How to set up motion zones on your Ring security camera or doorbell

Motion zones are an easy way to customize how your live-streaming security camera detects activity. Ring security cameras and doorbells let you create three detection zones for free. For an outdoor camera or doorbell, you can use zones to focus on a walkway -- and avoid swinging branches or cars driving by. An indoor camera, such as the $60 Ring Indoor Cam, can zero in on an entryway and ignore the rest of your house. 

I tested out motion zones with the Ring Indoor Cam. Here are four easy steps to set up motion detection zones yourself in the Ring app. 

Note: You need a Ring security camera or doorbell with an active Ring login for these steps to work, but you don't need a Ring Protect account. 

Click on the device you want

On the app home screen clock on the device you want to customize with motion zones -- in my case, it's my Ring Indoor Cam named "Entryway."

Once you click on the specific device, you'll end up on the overall landing page for that product. This is where you can adjust any of its settings.

Select Device Settings, then Motion Settings 

For motion zones, you'll want to select "Device Settings" on the landing page, and then "Motion Settings." 

Choose Motion Settings directs you to the lain page where you can access all of that device's particular motion settings. From here you can do everything from adjusting the sensitivity of the motion sensor, to creating a motion detection schedule -- and customizing motion detection with up to three zones. 

Select 'Motion Zones' 

Click on "Motion Zones" in the "Motion Settings" section of the app. This takes you to a view of what your camera sees based on its current positioning. My Entryway camera is pointed at the front door and the stairs from the basement to the first floor of the house.

I want to create one motion zone at the front door. The zone is the area that detects motion and Ring then ignores everything else. 

Create your motion zone(s)

Click the plus sign in the upper right corner of the screen to add a motion zone. The zone will pop up on the middle of the screen, but you can use the dots to move it around. This first one is for the front door, so I'm renaming it from the default "Zone 1" to "Front Door." 

When you click the 'X' to leave the page, the app should save your changes and make your new motion zone(s) active. And that's it -- you're done.

Want to learn more about Ring? Check out my post on how to install the Ring Peephole Cam, a battery-powered video doorbell that replaces a standard peephole.