The Ring Video Doorbell is a type of security camera system that doubles as a doorbell with intercom features on the side. Among its many models, you can get units capable of live-streaming what’s going on in your front porch via a live feed or save a certain amount of footage in case you’re keeping an eye out for prowlers and whatnot. Unlike run-of-the-mill doorbells, you can depend on the Ring Video Doorbell line to catch predators, wild animals, burglars, package thieves, and more before they can commit a crime in your property.
With that said, it’s quite bothersome to end up with a Ring Doorbell Video Cam that has audio issues. You want audio to come through the video you’re recording as well as audio to go through the intercom when you’re speaking to your guest who rung your doorbell. It’s especially vexing to have a doorbell cam with a doorbell that won’t ring! Is there a way to fix this set of problems relating to audio?
Ring doorbell audio issues: Here’s The Fix!
Here’s the nightmare scenario. Let’s say you got your Ring Video Doorbell Pro today and had your postman ring you up. You pick up your phone while you’re at work and try to speak with him. He seemed upset. When you go back home, you figure out what’s wrong. Although you can hear yourself speak through the intercom feature of the device, the other person on the line might end up not hearing you all that clear.
You can also end up having audio issues in the form of the doorbell not working or you unable to hear any audio from your doorbell camera recordings at all. That’s also troublesome in light of the fact that you bought a Ring Doorbell because it’s a security cam and doorbell in one device.
- Doorbell Audio Not Working: If the doorbell itself is not working then it might be an issue with the unit not getting any sufficient power. Maybe it’s the doorbell your Ring Video is connected to or maybe it’s the built-in doorbell that comes with your Ring Video Doorbell. Regardless, something is amiss power-wise if even the doorbell itself—a low-powered component of any Ring unit—isn’t able to chime. If that’s the case, you need to check the power supply of your unit. It requires 16 volts A/C or more if it’s hardwired and a full 5-10 hour charge if it’s battery-powered.
Additionally, the wire resistance of your wire can become less than the required 16 volts or more due to length or gauge. You need to either get an electrician to ensure that enough power is going through the device. Specifically, you need him to install a higher-voltage transformer to bypass any electrical or wire resistance that’s keeping your device from getting the 16 volts AC it needs to function and ring the doorbell. If the unit you’ve bought uses the existing doorbell instead of doubling as a doorbell itself, you need to check your Pro Power Kit to see if everything is properly installed.
- 2-Way Audio or “Intercom” Not Working: If your unit has 2-way audio that doesn’t seem to work anymore, go to Ring community support for more details. Tell them that the intercom feature of your Ring unit isn’t working anymore or that it only repeats all you say while poorly communicating what’s being said by the person on the other line. You should definitely report it if you tried power-cycling the video doorbell for 5 minutes then turning it on again yet the audio issue still remained. Your mailmen and postmen will be glad you’ve gotten this fixed.
Anyway, before deciding to return the unit to the sender for a refund or replacement if it’s still under warranty, you can instead reset the video doorbell altogether. You should do it one morning and it should fix your 2-way audio immediately. A reset is better than a simple power cycle, whether it’s with your modem, router, or video camera doorbell. You should be able to hear the speaker on the other side without getting an echo in return. Otherwise, call customer service or Amazon to get a properly working unit.
- Only The Video Audio Is Not Working: If only the video audio isn’t working, then you should call community support. Make sure you outline clearly to the call center representative what you mean by having poor audio quality. In other words, tell them it’s the video audio itself that has poor audio and you wish to fix it so that the camera could record the audio before saving the file in the cloud or showing you a live feed of what’s happening.
Like with your 2-way audio issue, the audio from your recording comes from the same audio receiver. Therefore, to fix your video audio recorder so that you can hear what’s going on in your recording instead of getting a video-only feed, you should reset the device as well. Actually, a reset is recommended every time your Ring Doorbell is giving you any problems, from an inability to connect to the Wi-Fi to having audio issues in both your 2-way audio and your video recordings.
- How to Reset Ring Doorbell: If you have audio, video, or Wi-Fi problems with your Ring Doorbell, you can fix it by bringing it back to factory settings through what’s known as a hard factory reset. If it still continues to give you bad audio after the reset, consult your manual or call the Ring community and technical support for more assistance. Depending on the terms and conditions of your warranty, you can get the device replaced or repaired. You can even get a full refund altogether. All the same, here’s how you go about resetting the device.
- Look for an Orange Button: There’s an orange button at the back or spine of the Ring Doorbell, across multiple models and units. It’s the reset button.
- Press and Hold the Button: It’s not enough to push the button once. You need to press and hold the button to let the unit know you mean business. This prevents you from accidentally resetting your device. You need to hold the button for 15-20 seconds before stopping.
- Reset Mode and Blinking Lights: You know you’ve done things correctly if you see the light in front of your doorbell flash or blink a couple of instances. This shows that the proper factory reset is underway and the device is in reset mode now.
- Reset Completion: Wait 5 minutes to allow your device to complete the reset. Afterwards, you can check if that reset has fixed your audio problem (as well as Wi-Fi connection issues, among other things). This reset allows your unit to come back to its factory settings right off of its box.
- Setup Mode versus Hard Reset: Don’t confuse setup mode with the hard reset. Setup mode is what’s mostly done in 1st Generation Ring Video Doorbell units. You’re in setup mode if the light on the front of the unit is spinning. Also, setup mode is like your computer’s safe mode, wherein the smart device broadcasts a temporary Ring Wi-FI network. This is where the Ring app will instruct your unit on how to connect to the Wi-Fi network. As soon as the Ring product connects, you’re good to go with setup mode and it will come back to normal mode.
A hard reset or factory reset is different from the setup mode. For one thing, you can use the reset to allow your unit to go into setup mode if it needs the mode. For another thing, setup mode happens automatically whenever you can’t connect to your home Wi-Fi. Going into setup mode won’t fix your audio problems from either the 2-way audio or the video recording. Instead, you need to do a hard reset on that orange button at the back of your unit to see if that can turn your audio back on or not. Setup mode is exclusively for Wi-Fi troubleshooting.
In Summation
If you’re considering getting a smart doorbell for your home, you won’t go wrong with the Ring Video Doorbell. It’s a security system that doubles as a doorbell and even has intercom or 2-way audio features to boot. However, what are you supposed to do if your 2-way audio becomes 1-way audio with echoes whenever you use it and muffled disbelief on the other line? Usually, you’ll need to do a factory or hard reset on the orange button located at the spine of the unit in order to correct your audio issues in a jiffy.
Otherwise, you might have a defective device that requires you to immediately return it for a full refund or replacement in accordance with what’s specified in the terms and conditions of your warranty. The beauty of the Ring Video Doorbell by Ring Inc, an Amazon subsidiary, is that it stretches and pushes the boundaries of what a doorbell can do, combining it with a smart device security camera system that interacts with the rest of your smart devices like your laptop or smartphone for easy home surveillance anywhere you go. Make sure you’ve gotten a non-defective copy of the unit by first performing a reset or checking if it’s simply not getting enough power to make it work.
References:
- “Doorbell Pro 2 way audio issue“, Ring.com, Retrieved July 9, 2020
- “Ring Video Doorbell (1st Generation) Setup Mode“, Ring.com, Retrieved July 9, 2020
