Motion Zones allow you to define a specific area that you want your Ring doorbell or security camera to cover while ignoring everything outside that area. In order to get proper motion detection, battery-powered cameras using passive infrared motion detection, should not be placed facing a window or in front of a glass door.
Setting Up Motion Zones for your Ring Device
Open the Ring App:
- Tap the three lines on the top left
- Tap Devices
- Tap the device you want to adjust
- Tap Motion Settings
- Tap Edit Motion Zones on the top of the screen
- Tap Main Zone on the bottom to adjust the main area
- Tap Done on the top right to Save your zone
To find out more about Customizable Motion Zones for Ring battery-powered devices, click here.
Pro Tips: Making the Most of Your Motion Zones
Look for high traffic areas: When adjusting your Motion Zones, take note of any high traffic areas, such as busy streets or sidewalks. If you receive too many motion alerts from your Ring device, you may have to adjust the motion zone so it does not include these areas.
Get familiar with the Motion Settings control in your Ring App: In addition to the Motion Zones control, there are two other tools there that can help you adjust the number of motion alerts you receive:
- While you have a Motion Schedule active, you will not be able to turn on your Motion Alerts (during the time the Motion Schedule is set to turn them off). You will have to disable the Motion Schedule to enable the Motion Alerts for that time again.
- This is strictly for the alert. If you set up a Motion Schedule, you will not receive an alert during that time frame, however, the Ring device will still record.
- Motion Scheduling: The motion scheduling control allows you to schedule coverage to avoid receiving alerts triggered by a regular occurrence. For example, if you know your garbage always gets picked up between 7:30 AM and 7:45 AM on Tuesdays, you can schedule your motion detection to turn off during that time.
Note: This feature will only affect notifications coming from the Ring App, not from an Alexa-enabled device.
- Motion Frequency: Motion Frequency allows you to tweak your motion detection protocols to provide a balance between consistent alerts and preserving battery life. Ring's Smart Alert algorithm is an internal program that runs inside of your Ring device. It analyzes the traffic patterns of detected motions, looking for repetitive patterns. When it detects such a pattern, it essentially "sleeps" your device for a certain period of time, cutting down the number of motion alerts you'll get from the same set of stimuli. The more times a repetitive pattern of motion continues, the longer the time between issuing motion alerts. There are three settings to choose from:
- Frequently: Your Ring device will capture all events. This option has the shortest battery life.
- Regularly: Captures and notifies you about motions less often. This option has standard battery life. We recommend starting here if you are unsure of which option to choose.
- Periodically: Captures and notifies you about motion even less often. This option has maximum battery life.
For more information on Motion Frequency, please click here.
- Motion Wizard: Optimize your motion detection for your home after answering a few quick questions. We highly recommend you use this as a starting point to set up motion detection for your Ring device.
