Home security is at the forefront of everyone’s minds nowadays. More and more people are installing security cameras and video doorbells in their homes to help monitor their homes even when they’re away.
Ring Video Doorbells are one of the most popular video doorbells on the market and provide an incredible amount of functionality and user-friendliness at a price that is relatively approachable.
In fact, the Ring Video Doorbell 4 and Ring Video Doorbell Pro 2 are two of our favorite video doorbells on the market.
Still, there’s no consumer technology out there without the presence of bugs and errors, and the Ring Camera’s Streaming Error can be the most frustrating thing you can encounter.
After all, you probably bought the dang thing to stream video to your phone, thereby monitoring who comes to your door remotely.
Here are the most common causes of the Ring Video Doorbell’s Streaming Error and troubleshooting information to help you fix it!
(1) Your Wi-Fi Is Down or Slow
One of the most common causes of the Ring Video Doorbell’s Streaming Error is a faulty Wi-Fi connection. Most people have suddenly experienced their Wi-Fi going down; there’s no way to escape this.
Ring Doorbells have an internal kill switch that prevents them from working when the internet connectivity environment isn’t functioning correctly.
If your Wi-Fi is down, throttled, or generally slow, you may experience Streaming Errors from your Ring Doorbell since the upload speed may no longer be high enough to support live streaming from your Ring Doorbell.
The Ring Doorbells require an upload speed of at least 1 Mbps to function, but many of the newer models suggest that you use them with Wi-Fi with at least a 2 Mbps upload speed to avoid interruptions and errors.
Troubleshooting this error requires you to troubleshoot your internet connection. Start by testing your internet speed using Ookla’s SpeedTest to ensure that your internet environment can support your Ring Doorbell’s Streaming functions.
If your internet upload speed clocks in at less than 2 Mbps per second, your internet may not be fast enough to support your Ring Doorbell. You’ll need to upgrade your internet speed to a higher speed package to use your Ring Doorbell.
If your Wi-Fi is down, it depends on why your Wi-Fi is down. Most people will experience internet service disruption at some point during their lives. It’s a certainty. So, give it a few minutes and try again.
If it’s still down after a few minutes, check with your Internet Service Provider to ensure no reported outages in your area. If there’s a significant outage, wait for your ISP to fix whatever is causing the outage. If there are no outages, but your internet is still down for long periods, you may have a manufacturing error with your equipment or an installation error that needs to be rectified.
It’s unlikely that you’ll be able to fix any manufacturing or installation errors yourself. So, if you suspect that your internet issues have to do with the equipment or installation, it’s best to defer to your ISP’s technicians, who are trained with the proprietary technology used with their services.
If you supplied your internet equipment, the troubleshooting and repairs would fall on you. So, ensure that your equipment is working as intended and look for any signs of problems with your router online.
(2) Look for Installation Errors Regarding Your Ring Video Doorbell
If your internet is all good and happy, you may have an error or issue with your Ring Video Doorbell’s installation.
Ring Video Doorbells are marketed for their ease of installation, making them ideal for any DIY-ers who want to improve their home security and start a Smart Home system.
However, with any DIY installation, you may have installed something incorrectly. After all, you probably haven’t been trained with the installation of Ring Doorbells (at most, you probably have one… maybe two if you’ve upgraded your previous Ring Doorbell).
Even professionals who have been trained with technology can make mistakes. So, don’t assume that you’re immune to the bugs.
Check the wiring of your Ring Doorbell to ensure that all the wires are connected to the correct inputs and outputs. To begin with, faulty wiring connections can cause your Ring Video Doorbell to stop streaming video or never stream video.
(3) Check for Ring Video Doorbell Firmware Updates
Firmware is the software that tells your Ring Doorbell how to interact with itself and others. It is permanent software written into read-only memory. However, as with any software, it may need to be updated from time to time.
Check to see if your Ring Video Doorbell needs a quick firmware update to solve any issues, conflicts, or discrepancies that might arise when your Ring Video Doorbell is used with your other Smart Home hardware.
To check for firmware updates, open the Ring app on your smartphone and tap the three lines in the upper left-hand corner. Select your Ring camera and tap “Device Health” to provide the Device information.
Go to the Device Details tab and find the Firmware option. If your firmware is up to date, it will say “Up to Date” next. If it shows a number instead, your firmware needs to be updated.
Ring hardware will generally update itself during off-peak hours when it’s unlikely that your Ring Doorbell will see use. While the device updates, do not power cycle the device or press the Setup option. This can cause unexpected problems that may brick your Ring Video Doorbell.
