Floodlight cam lights go on every 30 mins for about 20 secs?

@watt @kjohnrussell Thank you for providing your firmware status.

Last night, I sent an email to Level 2 to provide an update/summary on the firmware status of all of us. I also sent another email to let them know that the camera on one of my floodlight cams was triggered last night, but the lights were not (by cat in that visits the neighbohood). So, it was just a video based on night vision. I’m just trying to provide Ring observations (i.e., data points) to see if it will help with the troubleshooting. I would have expected that when motion triggers the camera in the dark, that it would automatically turn on the lights, but it did not. Has anyone else experienced this? My floodlights were installed last Thursday, so I don’t have a lot of time with these new ones. But they replaced previous floodlight cams that were have audio problems.

I have not heard back from Ring regarding any updates. I suspect that the issue is broader than just our floodlight cams. There is another thread where Ring Video Doorbell 2’s are being triggered at regular intervals, and there is no visible motion in front of the camera. It sounds a lot like our issue but with a completely different device. Anyway, I sent Level 2 an email about this thread as well, as I think it’s too much of a coincidence. I have a Ring’s Video Doorbell 2 but have not yet experienced this issue… knock on wood…

It does seem that they were doing some testing on one of my floodlight cams last night. When the floodlight cam is reset (power cycled) by either Ring or me (turning off/on by light switch), the 30 minute light cycle is reset. And I did notice that one of my floodlight cams was activiting the lights at a different time cycle. So, hopefully, this does mean that they are working on it…

I’ll update this thread if I hear anything new. Please do the same. Thanks!

@watt wrote:

My Firmware says up to date also

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I also noticed last night that my 30 min time has changed was 18 mins past and 12 mins of the hr. Now its 25 mins after and 5 mins before the hr. so far tonight its runnug the same times as of 5:25 pm eastern time

@watt

Interesting… Did anyone in your household hit the light switch for the floodlight cams?

I’ve done it by mistake before… I wonder if they are testing on yours. I would have thought that they would tell you, or ask your permission. I was told not to change my settings at the end of my Level 2 troubleshooting, so I assumed that they would be testing on one my floodlight cams… So far, the timing only changes on one of my floodlight cams, and the other has remained the same since my Level 2 testing on Saturday.

@watt wrote:

I also noticed last night that my 30 min time has changed was 18 mins past and 12 mins of the hr. Now its 25 mins after and 5 mins before the hr. so far tonight its runnug the same times as of 5:25 pm eastern time

Its just the wife an I and we did not touch the switch. But I can not say if maybe the street power did not maybe go out for a sec or 2. none of the clocks were blinking so I dont think that happen. I got mine on fri the 27th of oct and installed it that sunday the 29th They had me turn the light motion dwn to the min and they did not come this was at the beging. but that was no good they never came on so now I have them set just into the grey area on the diagram

@watt

When I get an email back from Ring Level 2, I will ask if he knows whether they are doing testing on the floodlight cams of others in this thread. Or is the shifting of the timing a new symptom…?

All the evidence that we have thus far is very clear that the automatic 30 minute light triggering is NOT related to the light sensitivity setting or external motion triggers. You should set the sensitivity however you want.

For security purposes, the floodlights (and camera) should go on as soon as possible when someone/thing enters your property. I have one floodlight cam set at max sensitivty, and the other floodlight cam Ring set at less than half during their testing on the weekend. So, I’ve left the one at half senstivity per Ring’s request; otherwise, they would both be set max sensitivity. But both floodlight cams still trigger every 30 minutes…

@watt wrote:

Its just the wife an I and we did not touch the switch. But I can not say if maybe the street power did not maybe go out for a sec or 2. none of the clocks were blinking so I dont think that happen. I got mine on fri the 27th of oct and installed it that sunday the 29th They had me turn the light motion dwn to the min and they did not come this was at the beging. but that was no good they never came on so now I have them set just into the grey area on the diagram

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Thank you for doing all of this back and forth with them!

I noticed that my cam light did not seem to come on as often last night. I never looked at the firmware version until last night, when it was already “up to date”, but maybe firmware being current is the solution.

I’ll monitor closely tonight to see if I notice an improvement.

But your point about the light not coming on when motion is sensed is because the light sensor is separate from the motion sensor. The light sensor is the passive infrared (PIR). I have mine turned down a fair bit in order to test whether turning down sensitivity will help with the cam light coming on all the time. I noticed last night when I went out there in the dark that I had to get pretty close to it to get the light to go on, and I know it was recording (saw it later). So, I turned the sensitivity up a bit because i want the light to record.

Hopefully it’s a firmware issue and mine was updated and that’s that, but I’ll keep an eye out tonight and report back.

