A Ring Battery Doorbell Plus spends most of its life asleep, waking only for a press or a motion event, so when its clip times look wrong the first thing to understand is where the time comes from. It does not come from a clock you can set on the doorbell, and Ring support cannot set it by hand either. The time shown on each event is worked out in the Ring app from the time zone of the location you saved and from your phone, so errors have two sources, the address and the phone.
The checks in more detail
Take the address first: open Settings and Address in the app, edit the address, choose the proper entry from the list, accept it and save. That step is how Ring re-verifies the location and so refreshes the zone for every Ring device in the home. If you moved house and carried the doorbell with you, it keeps the old zone until you do this, and if your saved address has the wrong state or an old street, every clip is shifted.\n\nNow the phone. The app's displays follow the phone's own zone, which is why you may see one time in a notification and another in the timeline.
Check that the phone's date and time are set to automatic, and be aware that traveling into another zone moves the phone, and so the displayed times, even though the doorbell has not moved. Update the app, and turn off any VPN, since a VPN that places you in another country changes the zone the app sees. To check, press the doorbell, wait for the event, and compare its time with your watch in both the notification and the timeline. If the clip time matches your watch in one and not the other, the phone is the cause.
Older clips keep their original stamps. Because this doorbell is asleep between events, there is no stuck clock to restart, and removing the battery will not help the time, although it is a fine cure for other faults. If the time is still wrong after the address and phone are right, remove the doorbell and add it again, then contact Ring support with screenshots. Write down the date you made the change, so you can explain a sudden jump in clip times to a neighbor, an insurer or the police.
Differential
Likely causes of “Ring Battery Doorbell Plus shows the wrong time, state or sensor reading”, and how to tell them apart
- 1
A wrong saved address
What separates it Every clip is shifted
How to confirm Re-verify the address in Settings and Address
- 2
A phone zone that moved
What separates it The notification and timeline disagree
How to confirm Set automatic time and check where the phone is
- 3
A VPN
What separates it The app sees another country
How to confirm Turn the VPN off
- 4
A doorbell moved to a new home
What separates it The old zone persists
How to confirm Update the address
- 5
An old app
What separates it Odd or mixed times
How to confirm Update the app and the phone
Before you touch a setting
Record this first — changing settings destroys the evidence
- The notification time against your watch
- The timeline time against your watch
- The saved address
- Whether a VPN is on
Try in this order
0 of 6 completedOpen Settings, Address
ReversibleEdit and save the address.
Set the phone to automatic time
ReversibleAnd check its zone.
Turn off any VPN
ReversibleAnd update the app.
Press the doorbell
ReversibleAnd compare notification and timeline.
Note the date of the change
ReversibleFor future clips.
Remove and re-add it
ReversibleIf it is still wrong.
Model-specific
What is true of this model and not of its siblings
- Asleep between events
- The doorbell has no clock to restart.
- Two sources
- Address and phone.
Stop boundary
When this stops being a self-service repair
- !If the time stays wrong after the address and phone are right, remove and re-add the doorbell and contact Ring support
- !Keep screenshots
- !Note the date of the fix
Evidence ledger
Sources behind this answer
Owners whose recordings show the wrong time.
Re-verify the address, phone time settings and VPN checks for the wrong time.
Motion zones, sensitivity and schedules.
Exact questions
Common questions
Where does the clip time come from?+
The saved address and your phone's zone.
Can I set the time on the doorbell?+
No.
Will removing the battery help?+
Not for the time.
Do old clips change?+
No.