Spotlight Cam Battery not charging with solar panel

I’m having the same issue with my Two solar powered spotlight Cams. Issue came on suddenly end of November. I now have to charge batteries manually. App indicates solar panel is not connected. I’ve never had this issue before November of 2019. Chat with rep did not help, nor did camera resets, or app reinstall. This is silly.

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**For iOS users seeing “add a ring solar panel to extend battery life” read below.

I called CS… the person I talked to asked someone else about the “add a ring solar panel to extend battery life” statement . Developers told him that it’s on the IOs app only (not on Android) and that it’s there for everyone regardless of if they have a solar panel attached or not. It’s basically an ad. It’s not an indicator of if the solar panel is connected or not. They now know it’s causing confusion for customers that have solar panels attached.

Both of my battery spotlight cams have solar panels. One gets more sun than the other. We’d had a few overcast days here in Phoenix and my right battery on both cams wasn’t fully charging. Today we’ve had sun. The panel that gets full sun most of the day has charged that battery up to 100% (had been below 90%). The one that doesn’t get as much sun has gone from 67% to 86%.

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Same problem here! Apparently the fault occurred in the last firmware update. I have two Stickup Cam, one Ring doorbell and the problem exist with solar panel and direct AC.

I’ve drawn the same conclusion. Since some kind of update things have gone to hell. Batteries don’t charge in a normal way anymore.

I had full sun today and 40°. The charge status wasn’t moving. Suddenly it jumped to 100%.

Fix the software Ring. We can’t be home to charge batteries all the time.

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In addition to what it is necessary to take into account that there are thousands of Stick-up cameras and Ring video doorbell that have this problem and their users have not noticed it or they have not been able to solve it. Remember that they are surveillance cameras and security and even lives are in the hands of these devices.

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From my understanding it is only the iOS app users that see the “solar panel status” line which was added with a recent update. And within that the line about adding a solar panel to extend battery life would only show up on battery cams and there is no detection done to see if it’s relevant or not (meaning it shows that regardless of if they have a solar panel already or not).

I know that the system performs a ‘health check’ ever so often. The time of the last one is in the “Device Details”. I wonder now if that is also when it updates the battery level which could make the levels take more of a jump instead of a steady increase or decrease.

I check the cams on my ipad as well as an android phone. The android phone app does not have that solar panel line or statement. I would have not questioned if my panel was connected or the system working right (as it has been since installed in June), if it had not been for seeing that line item on the iOS app on my ipad.

Thank you for your reply and observations. It all makes perfect sense.

We are beyond the shortest day of the year now. Things should start to get better.

Just chipping in here. Have a wired v1 doorbell. Battery was always 100%. Since the app now shows solo at panel status (and it says it’s connected to one even though it isn’t). Now the battery is slowly dropping. Something deffo messed up in a recent update.

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Mine stopped working in the last month as well. I thought the solar panel was defective so I had the seller on Amazon send me a new one and it still is not charging. Mine is a non Ring branded solar panel. What brand are you all using that are having issues? I wonder if they did an update that forces us to Ring solar panels only.

I have a Ring solar panel.

I am going to try resetting my camera today to see if it makes a difference.

I contacted customer support and they are replacing my solar panel. They advised anyone having issues with solar charging to contact customer support. Be prepared to have your camera serial number when you contact support.

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Is the only way to contact support by phone?

I did an onlie chat session. Clicked on help and get more support and then chose chat

When I called CS that’s the first thing they wanted to do… replace the solar panel, but I have 2 and they are both slower to charge than they had been. After the agent talked to someone in development they are aware of issues with the iOS app. Also I think that the app only updates the battery level when it performs a “health check” rather than each time the app is opened. I do not know how often the health checks are performed. I’ve seen times when it’s been 2 hours or more. I’ve not found a way to get it to check it in real time. The CS also couldn’t ‘see’ the solar panel on his end but development said that’s an app issue at this time.

With the shorter days coupled with the way the app is updating, I decided to wait and see. Once we got some decent sun yesterday both my spotlight cams charged back up. The one that gets the most sun went to 100%. The other is at 94% this morning but 2 days ago it was at 67%.

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I ordered my first solar panel spotlight cams 2 pack 2 weeks ago and they both stopped charging within 2 days. After numerous chat and phone calls was advised solar panels and cams are faulty and need replacing!! I decided to best solution was to return them for a full refund!

Then ordered wired versions this solved the hassle of how quick the solar versions become faulty but having slight quality issues with footage and viewing.

I would personally stay away from the solar panels until they fix the issues.

Yes - that feature would be great. My stickup cam seems to almost never have an issue with solar charging because it’s always at 100%. BUT my new spotlight cam was working great with the solar panel keeping it fully charged until a couple months ago now it seems to not work at all. I always check that the panels are clean and they are getting sun. Had to buy another battery. The ability to see a solar panel is connected and actively charging would be very helpful.

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Same notice for me with the newest update. It used to say solar powered as my power source but now it’s recommending I purchase a solar panel even though both cams have panels connected.

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So how do you get the batteries charged using the solar panel?

? connect the solar panel USB cable to the camera USB connector?