Ring cameras are designed to ensure the safety and security of your home by providing camera and video monitoring services that you can view remotely from your smartphone or any WiFi-enabled device. However, sometimes, they can become faulty and go offline unexpectedly, making it difficult to monitor your home or assets from a remote place. What could be causing this?
Ring cameras may go offline due to WiFi interruptions or a change in SSID, power outages, or prolonged use without a reboot. Most of these issues can be easily identified and solved. To start, long press the Ring camera’s setup button for about 10 seconds to reboot it and see if that helps.
This Ring camera issue can be frustrating and a real headache, but there are simple steps that you can take to diagnose the problem and fix it on your end. With a bit of patience and some problem-solving skills, you will be back to monitoring your home and assets from a remote place in no time. Let’s look at the specific steps you can take to fix this problem once you’ve figured out the cause.
6 Reasons Why Your Ring Cameras Keeps Going Offline
WiFi Interruptions
Most often, the problem of your Ring cameras (on Amazon) going offline is associated with your home’s internet connectivity and not the cameras themselves.
WiFi connections tend to falter from time to time. Therefore, if you notice that your Ring cameras are offline, you should first check your WiFi router and ensure that all the lights are on and that it’s functioning appropriately.
If it is working correctly and your Ring cameras are still offline, you can reset the router by powering it off and turning it on again after at least one minute.
There are instances where you might experience WiFi router outages. This usually happens when your internet provider schedules maintenance or storms roll through your area.
Therefore, it is vital to ensure that your Ring cameras are working correctly and the WiFi connectivity is not interrupted. You can contact your internet provider for help if you can’t resolve the issue yourself.
Ring Cameras Placed Outside the WiFi Coverage Area
It’s essential to note that Ring cameras operate via a stable connection to the WiFi network. Therefore, if you place your Ring cameras in an area outside the range of your WiFi network coverage, they may show as offline.
This will make your Ring cameras stop functioning correctly until they get within the WiFi coverage range and can connect again.
Therefore, you will need to reconnect your Ring cameras once you get in the WiFi coverage range and confirm that it is back online and functioning properly.
This is a common cause that is easy to fix. You need to move or mount your Ring cameras within the WiFi coverage range and be sure that they’re connected and working properly.
Breaker Box Issues
Typically, your Ring cameras rely on your household’s electrical power source to run. Therefore, your Ring cameras going offline could be associated with the electrical power source — the breaker box.
For instance, there might be a chance that the fuse is blown. This will impact the flow of electrical power to your Ring cameras. As such, you should consider investigating and resetting your breaker. You might require the services of an electrical professional.
Power Disruption
This is a possible cause that can affect the functionality of your Ring cameras — whether your device is hard-wired, operated by battery, or plugged into the home electrical system. In most cases, power disruption can be the result of:
- An unplugged power cord
- Missing or loose batteries
- Batteries that have corroded terminals
- Dead batteries
- Broken, stripped, or loose plugs and wires
This cause is often overlooked, and it could be why your Ring cameras keep going offline. Therefore, it is vital to investigate the areas around your Ring cameras for any possible power disruption issue.
Changes in SSID
In some cases, your internet provider might upgrade their systems and provide your router with new channels with upgraded SSIDs. If the Ring camera can not access these changes, it will start experiencing connectivity problems (going offline).
In this case, you will be required to enable and reset the Ring cameras to factory settings. This will allow it to adopt the upgraded network settings on a new connection and access all the traffic tunnels.
Prolonged Use Without Routine Rebooting
Sometimes, your Ring cameras go offline just because they’ve been in use for a very long time. Therefore, if you check all the above-mentioned potential causes and there is no problem with any of them, prolonged use without routine rebooting could be the issue.
Therefore, you should consider hard resetting your Ring cameras once in a while to prevent the issue of going offline due to prolonged use. It is vital to review the manufacturer’s manual and guidelines to determine how often you should reboot your Ring cameras.
How to Get Your Ring Camera Back Online
Reconnect to the WiFi
If you troubleshoot and identify the cause to be associated with WiFi interruption, you can fix this issue by trying the following:
- Open the Ring camera application on your device
- Navigate to the left-hand side of your device screen and click the three vertical lines
- On the left side of your screen, click on devices
- Select the device that you wish to reconnect to the network
- Click the option device health
- Reconnect to the WiFi
Mount the Ring camera Within WiFi range
Having your Ring cameras outside the WIFi range can also cause them to go offline. If that’s your issue, try the following:
- Remove your Ring camera from its current position
- Walk around your household until it is within the coverage range and can return online
- Mount it at or near that point
Fix the Faulty Breaker Box
This is another possible solution to Ring cameras going offline. Fixing the breaker box calls for safety precautions since electricity is a safety hazard.
For instance, you need to switch off the main electric switch and avoid touching the breaker box with wet hands. Then, proceed as follows:
- Locate the circuit breaker panel
- Locate the main breaker
- Turn the main switch off twice before turning it on
- Get back to the breaker panel and switch on all electric connections
Configure the Ring Camera to the New SSID
- Make sure the internet connection is on
- Switch off the Ring camera
- Unplug it from the power source for about one minute
- Plug it back into the power source
- Switch it on
- Configure the Ring camera to the new SSID
Reboot Your Ring camera
- Long press the Ring camera’s setup button for about 10 seconds
- When released, the flickering light will flash for several minutes
- Reconnect the Ring camera to the internet once the flickering light has stopped
What to Do If None of These Methods Works
Ring camera that go offline are usually easy to fix with the steps as outlined above. However, if the issue persists, you can contact Ring customer support and ask for assistance.
They should be able to guide you on how to solve it or provide you with a support assistant who can help you restore your Ring camera’s functionality.