(4) Switch to a Different Internet Band
While the 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi band used to be the standard that everyone used, the 5.0 GHz band is becoming more popular as technology expands and innovates to find new ways to bring lightning-fast connectivity to everyone’s homes.
Older Ring Doorbells were designed to exclusively use the 2.4 GHz band, but newer models can use either the 2.4 GHz or 5.0 GHz band.
Since different devices use different bands, you may have more interference on one band than the other. It’s kind of like being in a room and trying to have a conversation. If you only have one or two people in the room, it’s easy to hear everyone. But fill the room up, and you’ll never hear another person again.
Your bands are similar. With one or two devices connected to a band, the connection will experience almost no interference as the connectivity device only has to juggle the data of one or two devices. With the number of intelligent devices connected to people’s Wi-Fi routers, it makes sense that there’s potentially disruptive data interference on more popular bands.
If your Ring Doorbell is compatible with the 5.0 GHz band (like the newer Pro and Elite models are), try switching your Ring Doorbell over to the 5.0 GHz band to reduce interference and see if that fixes your streaming problem.
(5) Reset the Camera
If all else has failed, you can always try resetting the camera.
Resetting the camera back to its factory defaults will set it back to the point where it can function at the factory default for when it was made. You may have to manually update the camera’s firmware again, as it’s likely that the factory-loaded firmware is out of date by now.
Before we tell you how to reset your camera, we must warn you that doing so will delete all your saved preferences and settings. The doorbell will return to the state it was functionally at when it was sold to you.
To reset your Ring Video Doorbell, find the orange reset button that’s usually located on the back of the unit. Press and hold the button for about 15 seconds until the ring light flashes. Once the light stops flashing, your Ring device has been reset.
(6) App Needs to be Updated
Another possible cause of the Streaming Error is that you are using a dated or malfunctioning app.
The easiest way to check for this is to access the Ring app on another device. If you have both Android and Apple devices, this is even better. For example, if you keep seeing the Streaming Error when viewing your cameras on an Android phone, you can try accessing the app from an iPhone and see if the problem still occurs.
If you are seeing the Streaming Error on one device but not another, it likely has to do with your phone/tablet/computer rather than your Ring camera or video doorbell. In this case, you should update the app first.
If updating the app doesn’t work, try clearing the cache and data. Then, check again to see if the error is resolved.
(7) Other Problem with a Connected Device
This is similar to the above point #6.
If you still haven’t found a fix to your Ring Streaming Error by this point, you need to be certain that the problem exists with your Ring and not the connected device.
As mentioned previously, the best way to check is to connect to your Ring camera from another phone, tablet, or computer than the one that is getting the Streaming Error. If a second device functions properly, then you know there isn’t a single thing wrong with your Ring doorbell.
In addition to updating the app and clearing the cache (both of which were discussed above), you can also try resetting your connected device. For most of us, this is as simple as resetting our phone.
If this still doesn’t work, try uninstalling and reinstalling the Ring app. Although I personally love the smooth function of the Ring app, I won’t pretend that my experience has been seamless and without frustration.
Before contacting Ring support or paying for tech support, I would uninstall/reinstall the app and see if the problem goes away.
(8) Firewall or VPN Blocking the Ring App
If you are trying to use the Ring app via a WiFi network, make sure that there aren’t any network settings that are blocking the Ring app.
Some workplaces use a VPN or firewall that is incompatible with third-party apps like Ring. Likewise with coffee shops and public WiFi.
Therefore, it might make sense to try accessing the Ring app using cellular data (with WiFi turned off) if you are unsure whether your WiFi network uses a firewall or VPN that may be interfering with app function.
(9) Your Subscription Has Lapsed
One final thing should be mentioned. It is possible that your Ring Protect subscription has lapsed.
It is unlikely that this is the reason for your Streaming Error message. However, it is another point to consider. If your subscription isn’t active, then you will need to renew your subscription before continuing to attempt to fix the problem.
Final Thoughts
Unfortunately, if nothing changes, you’ll need to contact Ring Support to get a technician or replacement unit.
Before doing this, it might be worth checking online to see if there is a systemwide problem with the Ring system (from time to time, the Ring system will experience outages just like your ISP or cable provider does).
Frustrating, we know, but the majority of errors with streaming from your Ring Camera can be solved without contacting Ring Support.
Getting Ring Support involved indicates that your camera may have a critical manufacturing flaw that you can’t fix on your own.
Ring cameras and video doorbells are some of the best security products on the market today. But like any internet-connected device with a companion app, they aren’t without flaws!
