How to Adjust Your Ring Motion Sensor Range

This article explains how to adjust your Ring doorbell's motion sensor range so it picks up the right motion at the right time.

Adjust the Ring Motion Sensor Range

While the Ring and Ring 2 doorbell alerts you whenever someone is at your door, you may experience an issue with getting false readings. Depending on how close your door is to the nearest road or street, your Ring could be triggered by the heat of a passing car. One of the easiest ways to adjust the sensitivity of your Ring motion sensor is using the settings in the Ring app.

The Ring and Ring 2 doorbells can be adjusted to have a range of between 5 and 30 feet. To change the range and sensitivity of the doorbell, follow these steps:

1. Open the Ring app and tap on the three horizontal dots next to your doorbell at the top of the screen.

2. Select Motion Settings.

3. Choose Motion Zones.

4. From the following screen, you can choose how far the range goes and which of 5 zones will trigger alerts.

5. To toggle zones on and off, simply tap the zone in question.

6. A pop-up will appear prompting you to press the Ring doorbell button to confirm your changes. Once you have done so, press Continue on the app and save your changes.

You can also select Smart Alert to determine how often you get alerts on your phone. Frequent gives you the most alerts while Light sends you the fewest. The more alerts you get, the faster your Ring’s battery will be depleted.

How to Reset the Motion Detector

If adjusting the sensitivity of your Ring Doorbell doesn't reduce false positives, there could be a physical issue that is preventing the Ring motion sensor from working properly. You can perform a hard reset on the motion detector.

1. Use a paperclip to press and hold the reset button. The pinhole is located on the back of the device.

2. The sensor light should begin blinking. Hold the button down until the blinking stops.

3. Take off the cover from your motion sensor and remove the battery.

4. Replace the battery and put the cover back on the device.

How to Reset the Contact Sensor

Alternatively, you may also try resetting the contact sensor to ensure that your Ring doorbell is picking up the motion you want it to capture and not motion that isn't a threat.

1. Remove the cover from your Ring doorbell and remove the battery. 

2. Press and hold the tamper button located by the antenna.

3. Insert the battery while holding the tamper button.

4. Once the light starts flashing, hold the button until it stops flashing.

5. Put the cover back on the device.