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@meme wrote:

@Vazgen

Thanks for providing your firmware. We have the same one, and it seems that your camera is not updating either. Thanks for contacting Ring Customer Service as well. It’ll be interesting to see if they indicate that they are aware of it…

@Vazgen wrote:

Firmware on my device is 1.16.00273

I am going to contact Ring right now.

@meme

I contacted Ring support, and they asked me to reset the camera with their assistance, so I did.

The problem stil exists. I sent an email now, waiting for the response.

Will keep you guys updated.

@VazgenThanks for the update. Sounds like they are going to make you repeat all the testing that I already went through without resolution… You might want to hold off doing any more testing with them until we hear from Ring (see below)…

I just called Ring Support to see if they could read the notes on my case and let me know if they are working on it or if there is any progress.

She checked for me, and all she was able to tell me is that Ring is aware of the issue and recognizes that other people are having the same issues. She said that Ring will send out an email to us to let us know the resolution… So, it sounds like it was escalated. However, she did not know when we will hear, what the cause is, and what the resolution will be…

@Vazgen wrote:

@meme

I contacted Ring support, and they asked me to reset the camera with their assistance, so I did.

The problem stil exists. I sent an email now, waiting for the response.

Will keep you guys updated.

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@meme wrote:

@VazgenThanks for the update. Sounds like they are going to make you repeat all the testing that I already went through without resolution… You might want to hold off doing any more testing with them until we hear from Ring (see below)…

I just called Ring Support to see if they could read the notes on my case and let me know if they are working on it or if there is any progress.

She checked for me, and all she was able to tell me is that Ring is aware of the issue and recognizes that other people are having the same issues. She said that Ring will send out an email to us to let us know the resolution… So, it sounds like it was escalated. However, she did not know when we will hear, what the cause is, and what the resolution will be…

@Vazgen wrote:

@meme

I contacted Ring support, and they asked me to reset the camera with their assistance, so I did.

The problem stil exists. I sent an email now, waiting for the response.

Will keep you guys updated.

Ring decided to send me a replacement. I hope this is device related and it will solve my problem.

@Vazgen

I hope so as well; good luck!!!

At this point, I would iike new replacements as well. I’m concerned that the led lights have been compromised with all shutting on and off. I hope Ring comes back with a response and resolution to me soon…

@Vazgen wrote:

Ring decided to send me a replacement. I hope this is device related and it will solve my problem.

Any more news on if ring has been able to fix this?

I had mine installed yesterday and is doing exactly the same thing all night.

It doesn’t bother me to much but think it should be fixed rather than left. Problem is I can’t be bothered to go through the hassle of getting a new one sent out, fixing it back up, then sending the faulty one back.

I’m hoping there is some kind of update that ring are looking at.

Had the same issue with my newest floodlight camera which is the 3rd I’ve installed. The other two did not have this issue.

Same light issues, version 1.16.00273, and unable to update for whatever reason. Ring support had me reset it and was unable to explain or provide any further info into this issue. I have a replacement on the way but it would be great to fix the existing and not have to swap them. Anyone have any success fixing this issue?

@DanielMC @roblewis011 Thank you both for posting and joining the "club that I am sure that you don’t want to be a part of… Certainly disheartening to hear that both of you have recently installed floodlight cams with the same 30 minute automatic lights that we are experiencing…

I last heard back from Level 2 on Thursday, Nov 21. Apparently, when it gets eslacalated beyond Level 2, the case is moved out of Level 2 view when the development team is evaluating, so he did not receive any of my follow-up emails. Then all Level 2 was able to tell me was that they were working on a fix that would be pushed out with an update, but Level 2 didn’t know what the issue was and will the fix will be pushed out. I have not heard anything further.

Given that my two defective replacement floodlight cams also have the added issues of not being able to update firmware and not being able to connect to chime pros, my floodlight cams are still on old firmware version 1.16.00273, and unable to receive any updates. But clearly, others still have issues with uncontrolled repeated 30 minute activations of their floodlight cam lights…

Has anyone who had the 30 minute automatic light issue noticed that it’s gone away, with a firmware update…? @Vazgen did your replacement fix the issue?

After (too) many calls to Ring Support, they finally sent me replacement floodlight cams. If the floodlight cams won’t update firmware, then they won’t receive any updates. I received the replacements on Wednesday, but I will not be able to install them out until next week–althought it sounds like I shouldn’t hold my breath… I’ll post after I am able to try that. Of course, I DREAD this because it involves heavy ladders, and it takes days to re-install new flood light cams, adjust the cameras and lights… but I want things to be working for increased criminal activity during the holdiays…

@watt One of my floodlight cams also changed it’s 30 minute lighting timing schedule…no idea why… but it is still every 30 minutes…

Thanks for the reply.

