A Simple Guide On How To Save Ring Doorbell Video Without Subscription

A lot usually happens at our front door. It’s the main entry point into your house, meaning it welcomes all the invited and uninvited guests. In this article, I’m going to review and show you how to save Ring doorbell video without a subscription.

Needless to say, the system is pretty easy and straightforward to use. Ring engineers usually design their video doorbells in the simplest styling, with intuitive controls and configurations. So, even managing the captured footage might not need contacting the support team, especially if you have handled security cameras before.

As a matter of fact, any of the Ring video doorbells is a surveillance device in every way only that it has to be within reach. On their end, CCTV cameras are supposed to be out of sight to prevent potential intruders from disengaging them.

You may also like: Ring video doorbell 2 vs pro

Long story short, let’s now open the hood of the Ring video doorbell and see how you can save footage without a Ring Protect Plan. Before coming to that, though, let’s have a quick summary of the device to see its capabilities.

An Overview on Ring Video Doorbell

Chart 1

Features	Video Doorbell	Video Doorbell 3	Video Doorbell 3 Plus	Video Doorbell Pro	Video Doorbell Elite
Video Quality	1080P HD	1080P HD	1080P HD	1080P HD	1080P HD
Coverage	155°	160°	160°	160°	160°
Motion Detection	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES
Audio	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES
Wired Power	YES	YES	YES	YES	YES
Battery Power	YES	YES	YES	NO	NO
WiFi Connectivity	2.4GHz	2.4GHz 5.0GHz	2.4GHz 5.0GHz	2.4GHz 5.0GHz	2.4GHz 5.0GHz
Pre-Roll Feature	NO	NO	YES	NO	NO
Smart Integration	YES (Alexa)	YES (Alexa)	YES (Alexa)	YES (Alexa)	YES (Alexa)
View Price	Doorbell	Doorbell 3	Doorbell 3 Plus	Doorbell Pro	Doorbell Elite

About the Video Doorbell

When it comes to front door surveillance, the Ring video doorbell is very convenient and effective. It allows you to see who’s standing or walking towards your door in real-time whether you’re at home or not.

The doorbell has a built-in image sensor and microphone that allows capturing video footage with audio. Furthermore, it has a speaker that you can use to communicate with whoever is knocking. So, you necessarily don’t have to be present so that you can answer the door.

Regardless, Ring Company currently has 6 different series of video doorbells. In all the models, the majority of the features are identical but still, each of them has few unique touches. So, the user experience will certainly vary.

For instance, Ring Video Doorbell 3 and Ring Video Doorbell 3 Plus have almost all the features alike. The single distinction between the two is on the Pre-Roll feature that allows viewing of what has happened a few seconds before a triggered event.

In other words, the Pre-Roll feature works in the same way the “3-Second Lookback” feature works on the Arlo Pro 2 camera.

Advantages of Ring Video Doorbell

Regardless of the model, the main benefits of having a Ring video doorbell are pretty the same. They include:

Improve Security: it has an inbuilt camera that allows you to monitor the front of your door while even miles away.
Provide valuable evidence: Its hidden camera can record footage and provide valuable evidence when needed

Deter crime: All Ring video doorbells have a two-way talk. So, you can ward off the potential intruder before breaking into your property

Increase home value: That’s right. You can sell your property at an extra fee by just adding simple monitoring technologies like video doorbell and security cameras

Insurance discounts: Insurers tend to offer discounted subscriptions to homeowners with security camera systems and this doorbell is one of them.

How Ring Doorbell Store the Captured Footages

At this point, I’m assuming you have already mounted your Ring video doorbell and it’s already running. The doorbell should also be configured with your home WiFi so that you can be receiving activity notifications to your mobile device.

In case you have used a security camera remote viewing before, the same techniques apply to the Ring video doorbell. If new to this kind of tech, it’s also no big deal and there are no special skills you need to learn.

Immediately a person or object moves across the motion sensor, the built-in camera triggers a recording of picture/ video. Then, pushes it to your mobile device, which can either be a smartphone, tablet, or PC.

Meanwhile, your mobile device will pop up the sent alert and after tapping it, it will now take you to the Ring app. From there, you can see a live recording of what triggered the camera’s motion sensor and use functions like two-way communication.

If unfortunate and the motion alert happens to be from a potential burglar, the first thing you’ll need to do is saving that footage. Hence, collecting enough evidence that you can use against that intruder who wanted or succeed to break into your home.

