Do Ring Indoor Cameras Record 24-7?

Installing an advanced home surveillance system is a great way to keep your home safe from both external and internal threats. One of the most popular comes from the company called Ring, now owned by Amazon. Ring’s high-quality products make up a home security ecosystem that’s accessible at any moment.

With its indoor cameras, Ring allows you to keep the inside of your house in check at all times. You can see if your dogs are behaving or if there’s perhaps a home invader. Although that’s all useful, the question is, can you record everything that the cameras pick up 24/7?

Is 24/7 Recording Possible?

Unfortunately, the Ring Indoor Cam doesn’t allow you to record the entire days’ worth of video. What’s more, right out of the box the camera will only allow you to access the live stream. You can forget about recording any video footage if you don’t sign up for one of the two available Ring Protect plans.

If you don’t want to pay any subscription for your in-house Ring surveillance, there are still some neat features you can get. You can access the camera’s live feed directly from your smartphone. There’s also a two-way communication that allows you to speak with whoever is on the other side. Another neat feature is the notifications sent to your cellphone whenever the camera detects motion.

Although Ring cameras don’t provide 24/7 recording, the entry-level Ring Protect Basic plan does come with basic recording options. And if you want to use the 24/7 monitoring feature, you’ll have to go for Ring Protect Plus.

Getting the Recording Feature

When you sign up for the basic Ring Protect plan, you’ll unlock the video recording feature of your Ring indoor cameras. Of course, this option doesn’t come with a “record button” that you can hit anytime you want and let it run.

Instead, the camera will start recording only when it detects motion, which can be quite convenient. For one, you won’t have to fast forward through hours of static video until you get to some action. Thanks to this feature, you’ll have the list of all motion event videos as they happened.

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There’s only one caveat here. Regardless of how long the motion event persists, Ring cameras will only record the first 60 seconds. After that, you won’t know what actually happened if you’re not watching it live on your phone. A good thing about this feature is that it will also include the five seconds that came before the actual event.

Another thing to note is that any video the camera records will not be saved locally. Instead, all the video footage goes directly to the dedicated cloud storage on Ring’s servers. Of course, you can access these videos using the Ring app.

The videos will be available for the next 60 days. After 60 days, the footage is automatically deleted. If you want to save your videos, you can download them to your phone or computer. Another pretty useful thing that Ring offers is video sharing. This allows you to share any of the recorded videos directly on the app without having to download them first.

Is 24/7 Recording Really Necessary?

Ring’s approach to video recording seems user-friendly overall. Even then, there are certain situations where you might find the 24/7 recording useful.

First of all, you can remove any possibility that the camera’s motion detectors aren’t sensitive enough. Depending on the motion detectors built into the camera, it may fail to pick up tiny movements at a distant corner. If you’re able to review the entire footage, chances are you might catch something the camera didn’t.

Second, if you have 24/7 footage of the inside of your home, you can prove the absence of people during a certain period of time. You never know when this information might prove useful.

Another example is if a fire started as a result of some malfunctioning wire installation. Since all video recordings are kept on the cloud, you’ll be able to show that no one was operating any electric equipment at that moment. Even if the camera is to be destroyed soon, this may support your insurance claims.

Getting the 24/7 Monitoring

Now that you know that Ring Indoor Cams don’t record non-stop, you might want to go for the 24/7 monitoring feature. Of course, you’ll have to assess whether you need it at all. Although this might sound useful, it may not be entirely necessary for everyone. Remember that these cameras will notify you as soon as there’s any unexpected activity in your home so you can check it out on your phone.

Are you using Ring Protect Plus for 24/7 surveillance of your home? Do you find it useful or is it redundant? Please share your experiences in the comments section below.