Motion Detection not working

Hi Ring,
We have recently purchased a Ring 2nd Gen doorbell, it arrived yesterday. I set it up and initially it seemed to be working fine, the button and the motion detection with notifications to my phone seemed to be fine.
We left it on charge for a number of hours and it reached 100% at this point pretty much any movement of the device would trigger a motion detection notification. We then moved the device, as no longer on charge and since then it has not been picking up motion effectively or consistently. There have been a handful of times when we have received a notification of motion, in at least one occasion this was seriously delayed. I have checked all of the settings I can see. The zones are all on, the Motion Frequency is set to frequent and no change. At present the device is in our lounge, I dont want to install it if it is faulty. Please advise…
Kind regards
Vanessa

Hello @VD2020 !

Welcome “Ring Neighbor”! From what you are describing, I do not think your Doorbell is faulty. For a number of reasons, your new doorbell may be acting in a manner to cause you doubts. I can understand your concern.

You said:

  • “Initially it seemed to be working fine, the button and the motion detection with notifications to my phone seemed to be fine. Pretty much any movement of the device would trigger a motion detection notification. At present the device is in our lounge.”

First, it is excellent that you changed your “Motion Frequency” to the setting from ‘Standard’ to ‘Frequent’. The Motion Frequency controls are used to adjust the Motion Frequency Algorithm based on the individual circumstances of your monitored area. I am sure that your lounge area is probably where there is lots of repetitive motion. When your camera was first powered on, the algorithms were “clean” so it was sending you a type-text ‘pushed’ Notification to your App practically every time. And so as the repetitive motions continued, it slowly began ‘to learn’ and is trying to minimize sending frequent annoying Notifications. Trying to cut back on these repetitive notifications, it will attempt to figure out when to ‘sleep.’

  • Light : Setting the Motion Frequency algorithm to “Light” will maximize the system’s sensitivity to repetitive motion and the amount of time the system will “sleep” after detecting such motions. The result of this is that the system will more readily identify a motion source as something that shouldn’t be reported and extend the amount of time between reports. This will substantially cut down on the number of motion alerts you’ll receive and can help preserve battery life. The light setting is best used in heavily trafficked areas (such as yards where kids play) where the possibility of unwanted motion alerts is high.
  • **Standard: ** This is the default setting for the system and will cut down the sensitivity to repetitive motion and shorten the system’s “sleep timer.” This setting is ideal for areas where you don’t expect much in the way of human traffic but may be dealing with repetitive alerts due to animals.
  • **Frequent: ** This setting minimizes the system’s sensitivity to repetitive motion and by default will tend to react to each motion it detects as a discrete event. If it does detect repetitive motion, it also eliminates the system’s sleep time before the next round of scanning. This setting is useful for areas that get minimal traffic such as back and side yards or for areas that require heightened security. While it will drain the batteries faster than other settings, it also provides the most coverage for an area.

By using the setting of ‘Frequent’, this adjusted the algorithms to give you the best chance of getting notifications, even when they are repetitive. But I’ve underlined that it minimizes the system’s sensitivity to repetitive motion, but not totally. It will tend to react to each motion, but not every motion . . . because it is still trying to learn and avoid ‘false’ notifications that may be the result of the same event that initially triggered it the first time. So the more you kept passing by the doorbell in your lounge, the more it was trying to adjust.

  • _"We then moved the device, as no longer on charge and since then it has not been picking up motion effectively or consistently. _There have been a handful of times when we have received a notification of motion, in at least one occasion this was seriously delayed."

In addition to what I said above, there is another thing to think about. If you don’t receive a Notification, that does not mean it didn’t record and indeed it did react to the motion event. It just didn’t “notify you” , because the algorithms determined this was a repetitive event resulting from the same motion.

If you didn’t receive a notification, when you think it should have triggered, check to see if it did record (meaning it did react to the motion).

  • To Verify your camera is picking up motion.

    • Review the Event History on the Dashboard to ensure that there is a record for motions that took place during that time when you didn’t receive a Notification.
  • If there is no record, your Ring device didn’t capture an event during that time.

    • For testing purposes, Ring recommends setting the Motion Frequency to Frequent (which you already did, cool).

Another App setting that you did not mention is the Smart Alerts of the " People Only Mode." Similar to above, it is using algorithms to figure out if the motion was caused by a person. You toggle this option on when you only want to get notified for people, and you don’t care to know about every squirrel that passes by your doorbell. You should only get alerts when humans are detected. It’s not perfect, but it cuts down on the notifications. But it still triggers a recording. You can toggle “People Only Mode” OFF, if you do wanna know when the squirrels are there. :slight_smile: LOL

So again, I don’t think your Doorbell is faulty. It’s just using algorithms as all the repetitious motions occurring in your lounge area. Once it is outside, where “frequent repeating lounge motion” is no longer present, it should be fine as it “un-learns your lounge motion” (so to speak).

Here are some more links that you might find have useful information:

https://support.ring.com/hc/en-us/articles/360022461232-Motion-Detection-in-Powered-Ring-Devices

https://support.ring.com/hc/en-us/articles/360042728431-Advanced-Motion-Detection-in-Ring-Devices

Also, Tips for when you mount your doorbell:

https://support.ring.com/hc/en-us/articles/360040763812-Proper-Positioning-for-your-Ring-Video-Doorbell-2nd-Generation-

You do still think there is a problem with your new Doorbell, you can then telephone

Ring Support for help:

https://support.ring.com/hc/en-us/articles/360036196372-Get-in-Touch

Unfortunately, due to the Covid-19, their available hours have been changed also:

https://support.ring.com/hc/en-us/articles/360041597471-Ring-s-Response-to-COVID-19

Vanessa, just take into account that your Doorbell isn’t a “Motion ON or Motion OFF” switching device. It’s trying to not drive you crazy with multiple frequent notifications, but rather just the provide the notifications you want to truly know about. I hope this helps you feel better about why your doorbell is acting this way :slight_smile:

3 Likes

Hello there. I am having the same problem and the peephole cam no longer picks up all motions bc it has recorded it as a repetitious activity. I tried factory reset and that is not working. Should I take out the battery so that it can "unlearn the movements?

please help me, this is really stressing me out!

Hi @Yameenah. You can swap the Motion Frequency over to the Frequent option to minimize the system’s sensitivity to repetitive motion. This means it will tend to react to each motion it detects as a discrete event, which will give you a notification. I hope that information helps. :slight_smile: