Spotlight Cam Battery not charging with solar panel

We take your feedback very seriously, neighbors, and appreciate you all taking the time to share your experience. As there are only a few troubleshooting steps that can be done with the solar panel, it’s important to also consider device and environmental variables.

If your concern comes from seeing “add a solar panel” in the Ring app device health on IOS, this is not an indicator of your Solar Panel failing to charge. This is merely advertising the Solar Panel as a helpful tip to neighbors with battery-powered devices.

For those who are noticing battery draining with a Solar Panel connected, do keep in mind, as seasons change and cold weather is more consistent, the charge life of a battery can differ. Check out our Community post about battery draining for tips and tricks on optimizing battery performance.

The best steps for troubleshooting your Solar Panel are as follows:

  • Clean panel to remove any dirt, dust, or debris.
  • Check the adapter is securely plugged into the device.
  • Ensure there is no debris or damage to the adapter or port area.
  • In most locations, winter means overcast. Please ensure your Solar Panel is receiving several hours of direct sunlight per day.

Of course, if these steps do not resolve your concerns, it would be best to reach out to our support team, at 800-656-1918, for more in-depth troubleshooting.

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I too believe my solar panel is not charging my first gen Stick Up cam. I hooked up the solar panel last summer and took down and recharged the stick up cam in mid December to 100% because it had drained to below 50%. Now it again shows 83% after only 3 weeks. The REAL problem, is that we, as customers, do not have a way to know whether the Stick Up cam is recognizing the solar panel connection or not. I chatted with support today and the rep said they have an “indicator” on their side on the back-end that shows solar panel connected, but the customer app will not show anywhere whether the solar panel is charging the battery or if the stick up cam is recognizing it’s connection on the back. That’s the main problem and should be corrected asap. It would avoid spectulation and believing that the solar panels are not working because we have no way to tell if they’re working when we see the battery drain.

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This is the Stick Up Cam message vs the Spotlight Cam message (attached). Stick Up Cam has the correct message and Spotlight Cam does not.

Ring. FIX THIS! Stop passing us off. Fix this and stop with your silly answers. Just fix it. Thx.

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From Marley:

"If your concern comes from seeing “add a solar panel” in the Ring app device health on IOS, this is not an indicator of your Solar Panel failing to charge. This is merely advertising the Solar Panel as a helpful tip to neighbors with battery-powered devices. "

Sorry, Marley but this is the dumbest explanation ever, so you either have not seen it or you don’t understand English.

The screen says:

Solar Panel Status

Add a Ring solar panel to Extend Battery Life

The key word is “STATUS”, but the whole phrase “SOLAR PANEL STATUS” should clue most English speakers that what follows is the status of the solar panel. If iOS is really just showing effectively an ad for solar planels why include the “Solar Panel Status” embolded in the same Power block as the Left and Right battery indicators?

Ring, do better. Ring board commenters, do better.

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I understand that you are trying to help and that is appreciated. But the problem is that Ring (not you personally) is not really addressing the problem. As I have detailed above as an example, I have two older stickup cams that worked fine with their solar panels for a long time. Suddenly, they stop charging. Then with the 2 new Spotlight cams and solar panels I bouoght this week in a package from Ring, the same thing happens. No charging in bright sunlight for days. I live in the deep south so the coldest we are getting in the daytime recently is in the upper 50s. I have cleaned the panels, I have used both solar panels and cams with each other in succession with no change. What can ring support possibly do? If it had happened with one solar panel and one cam I could understand their replacing them. But I have tried two sets, and interchanged them with each other. To me, that is indisputable proof that the problem is in the recent software/firmware changes. The company really does need to address theis and not just list solutions that do not work with a final admonition to have them replaced when that won;t work either. Has anyone here had any of these solutions solve the problem?

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Those “solutions” are pretty much common sense and instictive things to check before I would even consider looking up my issue on the web. The way I see it any person cablable of setting up the Ring cams and solar panels would check that before running off to a Ring forum.

Same behavoir as before, doesn’t matter if I have my panels hooked to a Spotlight cam or Stickup cam. Same ad for the solar panel in health check, same super slow “charging”.

I don’t accept the change of seasons excuse. Around my property we have had 15 solar powered flood lights for years. These are cheap solar flood lights that are purchased from Costco for 39.95 (29.95 when on sale). They use six rechargable nicad batteries, have worked for years rain or shine. They have a panel that is very much like the Ring panel (I almost thought to buy a few of them and frankenstien the panels to use on the Ring cams. Decided against it due to the Ring plug being weather proof) Only time we have had to replace a couple was when they were broken by falling branches or critters.

