Blocked View et. al.

The ability to view recordings has evolved and made it increasingly more difficult to use the recordings to gather information about specific events.

The lack of detail in the small general review screen and the fact that the small image on that small screen cannot be “zoomed” means that the only option is to “expand” the image.

When you do so, the huge “transport” buttons placed directly in the middle of the screen block a large percentage of the image and, by default, remain in the middle of the screen for the entire video. It’s not clear as to what is going to happen when you tap the screen and the screen responses seem to vary with updates.

It used to be possible to “zoom” the image on recordings, but that ability has been removed except for the “live view” …which is useless since what you need to view is past tense.

At the moment, the only way to deal with the need to view the entire screen is to log into ring.com on a PC and view the recording using a pc browser… kinda hard to do when one is mobile.

Related, the most recent change is that where it used to be possible to return from the “expanded view” to the device and event being viewed, now the user is returned to the “All Cameras” screen where it is then necessary to reselect a specific camera, then navigate back through the recorded events to find the recording the user needs.

As a developer, it appears that the people making decisions about the ring interface and those coding the app _ do not use the app _, and, as a result, they have no connection with what ring users _ NEED _.

Here’s hoping that this post will get to someone at ring who cares about the app.

Sincerely,

Beverly Howard

Original Doorbell, Pro Doorbell, Floodlight Cam, 3 Stickup Cams

plus, I have installed and been consulted friends and neighbors on many other installs.

App (up to date) on Android 9

At the moment, I feel that this is still a valuable product, but that is changing

Another Question, why does this forum not allow including screenshots in posts?

RingViewBlocking.jpg

1 Like

Thank you for sharing your experience @bevhoward! The timeline is a great way to quickly review recent events. If you are looking to view specific events and increase the size or zoom screen, try using the event History feature in the app. This is the classic History view which puts all your events into list form, to be review one by one.

As we always value our neighbors feedback, consider this shared with the appropriate teams. Screen shots or image examples are always welcome in the Community, and can be added as an attachment to your posts. I hope this helps! :slight_smile:

fwiw, your response to my “community” post goes a long way toward confirming that what owners post here is neither read nor understood by those of you inside of Ring’s “user wall” since none of the points important to this user were addressed or even acknowledged.

Sad…

The ability to view recordings has evolved and made it increasingly more difficult to use the recordings to gather information about specific events.

*I can see what you mean.

The lack of detail in the small general review screen and the fact that the small image on that small screen cannot be “zoomed” means that the only option is to “expand” the image.

*Yes, this is true

When you do so, the huge “transport” buttons placed directly in the middle of the screen block a large percentage of the image and, by default, remain in the middle of the screen for the entire video. It’s not clear as to what is going to happen when you tap the screen and the screen responses seem to vary with updates.

* Viewing from my timeline after tapping the tile and expanding it, I can see transport buttons too and they don’t go away. They should or be down below like the event view does. Also you can not zoom in at all.

It used to be possible to “zoom” the image on recordings, but that ability has been removed except for the “live view” …which is useless since what you need to view is past tense.

* You can still use the event view and the transport buttons are below and zoom works too.

At the moment, the only way to deal with the need to view the entire screen is to log into ring.com on a PC and view the recording using a pc browser… kinda hard to do when one is mobile.

Related, the most recent change is that where it used to be possible to return from the “expanded view” to the device and event being viewed, now the user is returned to the “All Cameras” screen where it is then necessary to reselect a specific camera, then navigate back through the recorded events to find the recording the user needs.

*Yes, I see this too.

So, in short I think you’re correct with the changes you mentioned. If it was intentional or just a new bug only Ring knows.
But at least the event viewer seems to work as it’s supposed to.

And screenshots can be added by choosing the files. Only 2 are allowed per post.

I hope this helps in some way. Your questions were not answered properly but this is mainly a member to member support site with Ring personnel to help manage the forum, provide basic troubleshooting and pass along information. This should be passed along. Hopefully they will look at this again about these changes.

Thanks for the response and confirmation that other owners have the same issues.

>> Your questions were not answered properly but this is mainly a member to member support site <<

I understand that, but it amazes me that Ring (Bezos Inc) and other major firms completely discard the benefits of productive customer interaction by not actively participating on customer forums to resolve questions, or even worse, posting responses that show a complete lack of understanding about user problems.

>> * You can still use the event view and the transport buttons are below and zoom works too. <<

Thanks for highlighting that (well hidden) option for viewing events which I will use. I’ll also point to the ability, albeit with “gotchas,” to view events using a PC browser on a large monitor.

Beverly