a zone around a sidewalk for example, but the hypothetical cat can still walk across that zone. The issue is the devices NOT discerning the difference between people and a cat for instance, and notifying of that cat’s motion, instead of not notifying and staying silent while still recording the event as you described above.

So, thanks for the reply, but it doesn’t really address this specific issue the best I can tell. I’d love to be corrected and my device work as specified.

@Dude wrote:

Reporting that my wife left from the garage in the van today and the floodlight-cam did not motion alert then or when she returned as it had been. But did motion alert when she walked in front of the camera later. THATS the way its supposed to work. Dont know whats changed. The only thing difference I can think of is I moved the zone out away from the garage door 4-6 feet because it was picking up on activity right outside the garage door like loading the van at the back lift gate. This was daytime, moderate sun/cloud mix.

EDIT!: 6:45AM this morning 1/3/2020 the camera motion detector was activated by a possum. I know it wasn’t a reflection from the lights setting it off because the beginning of the video was in night vision and the possum didn’t set off the lights until it got close to the floodlight.

So, its a fact that this thing is STILL activating on small animals while in people only mode. So, you can either be woken up at random times by non-human activity or turn your notifications off or leave the phone outside the bedroom and have no idea when an actual human is approaching the camera until you look at event history. Anyone who purchased this light for real-time security is likely going to lose some sleep. You might as well get a $20 motion detector and just get up and look out a window when it goes off. It’s useful when away if you can connect to it and you can always answer a motion alert, but the device is not functioning as advertised for this feature.

Right latest update - (Garden cam 1) - i was alerted to motion dected (on people mode) at 7am and i quickly got up (as well as phone i have alerts active on Echo Device) checked video and was amazed to fid it was a bird wondering around the garden!!!

I have installed another wired cam higher up in the garden (Garden cam 2) yesterday and set to people only mode - was alerted to motion detected at 8am this morning - it was my dog who was approx 15ft - 20ft away from the camera.

Because you cant adjust the motion sensitivity on people only mode i have switched this off and manullay adjusted the sensitivity to the lowest level (Garden cam 2) to see what happens. I had to delete a motion zone from Garden cam 1 to aviod picking up the dog as i thought maybe the camera was placed to low hieght wise, but the dog still managed to set garden cam 2 off even at a higher level.

This is now 3 wired cameras that i have in place and they all dont work on people only mode and all trigger motion alerts for animals (the smallest being a bird).

TBH does not matter what i set motion setting too it still triggers to anything! all cameras continue to alert to cats, the dog and even the smoke coming from the water heater flue pipe (maybe due to the heat source!).

Just to put it into prospective i have had up to 94 motion alerts in any given day.

I have now adjusted the motion zones to just cover the perimeter on the walls/fencing and not the actual ground level to see if this reduces the alerts (defeats the whole object of these cameras) but i cant keep chasing all these alerts that dont require any intervention.

I have however found they are higher in the evening when it starts to get dark.

Hoping RING can sort this out!

I turn my motion zones off so frequently, it will occur to me I havent gotten an alert in a while…only to look and realize I forgot to turn the zones back on!

That said, I haven’t had as many false alarms. I don’t know if there just haven’t been movements by small animals or what. It did go off one afternoon…for nothing. There was nothing. Not even a breeze. When an animal triggers it, its has always caught the animal on recording.

I still cant count on the camera so I turn on do not disturb when I’m trying to sleep. This thing seems to know when I’m trying to sleep. That last time it went off for nothing, it was right when I had laid down to take a nap. It’s useless for a security camera when sleeping unless you dont really want to sleep.

Notification AND recording went off again this morning for a cat coming down my driveway. Camera is set on people only mode. It’s picking up small animals STILL. Ring’s and Marley’s description of this “mode” are “human like behaviour”. I’ve not seen too many humans about 7lbs walking on all fours.

This is NOT as advertised. Ring should change its description to “mostly human-like behaviour” because what they advertise now is flat-out false.

On a positive note. Most vehicles are not detected in people only mode. Only my wife’s van when it backs out, especially at night when the floodlights come on. Likely reflecting off the paint on top of the van. Apparently reflections are also “human-like behaviour” with this camera. It wouldn’t be so aggravating if Ring didn’t tell us to expect the camera to isolate and trigger only on humans while in this setting. They should just be honest and tell us they try, but they just haven’t gotten this stuff to work as hoped.

Ring must be waiting for another class action lawsuit until they address customer reported issues and misrepresentation of the product during the sales cycle… just saying…

Additionally, it’s clear that the community manager here is not properly escalating customer issues…

Same issue here. No matter what sensitivity settings I choose, my floodlight cam is triggering alerts for small animals in the dark 20 feet away. I had no idea I had so many midnight visitors in the garden. Four bunnies, a raccoon and a cat, all in the same night. Thing is, I only want to be awakened if a large two-legged creature enters the back yard, not whenever a possum gambols in the distance, but no matter what I do I get critter cam alerts.

Exclusion zones don’t help because the floodlight cam is 9 feet up and the night critters wander wherever they please. If they came up and mugged directly into the camera, I would forgive an alert, but I need a setting that ignores bunny butt at 20 paces.

Tbh I have got to a stage that I just ignore them now and have them on snooze! It has caused so many endless nights of disturbance.

I feel like I want to return them but I have spent so much time and effort installing these I will prob end up waiting for Ring to sort this all out!

Don’t get me started on the whole WiFi connection issue, for the price these cams should have a stronger radio band!