Motion Zones allow you to define a specific area that you want see while ignoring everything outside that area. By drawing your Motion Zones to exclude frequently accessed areas such as public paths and roads, you can reduce the number of "false positive" motion alerts (such as cars driving by) and greatly increase the effectiveness of your Ring device.
This article will help you set up your Motion Zones and give you some tips in making them more effective.
Setting Up Motion Zones
- Tap the three lines on the top left of the Dashboard screen.
- Tap Devices.
- Tap the specific device that you want to adjust.
- Tap Device Settings.
- Tap Motion Settings to customize your Motion Zones.
- Tap the Add a Motion Zone button, and you’ll see a colored box appear.
- Follow the on-screen directions, and drag the points of the colored box to expand or contract the area you want to monitor.
- Once your Motion Zone is in place, if you’re happy with the placement, press Save.
- If you want to customize the name of your Motion Zone, simply tap the white box that displays the default name (either “Zone 1,” “Zone 2” or “Zone 3”), and enter the new name in its place. Then press Save.
- Repeat this process to create up to three Customizable Motion Zones.
Pro Tips: Making the Most of your Motion Settings
Redraw your Motion Zones: When creating your motion zones, note the potential paths people take to approach and redraw your motion zones to exclude areas where you very rarely see people such as behind locked gates, hedges, or walls
Be sure to have at least one active Motion Zone: You must have at least one active motion zone or have a default zone in place (if you have a battery-powered device), or you will not receive any motion alerts.
Get familiar with the Motion Settings control in your Ring App: In addition to the motion zones control, there are other tools there that can help you adjust the number of motion alerts you receive:
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- Motion Scheduling: The motion scheduling control will allow you to schedule brief interruptions in coverage to avoid receiving alerts triggered by a regular occurrence. For example, if you know your garbage always gets picked up between 7:30 and 7:45AM on Tuesdays, you can schedule your motion detection to turn off during that time.
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- Important: During the time that motion alerts are disabled due to motion scheduling, you can’t turn on motion alerts manually without cancelling the motion schedule.
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- Motion Scheduling: The motion scheduling control will allow you to schedule brief interruptions in coverage to avoid receiving alerts triggered by a regular occurrence. For example, if you know your garbage always gets picked up between 7:30 and 7:45AM on Tuesdays, you can schedule your motion detection to turn off during that time.
Motion Sensitivity Slider: This slider will help you fine tune the area your devices covers to trigger a motion event.
Important: Your view of options may look different unless you have the latest version of the Ring app.
To see the version of the Ring app that you have, tap on the three lines at the top left of the screen. At the very bottom of the menu on the left, you'll see the app version number. The instructions below are visible with version 5.32.0 or later.
To make Ring app updates for Apple or Android, you'll need to go to the App Store or google Play Store.
To learn how to update apps at the App Store for Apple, click here.
To learn how to update apps at the Google Play Store, for Android, click here.
To Adjust the Motion Sensitivity Slider for Battery-Powered Devices:
- Tap the three lines on the top left of the screen.
- Tap Devices.
- Tap the device you want to view.
- Tap Motion Settings.
- Tap Motion Sensitivity.
- Adjust the Motion Sensitivity Slider.
- Then Save in the upper right.
To Adjust the Motion Sensitivity Slider for Wired devices follow these steps:
- Tap the three lines on the top left of the screen.
- Tap Devices.
- Tap the device you want to view.
- Tap Motion Settings.
- Adjust the Motion Sensitivity Slider from Less Motion to All Motion.
Optimizing Motion Detection: Motion detection can sometimes trigger false alerts because of moving trees, lightning, the rising or setting sun, reflections off a shiny object, headlights or shadows.To reduce the number of false alerts, you need to look at your Motion Zone the way your Ring does. That might mean removing shiny objects, cutting back certain tree branches that create moving shadows on the ground or even angling the Ring itself to avoid the sun. You can also change the slider to People Only to minimize the number of false alerts,