To take down my existing floodlight and change it all to find a different problem or even the same would wind me up even more. That’s pretty much the reason I might just hold off and hope for an update.

If ring are aware of the problem, which it seems they are, I’m hoping they send out an update. If the problem is still there in 6 months then it might be time to replace it.

I installed the replacement device, but the problem still exists.

I contacted support again and let them know that the replacement does exact the same thing. They promissed me to get back to me as soon as they will have a resolution. They did not have an ETA for that though.

HI All,

I am a new here. Just installed 2 flood lights yesterday ( 11/30 from Costco). Having same problem as you guys discussed here. I have not cheked the time interval when lights go on but ahppens a lot.

I will wait for some update here. I am planning to contact Ring soon.

Hey guys,

New user - have installed 2 floodlight cams - the one in the garden keeps triggering the light.

Ring support have asked me to reduce the motion zone for the light and also given this note -

“Due to pixel-based motion detection having reduced range in low light conditions, PIR sensors may trigger the lights without a motion event even if the heat source is in the view of the camera.
We can try lowering the distance for the lights in the device settings to prevent this”

Very interesting information! I believe it is the PIR, given other responses on this issue. But maybe there is some software issue related to the PIR that is causing the problem. I know that if I set the Device Settings | Light Settings to be very low sensitivity (uselessly so…have to be right in front of the thing to get the light to turn on), then at least the light doesn’t keep going on with no motion.

I called the technical support last Friday (11/29). They had me unplug and then plug back in the device, then reset the device. After that, they indicated that they were going to “monitor” the device for the issue. In preparation for that (presumed) effort, they had me configure the motion sensor to People Only Mode.

I configured the Device Settings | Light Settings to be what I would expect/want them to be for the light to legitimately go on if there is motion in the yard. They sent me an email with a case number. Once it was dark out, sent an email in response to their case email every time the light went on. It was clockwork every half hour on the 10s and 40s (probably correlating somehow to my reset time). I did that for a few hours (I can see the light from my family room) and then changed the light settings back to very low sensitivity so that it wouldn’t keep going on. I did the same the next night and then turned the sensitivity back and left it.

I am hoping, given your post (@shalomthomas), that it’s either a software or firmware issue and not a hardware issue - which will mean another fight to get them to either give me a functional device or a refund.

Doubt I will ever hear back on the tech support ticket and their purported “tracking” of my cam - I chalk that up to be like my refund for another device returned (four tries to get them to give me my money back and still, six weeks later, no refund, despite having returned the device).

@shalomthomasDoes the floodlight cam in the garden trigger exactly every 30 minutes? So at least one of your two floodlight cams is not triggering lights every 30 minutes?

Last week, I set the senstivity for the lights all the way to the minimum and turned off all three zones. The lights still went off every thirty minutes. This rendered the security cameras useless because when the cameras were triggered that night, the lights did not go on, resulting in useless black and white videos based on horrible night vision. Even at maximum sensitvity, the lights still don’t trigger until an intruder would already be pretty far into the yard.

The “People Only Mode” suggestion by Ring makes no sense because those settings are for the camera only, not the lights. The camera and lights are triggered separtely with different techonology. Based the “troubleshooting” that Ring is still having everyone do over and over and over again, it sounds like they still don’t have a handle on this…

I spent the day installing the two replacement floodlight cams that I requested to replace the first set replacements… One had a manufacture date of 10/10/2019, which is the same date as the first set of replacements. The other one had a manfacture date of 8/15/2019. I was really hoping for more recently manufactured floodlights to to see if anything had changed. Unfortunately, both floodlights are exhibiting the exact same issues. And even worse, one of the cameras was just triggered (by a moth I think), but the floodlights didn’t go on!

The other problems that these new two replacements have just like the previous two replacements is that that 1) the firmware will not update and 2) the floodlights cams will not connect to the chime pros that are literally on the other side of the wall and worked fine with the original floodlight cams (that were the reasons for the replacements). Without being able to update the firmware, I don’t know how these floodlight cams will be able to receive any fixes, which is also why I insisted on this second set of replacements…

Some people on this thread seem to have the same firmware updating issues. Does anyone else have problems connecting to a chime pro network?

@kjohnrussellDid they charge your credit card even though you returned the device? That’s rather disconcerting. I now have quite a few that I have to send back now…

Yes - the cam light triggered on the dot at 30 mins for 20 secs. I have literally reduced the light zone to nothing - rendering this feature useless.

My firmware shows as up-to-date on both cams and I have connected it to the Chime Pro network.

I know only about the one since my bedroom window is facing the garden and I can see it coming on. The other one is in the front garage - no clue if that is triggering as well.