Turn off camera when home?

Hi!

I wonder if there is any way to turn-off a Spotlight camera (running on battery and outdoors)? I’m not talking about temporarilly turning off motion-notifications but rather to save battery by setting a Spotlight camera into a “suspended” mode. This would be great for some of the cameras that are getting a lot of motion when I’m at home.

Many thanks!

Hey @PaddySE. The feature that you’re interested in is something that we are slowly rolling out to all our neighbors. You can learn more about this feature, Modes, in our Ring Help Center Article here. If you do not have this feature yet, rest assured you will have it soon enough, just make sure to keep your app updated!

Thanks, I had a look and this sound good. I will try it soon.

So the “Disarmed” mode will then not start any recordings or anything else draining the batteries (and not merely stop sending notifications but still record etc) correct?

Many thanks!

@PaddySE Exactly right! It will completely disable your cameras, inside and out if you choose to have all off. The options will let you customize this per camera. I can’t wait to have the feature myself, excited to get it in the near future!

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@Chelsea_Ring so would I be able to customize an indoor camera to always record motion, even when alarm set to home/disarmed, but NOT signal the alarm when it detects motion with the alarm set to away/armed?

@dhouston1 wrote:

@Chelsea_Ring so would I be able to customize an indoor camera to always record motion, even when alarm set to home/disarmed, but NOT signal the alarm when it detects motion with the alarm set to away/armed?

The cameras do not alert the alarm in any way. They only record and tell you about motion. Or record when an alarm is triggered.

Thanks for clarification on that. But can the camera still record motion when the security system is in home mode?

Yes, it can. It will record when motion is detected as per your settings. Just made sure it’s in the disarm mode.

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I have tried the Modes feature. It is still recording video on my spotlight cam, using a lot of data, just not notifying me. I would like to be able to shut the camera off completely. Is this possible?

Hey @sjelinek42. You can definitely do this! You will have to configure the settings under your Ring app > Main Menu > Settings > Modes > Disarmed/Home/Away. Under each mode you will have your devices listed under there and be able to customize each one to have motion detection and live view either disabled or enabled.

If you would like your Spotlight Cam to not record motion when you are home, you can configure the Disarm or Home modes to have motion detection disabled and therefore it should not record if you have changed your mode from the Dashboard of your app. I recommend toggling back and forth between the modes once you have changed the settings to make sure it is working as it should! :slight_smile:

I have one camera that I have disabled motion but kept live view enabled. It is still recording on that camera. Any thoughts as to why?

@sjelinek42 Could you attach a screenshot of what your settings look like under Modes for the Disarm mode, if this is the mode you currently have it in? Additionally, could you try toggling between another mode like Home or Away, and then back to Disarm? Once back on Disarm mode, please attempt to see if it is still picking up motion events after the fact.

I have switched between all modes with no change in recording.

@sjelinek42 Do you have your Spotlight Cameras linked through Linked Devices? If you have your Spotlight Cam on the Side linked to detect motion on the Backyard cam through the Linked Devices feature, this could be why it is still recording, even though Modes says otherwise. I recommend checking your Linked Devices section to ensure this is not the case. If this is not the case, please reach out to our support team here, as they can take a more in-depth look into your account to see why this isn’t working as designed!

If you do give support a call, let me know what they say!