Someone walks right up to your front door, and your phone stays silent. No motion alert, no notification, nothing. Meanwhile your neighbor’s Ring catches every passing squirrel.
Missing motion alerts is one of the most frustrating Ring problems — the whole point of the doorbell is knowing what’s happening at your door. The good news: this is almost never a broken device. It’s usually a setting buried in the app or a permission your phone quietly turned off. Work through these 7 fixes in order.
Fix #1: Check Your Phone’s Notification Permissions
The most common cause of silent Ring alerts is your phone, not the doorbell. Start here:
- iPhone: go to Settings → Notifications → Ring → turn on Allow Notifications, and enable Lock Screen, Notification Center, and Banners. Also check that Sounds is on so you hear them.
- Android: go to Settings → Apps → Ring → Notifications → turn on all notification categories, especially Motion Alerts. Make sure it’s not set to Silent.
- On both phones, check that you haven’t accidentally muted Ring in your phone’s Do Not Disturb or Focus settings — see Fix #5 for the full rundown.
If permissions were off, turn them on and walk in front of your doorbell to test.
Fix #2: Turn On Motion Alerts in the Ring App
The Ring app has its own notification switches, separate from your phone’s settings. If either one is off, you get nothing:
- Open the Ring app → tap Devices → select your doorbell.
- Tap Device Settings → Notification Settings.
- Make sure Motion Alerts is toggled ON (green). Do the same for Ring Alerts while you’re here.
- Also check App Alert Tones — pick a distinct tone so you recognize motion alerts instantly.
If the toggle was off, flip it on and test with a walk-by.
Fix #3: Set Up Your Motion Zones
If your doorbell ignores people on the walkway but alerts you about cars on the street, your Motion Zones need attention:
- In the Ring app, go to your device → Device Settings → Motion Settings → Motion Zones.
- You’ll see your camera’s view with zones overlaid. Tap Add Zone or adjust the existing ones.
- Draw zones covering only the areas you care about — your walkway, porch, and driveway. Exclude busy streets and sidewalks to cut false alerts.
- Save, then walk through your new zone to test.
Pro tip: zones that are too small or pointed at the sky are the #1 reason “it never alerts.” Make them cover the ground where people actually walk.
Fix #4: Turn Up Motion Sensitivity
If your zones are right but alerts still don’t come, the sensitivity is probably set too low:
- In the Ring app, go to your device → Device Settings → Motion Settings → Motion Sensitivity.
- Drag the slider up — start at about three-quarters and test. Battery doorbells sometimes need higher sensitivity than wired ones because they sleep between events.
- Also check Smart Alerts (if your plan includes it): make sure Person detection is enabled so people trigger alerts.
Test again after each change. Too high causes false alerts from shadows and branches — find the middle ground.
Fix #5: Check Do Not Disturb and Ring Modes
Your phone or the Ring app itself might be silencing alerts on purpose:
- Phone level: on iPhone, check Focus modes (Do Not Disturb, Sleep, Work) — make sure Ring is in the allowed apps list for each active Focus. On Android, check Do Not Disturb exceptions under Settings → Sound.
- Ring app level: open the Ring app → Modes (bottom bar). If your system is in a Mode with motion alerts disabled, switch Modes or edit the Mode’s settings to allow them.
- Snooze: in the Ring app, check that you haven’t accidentally left Motion Snooze on — tap the bell icon on the device dashboard and make sure snooze is off.
Fix #6: Reinstall the Ring App and Log Back In
If every setting looks right and alerts still don’t arrive, the app’s notification registration may be corrupted:
- Log out of the Ring app first (Menu → Account → Sign Out) — this is important so your devices stay linked to your account.
- Delete the Ring app from your phone.
- Restart your phone, then reinstall the Ring app from the App Store or Play Store.
- Log back in and re-allow notifications when prompted.
This forces a fresh push-notification token between Ring’s servers and your phone, which fixes alerts that mysteriously stopped.
Fix #7: Check If the Doorbell Is Offline, Then Contact Support
A doorbell that can’t reach the internet can’t send alerts at all:
- In the Ring app, check your device’s status — if it shows offline, fix the connection first. A doorbell that keeps dropping WiFi needs the connectivity fixes before anything else will work.
- Check the doorbell’s battery (battery models) or transformer power (wired models) — a dying battery can kill motion detection while the device looks “fine.”
- If the device is online, powered, and every setting above is correct, contact Ring support — at this point it may be a hardware fault with the motion sensor itself.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why am I not getting Ring motion notifications on my phone?
The three usual suspects: your phone’s notification permissions for the Ring app are off (Fix #1), the Motion Alerts toggle in the Ring app is off (Fix #2), or a Do Not Disturb / Focus mode is silencing them (Fix #5). Check all three before anything else.
Why does my Ring detect motion but not send an alert?
If events show up in your timeline but no push notification arrives, the problem is almost always on the phone side — permissions, Do Not Disturb, or a corrupted push token. Work through Fix #1, Fix #5, and Fix #6 in that order.
How do I make my Ring more sensitive to motion?
Go to Device Settings → Motion Settings → Motion Sensitivity and raise the slider, and make sure your Motion Zones actually cover the walkway where people move (Fix #3 and Fix #4). Battery doorbells may need higher sensitivity than wired ones.
Do I need a Ring Protect plan for motion alerts?
No — basic motion alerts and live view work without a subscription. A plan adds video history and Smart Alerts like person detection. If your Ring doorbell keeps going offline, that’s a separate connectivity issue worth fixing first, since an offline doorbell can’t send any alerts at all.
The Bottom Line
Missing motion alerts feels like a broken doorbell, but it’s almost always a settings problem — phone permissions, the app’s Motion Alerts toggle, or zones that don’t cover your walkway. Start with the phone, then the app, then the zones, and test after each change. When every setting is right and the device is online, those alerts come back fast.