Pets and Security cam motion sensor

I haven’t really found a definitive answer for the security cam motion sensors: do small animals such as cats set off the motion sensors? I have 7 cats that live in my backyard and I’m afraid they’ll continually set off motion notifications.

2 Likes

This isn’t a simple yes/no answer. First, you didn’t mention a specific product, and they act differently.

Wired cams (Floodlight Cam, Spotlight Wired, Spotlight Mount, Stick Up Wired) use video analysis for motion detection. If the cats enter the zones you draw, it’s likely that it will alert, even on low settings, unless the cats are far away. Wired cams have a 5 position slider which regulates what percentage of the frame must change for an alert. If the cat is far away, it may not trigger on the first or second setting. But if the cat is really close, which makes it appear larger in the frame, it will likely set off at any level.

Battery cameras (Spotlight Battery, Spotlight Solar*, Stick Up Battery) use passive infrared (PIR) motion detection that relies on heat. This makes it a lot more likely that cats will set off the motion at any sensitivity level, and you can’t draw specific zones. You’ve got three sensors, left, center, and right, and you can turn them on or off individually, and sensitivity is somewhat adjustable. As an example, if it’s cold out, the cats will give off more heat compared to the surroundings, and more likely to trigger motion alerts. But if it’s 100F out, they probably won’t, but even people may not at 100F, since it’s so close to body temp.

So to summarize, depending on the camera, and where it’s aimed and where the cats get to, it may or may not. But the odds are good that with 7 cats back there, you’ll get at least some false alerts with either wired or battery cameras. There’s really no way to say for sure without trying it out.

*Yes, the solar version is still a battery camera, it just has a solar charger. So it will operate like a battery cam whether the solar is connected or not.

2 Likes

For wired devices, I was told by Ring Support that the Motion Sensitivity doesn’t work properly when set to Human Only. It is over sensitive and pets will set it off even though the documenation says otherwise. When Ring was bought by amazon, the third party motion software was removed and Ring is trying to “replicate” the features by coding it themselves. No timeline is available on a fix. Ring also said that some devices have bad components (manufacturing issue) resulting in some devices not working properly with the software; Ring will replace the device.

My fix (until they fix it):

I use the LinkedDevices feature to link my doorbell and floodlight camera. I turned off motion sensing on the floodlight cam and I have motion from the doorbell trigger camera recording on the floodlight camera. Both devices are on the front of the house though.

Hello all,
I have 1 spotlight cam wired, 3 floodlight cams and ring door bell. All my cams go off every single time a cat comes to my property. I’m not sure how my door bell does with cats as street cats do not really came up to my front door.
I have not contacted Ring yet but I can tell you that this is very frustrating. My wife is sick of listening alerts all night long so she has turned them off. So now I got over $1000 worth in cameras that cannot alert me properly so now if someone comes in my back yard (it has happened already once) I will never know. Not cool,
Not feeling very safe…
Notes:
I have messed with and tested ALL settings with absolutely no luck!! ?

There is already a topic discussing this issue for a while:

https://community.ring.com/t5/Security-Cams/Motion-Sensitivity-picking-up-pets-when-set-for-People-Only/m-p/3075#M440

Check it out, there is no solution or fix, its noting to do with what settings or sensors you have set as there have been plenty of people who have tried all the settings changes you can think of.

RING support team have told some people and i have recently spoke to them and they have told me that they know the people only mode does not work and they are aware of it and no timescale for a fix.

Offically though no announcement for RING, as i doubt they fully know whats wrong and how to fix it yet.