Problems getting live view working

I’ve got a problem wherein in the camera’s device health says it’s fine, but when I try to do a live view, is just shows “Activating Device…”, and never completes. Eventually it gives up and shows a button to reconnect. If I click that, the same thing happens.

If I reset the network connect it works fine, but after a few days this problem shows up again.

Any thoughts?

Thanks…

Hi @DragonDave! Great job checking network first as this is the most common culprit for connection concerns. Now that you’ve confirmed having a sufficient RSSI, or wifi signal, for video connection, the next best thing to check is mobile device connection.

Please ensure bluetooth and VPN is disabled, and other apps running in the background are closed. Try also removing and reinstalling the Ring app on your mobile device, and then testing video on wifi only, as well as on cell data only, to see if one connection might work better than the other. I hope this helps! :slight_smile:

Thanks for the reply.

Yeah, Bluetooth is enabled, and there is no VPN.

What I did was the following:

  1. I reset the camera and had it reconnect to the WiFi network.
  2. It worked fine for a few minutes, but then went silent again.
  3. I checked later that evening, and it was connected. It’s been fine since then (about 24 hours now).

Doesn’t seem to be a wifi problem. No other devices were having problems. Signal is strong, and download speeds are great (280 Mbps).

I split the wifi network into two - one for 5 Ghz and one for 2.4 Ghz. The only things connected to the 2.4 Ghz are the Ring camera, a Nest camera, and a couple of smart plugs.

I’m just curious as to whether this might be indicative of another issue.

Thanks…

2 Likes

Glad to hear this is working for you @DragonDave! There are a couple things you can check into further, for any variables that may have caused this connection concern. Many router user interfaces will feature diagnostic tools and even historical data/ logs that could contain information about the network during that time. Another way to see your overall network is with your internet service provider. In addition to checking your network with them, I recommend also inquiring about any potential changes that are being made to their services during this time, that might have an effect on streaming.

Aside from that, our support team is always happy to assist with a more in-depth look at these concerns, and provide more insight on your device specifically. They are best reached by phone at this time. Feel free to let me know how this goes! :slight_smile:

I’ve been having this similar issue with both of our Ring Floodlight cameras for a while now (probably a month+ at least).

I’ve tried “rebooting” each (had to just cycle power, as there doesn’t seem to actually be a “reboot” function from the app?), but that seemed to have no long-term effect. (It briefly helps, but then after a few times it started really stalling out).

In my situation, the cameras will SOMETIMES work (maybe 10-20% of the time), or sometimes take a VERY long time (30-60sec) to actually start showing video. But most times it will display “Activating…” for about 2sec and then “Connected”, but have a spinning circle while “Connected”. In the desktop app, if I go “back” when it’s in this stuck Connected state, and then try to quickly do “Live View” again, I get an error that says the device is temporarily unavailable.

The “snapshot” images when looking at the thumbnails seem to update regularly, so this makes it seem like the devices are operating ok.

RSSI on each is good: 53dB on one, 59dB on the other
Firmware on each is “Up to Date”

Looking back at motion-triggered recordings seem fine, too. So this means to me that the device is “working ok” for the most part. We just can’t do Live View.

We have this inability to connect regardless of whether I’m using:
* My Dekstop (windows 10 app)
* My phone (Andoird)
* Girlfriend’s Desktop (Win 10 app)
* Girlfriend’s phone (iPhone)

They all exhibit similar behavior (the phone app gets stuck at “activating device…”, but then ends up saying “Live View Ended” after about 15-20sec).

INTERESTINGLY, we never have issues connecting to our Doorbell Camera.

Are there any other troubleshooting steps we can take here? I’m pretty technically-inclined, so am fine doing whatever you need :slight_smile:

(I tried sending email to support, but got a bounce back saying to use online support)

2 Likes

Here’s something I did that got a much better connection… I was having a problem wherein I couldn’t see the Live view on the camera very often.

My router (Xfinity) supports a “merged” network of 2.4 and 5.0 Ghz. The idea is that the router will pick the one that seems to work best.

However, the Ring cameras ONLY use 2.4 Ghz.

So, I got into the router settings and split apart the two networks. So, now I have one network dedicated to 5.0 Ghz, and one dedicated to 2.4 Ghz (they have different names). I then went to the Ring camera and had it connect to the 2.4 Ghz network (it didn’t even see the 5.0 Ghz network).

After that I seemed to have a much more solid connection.

Might be something to try…

1 Like

I mean… this shouldn’t even remotely matter, since the Ring doesn’t even have a 5GHz radio. I actually have some decent APs (UniFi gear), and I run the ring devices on an “IOT” SSID I created. I suppose I can try your suggestion though.

Hello,

I’m having the exact same issue. Ring doorbell and battery stick-up cam. Every few days since I installed the camera, it just stops recording and live view just spins and hangs. I can see the cam is still connected to the network via network tools. Rebooting router doesn’t work either. Only thing that works is resetting the camera and going through setup again. But that’s ridiculous fix. It’s an outdoor camera and a pain to just go through setup every few days. Hope they get an answer to this.

1 Like

Been having same problem. Only on mobile though (LTE). Doorbell works fine. Flood lights don’t. I’ve seen posts about Data Saver, it isn’t enabled. This is on an S9 and S20. Flood lights work on WiFi. When the App is trying to connect to Live View it ends. If you go back, it does show a short clip of the live view even though the live view ended and says reconnect.

This happens constantly with our new Stick Up Cam, but much less frequently with our Doorbell 2. There doesn’t seem to be any pattern to when it works and when it doesn’t, but it’s extremely frustrating.

1 Like

Hi,

Dos anybody has a solution for live view working. I have a battery Ring Stick Up cam. When I start a live view it activating the device than a message comes "We’re having trouble connecting to your stick up cam. I have feeling it was a waste of money. Signal (RSSI) is good enough as well as my net speed.

I have 2 cameras and a doorbell all with very similar RSSI none of them great but the one camera and the doorbell have no issues. In fact the garden camera has the best RSSI of them all, but over the last week the garden camera has just stopped accessing Live View on 4G in my phone. WiFi no problem but cameras are for when we aren’t in and therefore not on our WiFi!

It shows that live view has been accessed with the orange bar on the history and I can view that but will not actually show it LIVE.

I have tried all of the ‘fixes’ but still no joy. My husbands phone has no problem accessing live feed so I don’t understand what the issue is!

To clarify the other camera and the doorbell work fine and I can live view on them both just not the garden camera.:woman_shrugging:

Can anyone help?

Hi there, neighbors! Often times, when video connection concerns exist, the best things to check first are wifi resources. Check out our Community post about RSSI for tips on improving wifi signal strength. Here is also our Live View Troubleshooting article containing the best steps to improve live view connection. Feel free to also try out another mobile device, if possible, or the Rapid Ring app, designed for the quickest access to live view. :slight_smile: