Motion sensing not working

Greetings.

I set up a “Video Doorbell2nd Generation” yesterday and am failing miserably at getting motion sensing to work. Immediately in front of door is 10 foot patio. Beyond that are stairs, sidewalk, and street. Regardless of where I stand on my patio, the motion sensing does not find me. Attached is screenshot of motion zone screen depicting me standing as far back on patio.

If I enable the top zone, the doorbell catches motion from cars, as I would expect. So I keep this disabled. The bottom zone covers my patio which is what I want - but it doesn’t seem to detect any movement when I walk on any portion of the patio. Even if I enable the top zone, it still does not recognize me walking up the stairs to the patio - only cars.

Environment:

  • Street is 30-40 feet in front of doorbell
  • Immediately in front of door is 10 foot patio. Beyond that are stairs, sidewalk, and street.
  • Doorbell is mounted 4.5 feet off ground

Device / App settings:

  • In the app and on my phone (android), all motion / alerts / notificaitons, etc are enabled
  • “In app notificaitons” mode are enabled
  • People only mode is not enabled
  • Snapshot is enabled every 14 minutes
  • No motion schedule exists
  • Motion frequency is set to “Frequent”
  • “Motion Verification” is not enabled since this seems to only reduce findings

Things I have tried (ringing doorbell between each change to enforce change)

  • Enabling all zones, only bottom, only top, top & bottom, etc
  • Changing sensativity to min and max
  • Using all options for “Motion wizard” about leading steps (yes / no).
    (I think the correct answer is no - there are stairs but they are 10 feet away from door)
  • Using all options in “Motion wizard” for street distance (5/15/30) feet.
    (I think the correct answer is that street is 30 feet beyond door)
  • Using washers to angle device pointing down.
  • Purchased second device of same model
  • Used a second Android phone (wifes) with Ring app.

With all these settings, I cannot get it to find any motion of me walking anywhere on the 10 foot patio in front of my door. It can pick up my hand 3 inches in front of the doorbell, as well as cars that are driving 40 feet away.

Do you have any hints of what I should do? Thanks

Hey @RingOnMe. Thank you for taking the time to provide a detailed explanation of what you’re experiencing as well as what steps you’ve tried so far and how those have worked out for you. When we’re looking at concerns with the motion detection on our Doorbells, we typically need to make adjustments to the positioning to ensure it is placed properly for optimal motion detection.

I’d first recommend reviewing this Help Center Article on the proper positioning for the Doorbell 3 here. You’ll want to ensure that your Doorbell is mounted at approximately 48 inches from the ground or about 4 feet. Additionally, since you do have stairs leading up to your door, this can impact the motion detection farther out and cause the Doorbell to pick up cars as they’re in the Doorbell’s direct line of sight. A solution for this is to look into utilizing a Wedge Kit to angle the Doorbell’s view downwards slightly. This will help bring the street out of its line of sight and focus in more on your porch.

Should this concern persist after trying these steps, please give our support team a call at one of the numbers availablehere. They can take a closer look at your device and work to fine-tune the motion detection and placement with you. We’re taking additional steps to protect our team and help reduce the spread of COVID-19, so this has resulted in longer than normal wait times. If you are outside of the US, please read our response to COVID-19here to see how to contact support. Feel free to let us know if my recommendations help or what our support team recommends if you reach out, as it can help other neighbors with a similar concern! :slight_smile: