Ring Contact Sensor Offline [Quick Fix]
Your Ring contact sensor may go offline because the device is too far away from your Ring Alarm Base Station.
More so, low battery power and internal glitches can also cause the contact sensor to go offline.
In this post, I’ll walk you through some troubleshooting steps to help you get your Ring Contact Sensor back online.
How to Get Your Ring Contact Sensor Back Online
So here are some tips to help you get your Ring Contact Sensor back online:
Remove and Re-insert Your Contact Sensor Batteries
When your Ring contact sensor goes offline, the quickest way to troubleshoot the issue is to remove and re-insert the batteries. After doing this, your contact sensor may display a light that gives you an insight into the issue.
Here’s how to go about it:
- Open your contact sensor’s back cover. This will reveal your battery.
- Remove the battery and wait for about 5 seconds.
- Now, put the battery back into its compartment.
- Close the battery compartment.
A light may now appear on your contact sensor. Study the light to know the issue with your contact sensor.
If the light blinks once, your contact sensor is already connected to the Ring Base Station. However, if the light flashes three times, the sensor is too far away from your Base Station (weak signals).
What if you don’t see any light on your contact sensor? This means your battery is low/completely drained, and you should replace it.
Move Your Contact Sensor Closer to Your Ring Base Station
Since the Ring Contact Sensor only supports Z-Wave connectivity; it cannot connect directly to your router. Instead, the device connects to the internet through the Ring Alarm Base Station.
The Ring Alarm Base Station is compatible with both Z-wave and Wi-Fi devices. This enables the Base Station to connect with your router and transmit the connection to Z-wave devices like your contact sensor.
That said, the Ring Base Station and contact sensor need to be close to each other to stay connected. So, if your contact sensor is too far from the Base Station, the sensor may go offline.
To fix this issue, move your Ring Contact Sensor closer to the Base Station.
If your contact sensor remains offline after this, move on to the next step.
Replace Your Contact Sensor’s Battery
Did you see any light on your contact sensor when you removed and reinserted your battery?
If not, your battery is low. In that case, you’ll need to change the battery.
Follow these steps to replace the battery in your Ring Contact Sensor:
- Slide out the back cover of your contact sensor.
- Take the old batteries out of the sensor.
- Now, insert new batteries into your contact sensor. Your Ring contact sensor needs only 1 CR123A battery.
- Replace the sensor’s back cover.
Your Ring Contact Sensor should come online after you’ve changed the sensor’s batteries. But if the device is still offline, go to the next tip.
Remove and Re-add Your Contact Sensor to the Ring App
Your Ring contact sensor may go offline because it has encountered a glitch.
You can resolve this error by removing and re-adding the contact sensor from the Ring app.
Take the following steps to delete your Ring contact sensor from the Ring app;
- Turn to the back of your contact sensor.
- Next, slide down the cover of the sensor. You’ll now see the battery compartment.
- Remove the battery and close the compartment.
- Now, launch your Ring app and click the Menu on the home screen.
- Select Devices. Then select Alarm.
- Click on Base Station.
- Tap Device Settings and select Advanced Options.
- Next, click on Z-Wave. Then select Remove Z-Wave Device.
- The option Remove Z-Wave Network may appear. Avoid tapping on this option, else all your Z-Wave devices will be removed from the Ring app. Instead, click on the Remove option. You’ll hear the “Removing device, listening for device to remove” from the app.
- Now, close your app. Then open your contact sensor’s cover and re-insert the battery.
- Your contact sensor will now disappear from the Ring app.
After deleting your contact sensor from the Ring app, you’ll need to re-add it to the app.
Here’s how to do that:
- Open your Ring app. Then click on Menu.
- Next, select Devices.
- Click on Set Up a Device and tap Security.
- Now, click on Contact Sensor.
- You may now see a list of contact sensors. Choose your contact sensor in the list.
- The Ring app may give you a set of instructions to follow. Follow all these steps and click on Add Device after completing them.
- Now, you may see other actions. