Recording and Spotlight Issues with linked battery spotlight cameras

I have an issue that affects my two battery Spotlight cams linked devices at night only and I suspect it’s a firmware issue. When I first purchased my devices in Nov/Dec 2019 I had no issues with having my two devices linked. Since mid Feb 2020 I’m having issues which leads me to think it’s a firmware bug as they are both affected. I have tried playing around with settings, remove and re-setup my devices, improve RSSI. Nothing has fixed my issue.

My issue is:
I have 2 battery spotlight camera’s linked, both installed at front of house with both devices to trigger recording and lights on if either is motion triggered. Both working ok from purchase November 2019 to start of Feb 2020.
Since mid February 2020, the ‘linked device’ has issues with recording and spotlight flashes on for 2 seconds and then turns off but continues to record in black & white (night vision). Can see this clearly happens in night video recordings - records in colour, LED spotlight turns on and 2 seconds later switches spotlight off and continues to record in night vision.

Also another issue is that the ‘linked device’, when recording at night, the video appears to be recorded in very low dim light (even though LED spotlights are at full brightness) and so the video appears to have a very shallow and dim appearance, so video recording is next to useless as can’t see any detail in such low light video recording.

When either of these cameras record video at night as the first triggered camera - primary device (not the linked device) they record video as normal and LED spotlight remains on for full duration. Can Ring Support please investigate this issue?

Hey @ErnieH87. It sounds like this may be better held with our support team here for a more immediate response to this concern, but we can still help out here in the Community! Could you share a video of what you are experiencing so we could see what is happening as well? It sounds like there may not be enough outdoor lighting, but the night vision does raise a bit of a question as to how dim this looks!

Hi,
Thanks for the reply. I tried to follow this issue further up with Ring Support by calling but due to the COVID19 epidemic there is now reduced support and wasn’t able to speak to anyone.

There is no issues with out door lighting. The point of the spotlight Cam is to light up my area as there is no other lights. It works fine when motion is triggered as the primary camera but when it’s a linked event, the video appears to be very dim and dark as if the lens of the camera isn’t allowing light in or it’s as if the algorithm to trigger the linked device camera, somehow only briefly loads but still continues to record.

Both the cameras work fine and as attended when they are the primary camera triggered by motion but when they are a linked event motion, the video recording and LED light present issues.

I have created a video to display the issues I have please see link: https://youtu.be/koV1vSVNzzAhttps://youtu.be/koV1vSVNzzA

@ernieH87

I’ve had a similar problem, I posted here as well

https://community.ring.com/t5/Security-Cams/Battery-Spotlight-Cam-Linked-Devices-Lights-Switching-Off/m-p/24330#M4934

"Hi Folks
I have 4 Battery Spotlight Cams and via the linked devices functionality I have set it to turn on lights when motion is detected. Attached pic of set up

Recently I have noticed that when the linked devices are triggered by motion on one device. When I move into the motion range of another Battery Spotlight Cam that has its lights triggered by another linked device. The device spotlight will switch off but will record in black and white (as you can see the red infra reds lights).

This is happening on all my Battery Spotlight Cam Linked Devices. So if I move to be detected by another device the spotlight will switch off.

I have two ring sites and the functionality happens at both. Has there been an update in firmware that has made this happen. This must be a defect / error as you would expect spotlights to be triggered to support the recording

thanks
Ken "

“the ideo appears to be very dim and dark”

The reason why similar to my situation is that the spotlight’s “light” doesnt come on so is recording in InfraRed Mode I think

Something has happened on a recent firmware update to have broken this feature for linked devices

I have two ring locations on my ring account and both sites have 4 Ring Battery Spotlight cams and all have the same problem now

Hi @vwgti888,

Have you reported your issue directly to Ring support? I tried to call support last night but couldn’t get through due to reduced support at the moment.
Would like to know if Ring has acknowledged this issue so a new firmware can be released to fix this bug. Hopefully my video demonstrates this issues so they can be fixed soon.

  • ErnieH87

I had this same issue about 3 weeks ago…poor linked device recording at night. Talked to support & said it was a firmware issue causing night vision/IR/recording issues during linked events. The agent reverted to an older firmware version before issue, seemed to have fixed it. Even though that fixed the issue, I still requested for a replacement. Now I am experiencing the same with issue with another cam.

Hey neighbors! Thank you so much for linking your experiences together to dissect the concern further. It looks like this is something that is being investigated by our team at this time as we are working on a fix for this. A couple recommendations in the meantime: turn to completely unlink your devices through Linked Devices, and then re-link them up. Test from there to see if unlinking/relinking has happened.

If you still have no luck, you can always leave unlinked until we have an official fix for this. We have also isolated this seems to be with the Spotlight Cam Battery, so in Linked Devices, please verify that you’ve made it so the Spotlight with both record AND turn on its lights when motion is detected at another camera.

Hi Chelsea_Ring,

I have tried the recommendations again by unlinking the devices (left unlinked for 2 days) and relinked again but still have the same issues.

Could you please notify me when the there is a permanent fix/solution/firmware fix for these issues please so I am aware the fix has been implemented and the issue has been resolved so I can test on my end.

Is there a reference number or anything for this fault under investigation? When I spoke to Ring Support to explain the issue and I sent my video sample, they simply advised they would investigate the issue but I did not receive any reference/ticket number or email suggesting this issue has been acknowledged.

Regards,
Ernie

@ErnieH87 No worries at all! I am watching the investigation on my end and will be alerted when the fix is live, and I will then make sure to update you all accordingly here! In addition, if you did reach out to support and they said they are investigating it, then rest assured your account should be documented for this as well.

The agent will document your account after stating this to you, and once the concern is resolved, you should also receive a follow up email. This email will not come until the fix is live though, which would be why you have not received one yet! Sorry for any confusion that may have caused. In the chance you get the email before I can come back to the Community, feel free to update everyone here as well. :slight_smile:

If you still have no luck, you can always leave unlinked until we have an official fix for this. We have also isolated this seems to be with the Spotlight Cam Battery, so in Linked Devices, please verify that you’ve made it so the Spotlight with both record AND turn on its lights when motion is detected at another camera.

Hi Chelsea

Any update on this?

I use the linked devices to turn on the spotlights on my other Battery Spotlight cams to light up my premises when coming home, I have 4 solar battery spotlight cams.

The problem with turning on both record and turn on it’s lights is that in the camera history for my location you end up with 4 lots of recording from each spotlight cam. 1 that has been triggered from the motion detection and the others just recording no motion detection.

Ken

@vwgti888 Thanks for checking in for that update! I checked with my appropriate teams here and they are still investigating the matter and working on a fix. I will make sure to update this thread once we have more of a pinpointed resolution in this matter. :slight_smile:

Ernie87, this issue has been around since last fall. I started experiencing it whenever I linked two or more cameras together. Ring has replaced 3 of my cameras but I continue to have the issue and insist its s/w not hardware. I have also sent info to them with my troubleshooting steps and detailed configs of my cameras and network setup. They don’t know how to fix the issue other than to say that a new release in May should address it (it didn’t as of the 3.26.0 release on 5/11). Ring tech lacks deep troubleshooting skills regarding their code and are indifferent about receiving detailed direction from their customers on how to address. I have made recommendation how to isolate the issue in their lab but I fear they dont have one! This along with issues with HDR at night, s/w issues with saving links (getting “try again” errors) all seem to be falling on deaf ears at Ring.

I think this is now fixed?

I relinked my battery spotlights and this seems to be working.

Has there been a firmware update?

KEn

My error no this hasnt been fixed

Any news on a fix for this ?

Fall is approaching and we should have this operating as before !!!

Linked lights provide security !!

Hey @vwgti888, happy to chime in here! I checked with my team and they’re still working to isolate the root cause of this concern to find a resolution. We definitely appreciate your patience in this matter and we’ll be sure to provide an update on this matter once we have more information. :slight_smile:

Hi Caitlyn_Ring.

I have tried a few different settings and I found a solution to one of my problems. The problem I had when the linked ring camera would record at night and the Linked camera video is very dim/dark. I turned HDR OFF and it has been working normally for the past few months so linked video quality at night is now ok BUT it is not ideal as the image quality during the day is now impacted because HDR is OFF. So this isn’t really a fixed solution but more so isolation the problem.

I tried these settings with HDR OFF with my other camera which had the other issue of when it’s linked the spotlight LED at night would turn off after only half a second and continue to record in night vision mode. This did not fix the issue so this is perhaps separate issue to HDR settings.

So I believe the major issue is with HDR at night And also the timing of the linked device for when night vision comes on. Perhaps night vision timing is too aggressive and comes quicker before the LED spotlight has had a chance to turn on? Perhaps the algorithm for programming these function has changed from 2019 to now?

It’s been over 3 months now since logging this fault and no progress at all? It will really question my loyalty to Ring once my Devices warranty are expired and to possibly look at another brand of security.

ErineH87

Agreed I’ve got 9 ring solar battery spot light cams and its a feature that was working and disappointed it not working. For me its about turning the spotlight lights on for security when I link these devices up

Lets hope a fix is applied soon