Has anyone else had problems with the Ring Door bell not recording when there has been activity? really losing faith in this door bell! We left a letter out for our postman and he took it (this was next to the door bell), but there was no recording shown!! Over another night somebody decided to place a large bin in our gateway (in full view of the door bell), but true to form, there was no recording! I am beginning to think that this particular Ring Door Bell is defective … but cannot get any sense from the Ring team.
Hey @PeteO. What Doorbell do you have? Do you seem to have a lot of missed motion events? Do you have an active Ring Protect Plan? How do you have your motion settings configured in your Ring app?
I have lost count of the number of times that I have re-set the bell and pro chime, only to have the same problem recur. I have tried every conceivable setting for activation, but there are big failures in recording. I have paid for the basic protection plan, but this is a total waste of money as my recordings are not showing! So much for security … I would be more secure by standing outside my premises, than relying on this useless Ring doorbell!
I have tried multiple settings for the doorbell and have lost count of the number of times that I have re-set the doorbell and pro chime. I have subscribed to the basic protection plan (waste of time and money). My Ring doorbell is the 1st generation and I would be more secure standing outside my premises, than relying on this useless Ring doorbell! I strongly believe that it is defective and needs replacing … but getting a free replacement is a joke ( bit like the doorbell)
@PeteO I am happy to help out further with your Doorbell concern, although for any talks of a replacement or do advanced troubleshooting to see if you need a replacement, you will need to reach out to our support team over the phone here.
When it comes to the Doorbell, the motion detection is going to be based off of PIR motion detection. This means that it will pick up heat signatures from a certain distance away, depending on how you have your motion wizard configured. If you don’t mind and would like some further help on the Community forum, I would love to know what your RSSI is, and what steps you select when you go through the Motion Wizard, to have an idea of how you have them currently configured. Also, if you could attach a screenshot of what your Live View looks like, this would also be super helpful!
Hi Chelsea
I do not think changing the settings or resetting the device is going to make any difference at all, because i have lost count of the number of times this has been carried out to no avail. Very frustrating as it is, because again we had mail delivered to the door and the bell camera did not pick it up! I went out to retrieve the mail from the box and it picked me up!! Bizarre behaviour for a device which is supposed to give security and peace of mind! One thing which you may be able to help with, and that is the three new setting which have appeared recently on the Ring app, Home, away and disarmed. I have tried the first two but it has made no difference whatsoever, I have not tried the disarm as it is self explanitory. I have attached a couple of screen shots as requested. There is obviously a defect with the sensing system on the doorbell, so I will request a replacement , failing that I will chuck it in the bin and go for a more reliable device as this Ring product is absolute rubbish!
View from camera
@PeteO Thank you for getting back to me and providing me with that information! I completely understand where you are coming from in this situation. The Ring devices were designed to give you that safety and security peace of mind so that you always know what is happening at a location that the device is looking over. I would want this working up to my expectations as well!
After reviewing your device health page and the Live View screenshot, I think I may have an idea of what is happening. You said that you’ve configured your settings several times, but I assume at this point you have it where it’s probably at the max sensitivity, yeah? If this is the case, then you can definitely leave it at the max (preferred in my opinion as well to make sure you are capturing everything at your door), but what do you have your Motion Frequency set to? When you first set up the device and as a basic set setting, the Doorbell will be put at Standard for the Frequency.
This will work for most neighbors, but some neighbors have found that they may miss a motion or two from time to time. The reason for this is because on the Standard setting, after the 1st triggered event, the camera will “snooze” for about 1 minute to avoid any over active motion from being recorded. This is to help with battery life, but if you have an event right after the 1 minute snooze, the next recording will trigger, but then it will snooze for 5 minutes. This can happen again if there is still an event on-going after 5 minutes, and then it will snooze for 15 minutes. After this time, the cycle will reset with 1 minute, 5 minutes, and then 15 minutes again. If you look back into your history, you may find events around the time you were having mail delivered, or when the bin was being moved around, which would explain your situation, as your device would’ve been snoozed.
I wanted to explain this out, as this may be exactly what happened! To avoid this, and considering your setting that the Doorbell is set up at and how you want it to work, I would recommend going into the Motion Settings and changing it from Standard to Frequent. One frequent, there is absolutely no snooze whatsoever, and if motion is still being picked up after one motion event, it will record another, and so on. Lastly, I know you said you played around with Modes, which is great that you’re using a new feature! This feature is mostly just to turn the Doorbell to an active or inactive state, so no worries with that. As long as you were not Disarmed (Doorbell motion recording disabled) when the mail was delivered, then you do not need to caulk that up to why the event was not recorded. I’m happy to help with any other questions you may have on Modes as well!
Hi Chelsea I can see where you are coming from with your ideas, but having changed the settings there has been no recordings overnight, until I went out this morning to check the mail box. People were passing the camera activated area all morning up till then, but no recordings! Sorry but this ring device is totally rubbish!
@PeteO I do apologize that you have been having this experience, as this is not what we want our neighbors to run into. If you could, please reach out to our support team here for further support. They can help make sure all areas of advanced troubleshooting outside of what we have done is covered, and if we have covered all possible troubleshooting areas, they can look into getting you a new Doorbell to see if it may be a device specific concern. I know this may not be ideal considering the amount of time you have already spent on this, but please feel free to reference this thread to help speed up this process when you’re in contact with them! 
It would appear the only solution is to give the doorbell a “float test” in the nearest river, it Ring doorbells are not really fit for purpose! Try contacting Ring by phone … ring ring, that’s about all you get as nobody answers … this lockdown will probably end before they pick up the phone. And to think, we actually pay Ring and annual fee for this rubbish service!
I rue the day I purchased RIng! Totally useless! In the cold the condensation prohibits a clear view, it is always going off line. What a load of pants ring is!