Motion detection not working in selected zones

I have the zones set for directly in front of my door and the gate to the path/driveway but I’m only getting notifications when someone is at my door right before they press the bell.

Any ideas?

I’ve tried swapping and changing with settings but nothing seems to work ??‍♀️

@GinaK80 wrote:
I have the zones set for directly in front of my door and the gate to the path/driveway but I’m only getting notifications when someone is at my door right before they press the bell.

Any ideas?

I’ve tried swapping and changing with settings but nothing seems to work ??‍♀️

Hello @GinaK80 ,

There are probably are still some tweaking you can do on your settings to help improve your text-type ‘pushed’ Notifications to your App.

You didn’t state your Video Doorbell model or if your doorbell is attached to doorbell wires to ‘trickle-charge’ the battery (not the case with the Video Doorbell Pro) or running only on battery-power. So I’ll include some (not all) major general settings that you can tweak.

Your doorbell has a setting called " Motion Frequency" (this setting is often missed, because you have to scroll down on the “Motion Settings” page). The default setting is “Standard” and you should change it to “Frequent.”

  • Motion Frequency : Motion Frequency allows you to tweak your motion detection protocols to provide a balance between consistent alerts and preserving battery life. Ring’s Smart Alert algorithm is an internal program that runs inside of your Ring device. It analyzes the traffic patterns of detected motions, looking for repetitive patterns. When it detects such a pattern, it essentially “sleeps” your device for a certain period of time, cutting down the number of motion alerts you’ll get from the same set of stimuli. The more times a repetitive pattern of motion continues, the longer the time between issuing motion alerts. There are three settings to choose from:

    • Frequent: Your Ring device will capture all events. This option has the shortest battery life.
    • Standard: Captures and notifies you about motions less often. This option has standard battery life. We recommend starting here if you are unsure of which option to choose.
    • Light: Captures and notifies you about motion even less often. This option has maximum battery life.

" Motion Verification" setting also uses algorithms to reduce unwanted notifications and can trim recordings if the motion stops before the recording ends. If this option is enabled, try toggling it OFF, which reduces the small delay that was needed for the algorithm calculations. But also now you might receive too many unwanted notifications triggered by unwanted motion events.

" People Only Mode" setting, if toggle ON will make your doorbell do extra algorithms to attempt to only send you a Notification when it decides it is a human being. The algorithms calculations can slightly delay, or mistakenly not send you any Notification. You might want to toggle this option OFF. But now you might receive too many unwanted notifications triggered by motion events.

" Motion Zone" setup, when it asks _“Does your door face a street” _ you can avoid the doorbell from reducing your motion-detection sensitivity by saying NO. Also, with the “People Only Mode” toggled OFF, you should be able to tweak the motion zone blue-shaded sensitivity close to max, and then depending on how many notifications your get, tweak it back a little bit at a time until you find a setting that is a good trade-off between excessive Notifications and Notifications that happen late.

If a little experimentation with these settings and some patience, you can tweak them ‘just right’ to get satisfactory results. You can find more online helpful ideas and more information at the Ring Support:

https://support.ring.com/hc/en-us

I hope you find this a helpful :slight_smile:

1 Like

Thank you.
I’m not sure of the model but it’s on battery power. Would it work any differently if it were wired up?
I’m going to try all of your suggestions.

@GinaK80 wrote:
Thank you.
I’m not sure of the model but it’s on battery power. Would it work any differently if it were wired up?
I’m going to try all of your suggestions.

Hello @GinaK80 ,

Ring Video Doorbells are all battery-powered, except the Ring Video Doorbell Pro (the ‘Pro’ _runs off _ external power and you therefore do not have this model). You can attach your Doorbell to the house doorbell-wire’s, which then “trickle-charges” to replenish the battery, but the doorbell is still running off the battery. The wires can not alone power the doorbell. The reason I gave you all this information is because to better answer your question,

_ “Would it {motion detection} work any differently if it {doorbell} were wired up?”_

And the answer is basically ‘No’, the motion detection features remain the same. But now if you select settings that can deplete the battery faster, you don’t have to worry about frequent battery recharges (for example: you select “Motion Frequency” to the Frequent setting, or select the shortest “Snapshot” interval time setting).

Now as a side note, ‘Motion-detection’ is different for Ring Security Cameras models, for example such as the Stick-Up Cam Plug-in and the Stick-Up Cam Battery , which leave the factory as the exact same device. With the Stick-up Cam, you have a choose the power-source, with a Battery (Solar version is battery-powered with solar trickle-charging) or External A/C cord and input that during the initial camera setup. Then the answer would be Yes “motion-detection” is different. Because during the setup (when you choose battery or external power) different firmware software updates will download algorithms for computing ‘high-energy-depleting’ motion-detection options, if you choose A/C power. And these options will not be downloaded/available when you choose to be powered by battery. This is to extend battery-life.

More information about Ring devices and how they work can be found online at:

https://support.ring.com/hc/en-us

I hope you find this information useful :slight_smile: