I have had a Ring Doorbell for a few years, and it has been fairly reliable. When someone presses my doorbell, 5 devices (including my Ring Chime and Amazon Echos) all ring out. My phone also gets a notification really quickly.
Usually.
A few weeks ago, my Ring Doorbell failed to ring out at all when a delivery person was trying to deliver a parcel to me. As a result, they ended up taking the parcel back to the depot. Boo, hiss. But why exactly did my Ring Doorbell fail to ring out? And how can this be fixed? Well the short answer is…
The Ring Doorbell usually fails to chime due to Wi-Fi issues, or temporary blips in Ring’s cloud servers. In rare cases, it can be caused by hardware issues – but there are a handful of things to check first, before you throw your Ring Doorbell in the trash.
How The Ring Doorbell (Should) Ring
The Ring Doorbell range includes battery and hardwired options, depending on whether your home has pre-existing wiring or not. But whichever way you install your doorbell, they should all notify you in the same way when someone is at your door:
- They should make a sound outside.
- They should ring any pre-existing doorbell chime (if you have one wired up).
- Any plugged-in Ring Chime units should notify you.
- Your smartphone should receive a notification that someone is at the door.
- Any Echo devices that you have set-up should also make a ringing sound, and any Echo Shows will display the live footage from your door:
Since there are loads of ways of notifying you that someone has pressed your doorbell, why does this sometimes just… completely fail?
10 Ways To Fix A Ring Doorbell That Does Not Ring!
Since there are so many ways that a Ring Doorbell can notify you, there are unfortunately quite a few possible fixes here – I can think of 10 possible causes, in-fact. But I will start with the most common issues your Ring Doorbell might face, and cover the least likely causes at the end.
#1 – Restart Everything
“Have you turned it off and back on again?”
Yes, I know this is an annoying ‘solution’. But it is the first thing I usually try, and it often results in a fix.
Your no-longer-ringing Ring Doorbell might have some internal data issues, and a quick restart might fix this. Restarting a hardwired doorbell is easy: just locate its transformer in your breaker panel, flip the switch off for 1 minute, then put it back on. Resetting a battery powered Ring doorbell is often easier, and just a case of removing the battery for a minute or so.
Equally your Wi-Fi router might be a bit overloaded from too many connected devices, and so restarting your router can help. Remember that your Ring Doorbell is only as good as its Wi-Fi connection and the router – if the router is struggling, your Ring Doorbell might not chime out.
#2 – Check Wi-Fi Strength And Stability
Following on from the above point, another potential Wi-Fi issue is a weak signal strength. Walls and other solid surfaces will cut down the signal strength a lot, potentially causing your Ring Doorbell to have lower quality recordings – and missed doorbell notifications.
You can chek the signal strength within the Ring app, by clicking your device, going to Device Settings and then Device Health:
Any reading between RSSI -50 and 0 is good, while -50 to -75 is… not so good (to use the technical term!). Then a reading of -75 to -100 is pretty awful, and will require immediate attention.
This RSSI number seems backwards, but just think of it as: anything closer to 0 is good, anything closer to -100 is bad.
If the signal strength is weak, two common fixes include:
- Switching from 5 GHz to 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi. While 5 GHz is faster, it also has a shorter signal than 2.4 GHz. So if you have a dual-band Ring doorbell (like the Doorbell Pro or Doorbell 4), check if your router allows you to force your Ring Doorbell onto the 2.4 GHz band. Some routers also advertise two separate Wi-Fi networks (one for 2.4 GHz, and one for 5 GHz), so in that case you should switch to the 2.4 GHz network instead.
- Consider buying a Wi-Fi extender. These plug into a wall socket, and they either create a brand new Wi-Fi network (which is nearer for your Ring Doorbell to connect to), or they boost the overall reach of your existing Wi-Fi network.
#3 – Check Chime And Echo Are Plugged In Fine
This might seem obvious, but if you rely on a Ring Chime or Amazon Echo speaker to notify you that someone is at the door, please quickly double check that they are plugged into the wall socket properly.
If they are hanging out from the socket a bit, this might be the cause. Even if the device appears to be on, it might be having intermittent power issues (due to being a bit loose).
#4 – Ensure That Snooze and Do Not Disturb Is Disabled
It is possible to set your Ring Chime to snooze mode within the app:
Naturally if this is enabled, it will not ring out – whether that’s for motion alerts, or doorbell presses. You can check this in the Ring app, by clicking your Chime device, and pressing “Chime Snooze”. Your Chime device should also show a night symbol if it is in chime mode.
Secondly, your Echo devices can be set to “Do Not Disturb” mode. If this is enabled, these Echo devices will also fail to ring out when someone presses your doorbell. You can check this in the Alexa app by going to Devices, then “Echo and Alexa”, selecting your Echo and looking at the night symbol:
If it is highlighted and says “On”, tap it again to turn off the ‘do not disturb’ status:
#5 – Add A Mechanical Chime
All of the issues I have discussed so far have one thing in common: Wi-Fi. Relying on phone alerts, Echo speakers and Ring Chime devices all rely on your Wi-Fi (and internet) working correctly.
If there are any temporary internet blips (or worse, a Wi-Fi jammer is being used), you won’t be notified that someone has pressed your Ring Doorbell. One solution is to buy a Ring Doorbell that supports ringing a mechanical doorbell chime (such as the Ring Doorbell Pro 1 or 2, or the Ring Doorbell 4).
Then wire up the chime with your Ring Doorbell, and you will always be guaranteed to have a physical device ringing out whenever your doorbell is pressed:
This is nice because you are not totally relying on Wi-Fi anymore, even with a smart doorbell.
#6 – Check The Ring Status Page
The next thing to check is whether Ring are having a general outage. Allowing with checking the Ring subreddit (which lights up quickly when Ring has issues!), the Ring Status page is perfect for checking this:
Any time Ring knows of an issue that might affect your Ring Doorbell’s operations, that status page will be updated to show this. While Ring’s services are fairly reliable, they might have some sort of issue once a month.
#7 – Check Your Alexa Settings For Configured Echo Devices
If you have a Ring Doorbell and then go out and buy a bunch of Amazon Echo speakers, you might assume that the Echos will automatically ring out when someone is at your door. But this is something you often have to configure to your liking.
To check this, launch the Alexa app, go to Settings and Devices, then go to “Cameras” and select your Ring Doorbell. Click the Settings cog in the top right, and ensure that “Doorbell Press Announcements” is enabled.
Next, click into “Announcement devices” and ensure that your appropriate Echo devices are ticked:
I intentionally disable some of these (such as the Echo devices in my children’s rooms), but pretty much all my other Echo devices are disabled.
However it’s easy to mis-click here, and stop one (or more) of your Echo devices from ringing out by mistake. Unless they are ticked here, they won’t ring out.
#8 – Disable And Re-Setup The Ring-Alexa Integration
It’s also possible that something has gone wrong with the integration between Ring and your Alexa system. If this is broken, none of your Echo devices will notify you when your doorbell is pressed. The best way of fixing this is a bit frustrating: delete the Ring-Alexa integration, and then set it up again.
To do this, launch your Alexa app, click “More” then “Skills & Games”. Click to “Your Skills” and locate your Ring skill (you can always click the search icon if you have many enabled skills). Go into the Ring skill, and click “Disable Skill” (you can do this with your voice too):
This will delete the link between your Ring and Amazon Alexa accounts. Once this is done, re-enable the skill from the same menu.
You will then be able to login to your Ring account, and tie this to your Amazon account again. If the issue was some sort of issue with this integration, running through these steps will hopefully get your Echo speakers ringing out again.
#9 – Do Nothing (Yes, Seriously!)
If you have tried everything so far and nothing has worked… just sit tight. Do nothing. Embrace your inner lazy.
Honestly, this works for 41% of IT issues (yes that’s a made up statistic, but it’s probably fairly accurate). IT is annoying – devices play up for a range of reasons, but sometimes you just have to wait it out – and the issue will fix itself.
While the issue is probably down to a Wi-Fi problem or Ring’s servers, it might not always be easy to fix with a router reboot. Plus Ring might not have updated their status page yet. If nothing has worked so far, I would wait at least 24 hours before considering the next step.
#10 – Buy A Device Replacement
If your Ring Doorbell is failing to ring out, it might be time to buy a new Ring Doorbell (unless it’s the Chime unit that has broken, of course).
Thankfully they are often fairly cheap, and available in sales for under $50. If you have run through all the options here and your Ring Doorbell is still acting up, I would consider buying a replacement.
Alternatively, if it’s a fairly new device, you might be able to return it to a retailer. Also remember that if you have a Ring Protect Plus or Pro plan, the doorbell might be covered under Ring’s extended warranty. It’s worth checking this, before buying the replacement yourself.
