We have seen a lot of chatter about Ring doorbells losing connectivity to the mechanical chime inside (the analog bell/chime inside, on the wall). Typically, their own wireless/digital Ring Chime(s) work just fine (flawlessly, in fact). It is when you are tying them in with your original wired/mechanical chime that this seems to be pop up a lot. Fear not, as it is usually one of three things.
1) Check to make sure that you installed their module (included with the doorbell) properly inside of your mechanical chime. This module is what allows the Ring doorbell to control the chime. If it isn’t properly installed, it will not work.
2) There is a setting within your Ring smartphone app that needs to be enabled. It might get disabled for some reason or came that way from the start. To find it, open the app and make your way to the settings screen of the Ring device in question. There is an additional settings screen via the button marked “Device Settings”. From here, click on “General Settings”, and then “Doorbell Chime Type”. Make sure “Mechanical” is chosen in the drop-down menu, and that “Ring my in-home doorbell” is selected to on position (to the right). Now it should trigger the mechanical chime when you ring the doorbell.
If you don’t see this path within your settings, another reader has pointed out in the comments below an alternative path/method that some users might see within their app. This likely depends heavily on what model of Ring Doorbell that you own. His method is as follows:
“Little different on mine, but went to “Settings” from the main screen, then “In-home Chime Settings”, then “Automatic Chime Detection”, confirmed that I had an In-Home Chime, then that I wanted the Chime to ring when the Ring doorbell was pressed, it worked, verified it worked in the app, and we’re good!!”
3) Amazon Alexa interference. This is a new case that we haven’t run into ourselves but we have seen going around, including in the comments below. If you have Amazon Alexa speakers or Show devices on your network and they are set to broadcast when someone is at that door, some users have apparently found this to conflict with their mechanical chime. Thanks to users Andrew LaFlash and Overson below in the comments, you may find the solution is to go into your Alexa app. Go to your devices and look for your doorbell (however you named it). Once you find it, click on it and look for the option “Doorbell Press Announcements” and disable it.
Clearly, if you want that option enabled, this would be a loss. However, for now, we are just testing things. So head on over to the doorbell and give it a test. If the mechanical chime goes off, then you know this is the cause (and you’ll have to choose which is more important to have working until Amazon releases a fix). If you don’t care about Alexa notifying you when someone is at the door, then you are good to go.
4) A final troubleshoot step if the above two aren’t the issue, is to reset power to the doorbell, forcing it to completely restart–unless yours has an internal battery, in which case see your instructions for the reboot method (reboot, not reset). It’s the quickest way to force it into a reboot/restart and we have heard about cases where this resolves the mechanical chime issue. If this was the fix for you, then it is good to know that it isn’t going to keep happening (it’s a rare experience). However, if for some reason it does happen again, reach out to Ring for assistance, as they may have to replace it.
Reaching out to Ring is the last resort. However, if you are, chances are that you might just have bad hardware. Thankfully, they are great at helping their customers when it comes to the fault of the device itself.
If you found any other tricks we might have missed, feel free to share below in the comments!
Related: Check out our guide on troubleshooting your Ring doorbell (connectivity and sound)