Even so, you have to be a member of the Ring Protect smart plan if you’re to save the footages through the app. In simple words, this paid member involves creating your cloud plan that will be holding your surveillance files.

Do You Need An Active Ring to protect Plan for Remote Viewing

A simple answer, NO. You don’t need to have the Ring Subscription to continue using your video doorbell and remote viewing. The Protect Plan is just like any other security cloud service that you use to back up your important files. So, it holds your camera’s video history and those you’ve saved for later use.

But the stored videos are not meant to stay on the cloud storage forever. The security provider guarantees their stay for 60 days, after which they then remove them. Therefore, you should always download your saved recordings to local storage so that you can have them for as long as you want.

Is the Paid Ring Protect Plan Worth It?

Without a doubt, the paid subscription is worth every penny if you want to get the best out of your video doorbell.

At the moment, Ring is offering only two Protect Plan plans and they’re very affordable. One of these plans is the Basic package, which is currently selling at $3/ month or $30/ year. The second package is the Plus plan that’s available at $10/ month or $100/ year.

Each of these plans includes particular features, with the Plus being the “Full Package” for your monitoring needs.
Here’s a table that summarizes the various features that each of the Ring Protect Plans has to offer.

Chart 2

Available Features	Free plan	Basic Plan	Plus Plan
Motion-trigged Alerts	YES	YES	YES
Real-time Live Streaming	YES	YES	YES
Two-way Talk	YES	YES	YES
Lifetime Theft Protection	YES	YES	YES
60-day video history	NO	YES	YES
Video Saving & sharing	NO	YES	YES
Snapshot Capture	NO	YES	YES
People Only Mode	NO	YES	YES
24/7 Professional Monitoring	NO	NO	YES
Warranty Extension	NO	NO	YES
Ring Products Discount	NO	NO	YES

Like I’ve just said, the Ring Protect Plus gives the users access to all the intended benefits. For the “Professional Monitoring”, it means the Ring team is also keeping an eye on your doorbell’s camera activity. Then, when they detect an instance of a break-in or other security concerns, they dispatch emergency responders.

Meanwhile, the Ring Protect Free plan has only the basics for remote access and a free replacement warranty for the stolen devices. It doesn’t give you access to any of the cloud benefits, including video saving and sharing.

However, this doesn’t mean you can’t save an ongoing crime from the doorbell camera if you wanted. Yes, you can save the ongoing live footage and very easily.

How To Save Ring Doorbell Video Without Subscription

Usually, almost every smartphone has a function that allows you to record the screen. Whether you have iOS, Android, or Google, the feature is mostly on the phone by default. It’s what most mobile gamers use to record a live video as they game. So, you too can use it to record live footage from your Ring doorbell camera.

Depending on the phone, the recorded file can either save on the phone’s internal storage or the installed memory card. And it will save the video with/ without sound depending on how the phone is streaming.

In case you realize your mobile device doesn’t support screen recording, there’re countless apps that you can use.

Notes:

While I’m tech-savvy, I have very little knowledge of coding. However, am very positive there’s a method (coding) that can trick a device like Ring doorbell into storing the recordings on designated devices. This, however, means the stored video recording will be the motion-triggered clip like that saved on the cloud storage in paid subscriptions.

Final Verdict:

The Ring video doorbell 2 is a true lifesaver. Not only is it affordable, but very convenient when it comes to taking care of your home. It features a simple, yet sleek design and that is very easy to use.

If you have an open, curious mind, by the way, you won’t even need to hire a professional electrician to install your doorbell. Even better, you won’t need to rewire your house if the wiring of the previous doorbell is still functional.
That said, though, the answer on whether to pay or not for the Protect Plan is pretty straightforward.

If you would want to know what has been happening in your absence, the Basic and Plus Protect package does keep the motion-activated video clips. The video clip is usually 15 seconds long but if you’re using the Video Doorbell 3, there is an extra 4-second lookback.

So, the paid subscription has the assurance that you can still see whoever was at your door, whether you heard the push notification or not.

For the Free Ring Protect plan, on the other hand, you can see real-time live footage and enjoy a seamless two-way talk. However, the company won’t allow you to save the video recordings on their cloud until you subscribe to their cloud service.

Fortunately, this post has highlighted a simple trick that you can use to record on your mobile device at no fee. I hope you found it helpful.