Solved: “People Only Mode” is not people only

This mode is newly released to battery operated devices, claiming to reduce false alerts by “only” showing alerts for people… even stipulating that doing so will delay alerts due to processing time.

However, in real world use it is alerting me to everything. In fact, I suspect it broke my camera because since my camera got the feature (3/24) I have been getting constant motion alerts with no motion. Even with the doorbell motion zone slider reduced almost to 0 and no motion in the stillness of the night, I’m getting alert after alert.

Support suggested a reboot and factory reset, neither helped

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I’m having the same issue.

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Me too! My Ring 2 Doorbell worked fine. Then I enabled 3 new features, don’t know which one caused the problem.

  1. Motion verification makes motion detection more accurate

  2. Event history timeline

  3. People Only mode for battery services

It won’t detect any motion at all except for me coming and going. When a visitor rings, I get a black screen. I liked it better when I could see activity on the street.

Can I disable these features? Thanks for listening.

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Hey neighbors! The People Only Mode should certainly help to fine tune motion triggering objects being captured to human like activity. Try toggling this off then back on to see if this might improve detection. I recommend also going through motion settings to fine tune to your like and testing what configuration works best for the environment, with people only mode on.

If the app or motion detection settings are not operating as intended, try removing and reinstalling the Ring app on your mobile device. @BadTeethGirl25, black recordings should not be a result of any motion features. For this I would also check wifi and mobile device connection in addition to the steps above. Feel free to let us know how this goes! :slight_smile:

Thank you this was helpful.

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Yeah this is ridiculous. People only mode does NOT work. My doorbell records every single car that goes by and driveway cam goes off every time a bush at the very edge of the zone moves in the wind! Yes I’ve adjusted the angle of the cam - point is, it’s not supposed to record bushes and cars - they don’t resemble people in any way!

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This is now working fine for me on my video doorbell 2

Hi neighbors! Just wanted to pass on some more feedback from our teams that worked on People Only mode feature. Please note that occasionally when in People Only Mode, light reflection, as from an outside window, can activate motion detection. If you’re getting a lot of unwanted notifications look for reflective surfaces that may be shining light onto your device. Alternatively, you can turn off the People Only Mode setting.

If you are finding that a lot of cars are setting off your motion detection, you may want to turn off this setting, and look into refining your Motion Wizard walkthrough afterward (for battery operated Doorbells) to ensure that it is set back up as you should! You may need play around with the settings until you find the sweet spot.

What’s interesting is that “people only mode” on my doorbell 2 (a battery powered device) works quite well, I haven’t seen any false alerts since they updated and fixed things… but on my wired spotlight cam, people only mode alerts to ANYTHING moving within my motion zone from leaves to birds and cats. Also, it never actually says “person detected” if a person is in the yard, it just says motion detected

I dont understand how a battery operated device device has more accurate “human detection” than a plugged in always on device

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Same here! I was so excited for this feature when it arrived as I live on a busy street with cars and walkers. I want the motion zones where they are but without all the cars that go by. Tried the people only setting and I still get mostly cars!

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Same!

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Same. People only mode definitely detects people, but it also detects cats walking in my yard, spiders making webs near the camera (attracted by the infrared at night), headlights being shined on my fence, my sprinklers watering my grass.

It’s definitely picking up a lot more motion than it should. What’s worse is I have the Ring Chime in my bedroom because I had a theft problem in my backyard at one point. I’m depending on this mode, but it keeps me awake half of the night.

Ring needs some type of “smart learning” feature that allows Ring users to submit feedback: “yep, confirmed a human” or “nope, not a human” so that the system can get better over time to my specific environment and conditions.

Hoping for some improvements soon!

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I have got the same issue, however I would like to point out that the system is actually able to discriminate between “people” and “motion” as the app notification describes everytime the type of motion with a specific text (i.e. “there is a person at front of your door” rather than “there is motion at front of your door”).

Therefore I would have expected that, when the “people on” features is switched on, the app would have muted any motion which is not generated by people whilst communicating instead only those notification which are relevant to people?

The app is actually able to make a distinction by clearly showing it, hence not sure why then it sends notifications for every event, regardless of what it is?

Please, advice.

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I have the same problem, I never had any issues with passing cars until the update now I am getting 12 alerts an hour of motion when cars that are passing are 30 feet away.

I have adjusted the motion settings and reduced the motion capture bubble down to minimum and it is still picking up cars that are out with the detection range I have set. Very annoying please fix ring as it worked before this “upgrade” now is so annoying I am considering removing the device.

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Odd. Mine does not detect anything at all with people only mode enabled.

It’s driving me crazy as support is not helping.

I’m having this same problem, however my “people only mode” worked GREAT for months, and now all of a sudden, I get a “Person detected” notification with any little bit of movement, person or not.

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Just bought 2 outdoor wired cams and 2 indoor wired cams and I’m having an issue with People Only Mode as well. My wired outdoor stick up cams are alerting me about my dog in the backyard and a cat in my driveway, but when I leave for work and walk in front of the same camera that alerted about the cat… nothing.

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My people mode has worked pretty well for weeks with no false alerts. I get a light of light/wind motion alerts but when there are people it says person detected. Late last night I had a person alert and there was nothing on the camera. No people, no lights from cars or wind. It was kind of alarming because I’ve never had a false person alert before. Clearly it wasn’t triggered by a person or light, so has anyone else had this issue? Thanks!

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Hi @Mike81 & @Lane777smith – could you please share a Ring Video here where this happened? Thank you!

Since 7-30-20 every motion is a “person detected.” Every car no comes up as a person. Really annoying. See video as ALL my motions are like this and say person detected.

Edit. It will not let me upload the video and idk how to save it any other way on my phone. It just a car setting off the motion as a person.

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