Ring video doorbells are great right? You can see who’s at the door, and even talk to them – from the comfort of your own bed if you want to! The catch though? You have to actually realize someone is there.
When someone rings your Ring doorbell, let’s face it, life is busy, and sometimes you don’t hear it the first time. If they ring it again shortly thereafter, Ring decides it’s not going to ring again. Now what? How are you going to know someone was there, aside from a lingering notification badge on your phone that you may not notice until much later? Fortunately, there are solutions.
What Are Ring Video Doorbells?
Ring video doorbells are a major part of Ring’s line of smart home products. They allow users to see and hear people who come to the door.
They currently come in a few different versions such as:
- Video Doorbell (2020 release)
- Video Doorbell 3 & 4
- Video Doorbell Wired
- Video Doorbell Pro and Pro 2
- Video Doorbell Elite (a PoE doorbell)
The Video Doorbell 2020 release, 3, and 4 run on a battery that must be removed and recharged when it runs low. With the Ring 2020 release, however, the battery cannot be removed. You’ll have to take down the entire doorbell and charge it that way.
The Wired, Pro, Pro 2, and Elite are all wired versions that receive their power via wires. Because of the intricacies of electrical wiring, it’s advisable that you have these wired versions professionally installed (especially if discussions of the required resistors and diodes scare you!).
Most of Ring's video doorbells use Wi-fi to connect to the internet and the Ring app, with the exception of the Video Doorbell Elite. The Elite runs on PoE, or, Power over Ethernet. This means that it connects to power and the internet via an Ethernet cable, instead of using Wi-Fi or a battery.
The means by which all of these Video doorbells are set up and controlled, is the Ring app. This is where you’ll set up all of your parameters, such as Motion Detection Zones, as well as how long your cameras record video. You also get to choose your notification settings.
When you link them with a Chime, you can also hear the doorbell throughout the house.
Unfortunately, however, these notification settings don’t allow for notice if someone rings your doorbell more than once in quick succession. So why do they only Ring once?
Why do Ring Doorbells Only Ring Once?
So let’s say you’re in the shower getting ready for the day. Someone comes to the door and rings your Ring doorbell. Moments later, you step out of the shower – and you have no idea that someone was at the door until you check your phone several minutes later and see an old notification.
Now the person is long gone, and they’ve texted or left you a message saying they rang more than once – but you missed it. Why is this?
When someone rings your Ring Video Doorbell, if you have a Chime linked to it, the Chime will ring, and a notification will be sent to your phone or other smart device. If you don’t have a Chime linked, you will only get a notification sent to your phone.
The first time the person Rings, the Chime will go off. However, if the person rings the bell again shortly thereafter, the Chime will not go off. Your phone may not go off again either.
Your Ring doorbell is programmed to only notify you if someone is at the door once per recording. What does this mean? If the Video Doorbell is still recording from the first time someone rang your bell, it will not notify you that the person has rung the doorbell again, until after that recording stops.
This can obviously become a problem, especially if you’re expecting an important visit and miss the first ring. Despite complaints, Ring has yet to remedy the situation, and it’s not clear if they ever will.
So what do you do in the meantime?
How to Fix Ring Doorbells That Only Ring Once
After a few missed rings, you’ve had enough and need to figure out how to remedy this problem. But how? Ring themselves hasn’t offered a solution thus far, and there’s only so much you can do in the Ring app settings.
Fortunately, especially if you make use of a smart home hub, there may be a couple of solutions.
Solution #1: Linked Devices in the Ring App
Though there isn’t much more you can do in the Ring app for the Ring Video Doorbell settings, there may be a solution if you use other Ring products as well, such as smart lights. In the Ring app, there’s a section where you can have another device react if someone rings your Ring doorbell.
Once you've opened the Ring app and gone to the settings for your video doorbell, you would then go to Linked Devices.
Here you can set up routines with your other Ring devices, as long as they’re set up in the Ring app.
In the case of smart lighting, for example, you can have a light come on whenever someone rings the bell. It helps greatly if this light is designated specifically for reacting to the doorbell, otherwise you could overlook it.
In addition, you could have the light turn on in a specified color that’s solely to indicate that someone is at the door.
Solution #2: Ring App Settings
Since the Ring app won’t notify you of another ring until the recording of the first event is finished, adjusting event recording time might prove useful.
In the Ring app, you have the choice of recording anywhere from 15 seconds to 2 minutes.
Setting the recording time to say, 15 or 30 seconds can help make sure that the recording finishes sooner, making notifications possible again. It’s unlikely that someone will ring the bell again within this time frame – unless they’re really impatient. Any new ring after the recording is finished, will trigger a new notification.
Solution #3: Smart Home Routines
If you happen to use a smart home hub such as Amazon’s Alexa, you can create a routine that helps you realize that someone is at the door. This could involve a voice recording coming from your smart home hub, or, like with the Ring app, having a light come on.
With a smart home hub, however, you have a few options that aren’t available when using only the Ring app. For example, in addition to having your lights display a certain color when someone rings the bell, you can have them come on at specific intervals.
With Amazon’s Alexa, you have several options for smart home automations. For one, there’s an option to add a ‘Wait’ into the routine.
With this, in addition to having your specified smart home light come on when someone rings the bell, you can create a routine that makes it blink.
The wait will designate intervals, or pauses between the light being on and off, thereby creating a blink effect that will definitely get your attention and alert you to someone being at the door.
You can also get your smart home hub to tell you that someone is at the door. In the Alexa app, when creating Routines, you have a plethora of options for when someone rings the bell.
One gives you the ability to have Alexa say a customized message when someone rings the bell. You can also have her send you a message to your smart device.
These are just samples of some of the many options you have to create Routines for your doorbell in the Alexa app.
Other Video Doorbell Options
If the workarounds for the Ring video doorbell don’t work for you, there are other options available when it comes to video doorbells.
For one, there is Google Nest.
Users get their notifications, even if someone rings the doorbell more than once. However, a small subset do experience a similar issue as with Ring, and their Nest doorbell will only ring once. This, however, seems to happen only with older versions and has been rectified in newer versions.
Other popular video doorbell options include the Wyze Video Doorbell, Arlo, and Blink. However, it’s to be noted, that you still run the risk of not hearing the doorbell if it’s pressed a second time while the first recording is still going. In fact, Arlo users report this exact issue with their own video doorbells.
Most video doorbells operate in a similar fashion, and are a useful tool in home security and convenience – even if they do experience occasional issues.
Getting the Notification
Ring video doorbells are great tools for home security – when you actually get your notifications. Knowing if someone is at the door is key. However, if someone rings the bell again, while the camera is still recording from the first ring, you won’t know. Fortunately, there are simple solutions to this.
Altering some settings, as well as setting up routines in the Ring or your smart home hub’s app, can help you to realize someone is at the door – even if your Chime doesn’t ring.