Was considering ordering a Super panel from Amazon, but noticed that Amazon is not specifiying free returns on it. I would hate to be stuck with a panel I do not need, epecially if it doesn’t work. Plus where we live 300+ days per year of full sunshine, I really don’t think a Super panel is needed, epecially when the regular panels have worked perfect for a few months and others by what I read for years, until this update.

Bottom line Ring has messed with the firmware or app, whatever they did whether on purpose or accident, has either stop or slowed charging by solar panel significatly.

Attached is what my health check shows for one of our Stickup Cams, second generation (the round ones).

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This is what my first gen Stick Up cam battery status looks like in the IOs app even though it is connected to a solar panel. I have no way to tell if the solar panel is working OR if it being recognized by the cam!

brand new bought a few weeks ago spotlight camera + solar panel not charging here either

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I joined this group awhile back when my solar panel wouldn’t charge. I have a wireless outdoor camera/motion sensor. We had to climb the ladder often to get the batteries and recharge them. I too was frustrated and received emails suggesting to buys solar panel. So I did. It never charged the batteries.

We took it all down and charged the batteries for days ( they were done in 24 hours but we were busy over the holidays)

A person on this thread advised to uninstall and reinstall the device so I tried. The panel was connected and batteries were in when I reinstalled the camera. We put the panel in the sunniest spot in the house and let it go for a week. The batteries appeared to remain charged. So we moved it to its outdoor location where it would get move activity. It has been there for four days and appears to recharge. We check it often on our apps and the batteries show that they go down but then later appear full.

The days have been overcast and the temperatures between 30’s and 50’s. I will post again in a week to share if it is still working!!

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One other thing I just noticed. We have a Ring Doorbell 2 with the solar charger mount, it is made by a different company, they make Ring accessories. This is on one of our rental properties where I didn’t want to run electricity out to the courtyard gate.

Just got notified by the tenent that the app is telling him the battery needs charging. I have had that one for almost two years set up with the solar mount charger. So long I even forgot that it is on a charger and not hooked to power.

This leads me to believe that the issue is with the iOS app update. Either reporting the charge levels low or most likely not allowing the solar panels to charge properly.

I have added solar panels to my Spotlight cams. I can see the battery status but there is no solar panel status. Is there a way to get that on my app?

I have two Ring Spotlight cams with Ring Solar panels. I talked to CS and they said they were charging ( they can see whether the solar is putting out or not) .

Same problem here, batteries first started charging with solar panel now only can get one battery to charge. Solar panel gets sunlight and is clean ss why only one battery charging? I think this is a quality control issue and I have not seen a remedy for the problem. Why are there no direct affirmative answers from Ring? Shame to pay this amount of money without getting some positive action. Good product long on ads short on customer support and follow up. Bummer!!

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Just fitted the replacement solar panel that Ring Support insisted I needed. Guess what… still doesn’t charge. Still has the same message on the app. Will leave it a few days and recontact to see what ring have to say again

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Yup, my cams lost another 4% charge in the last 24 hours. I will not be changing and manually charging batteries every three weeks. I will return the cams and panels to the stores purchased from or look to dispute all charges with my banks and ship them back to Ring.

Looks like folks have been dealing with this since early November. Two months is far too long for Ring to ignore us and only offer weak suggestions.

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AVS, what CS told you is great, but it doesn’t address charge rate. Mine too are “charging” just at a much slower rate, about 75% slower rate than prior to last update. For those of us living in sunny parts of the country I would say some can be attributed to the seasonalbe change, but surely not a 75% drop off.

The only Ring device I have that is being successfully charged by a solar panel is my Doorbell 2 that is connected to a non-Ring panel. Consistently keeps it at 100%. I am considering another third party solar panel from Amazon to see if it solves the problem with the cams. It is more than disappointing that Ring corporate appears to be sticking its head in the sand on this one.

Is it a panel or the solar mount. I have the solar mount (made by Weisennor or something like that) on a rental property and it worked fine for almost 2yrs. Just got informed by my renter that it needs charging.

I have no clue how or why the Ring app or firmware would be able to tell the difference. Just a simple charge current from the two. Unless the Ring panels provide significantly more or less charge than the off brand. Pretty sure if a resisteror was in line the off brand would have replicated the setup.

Same issue. Live in Florida. The panel is exposed to sun on most days for 6-8 hrs. My battery is currently dead.

I honestly think its safe to say that the problem is not with the hardware. Frankly, I’d be happy if the rolled back the software/firmware so we couild start charging our units again until the glitch is worked out.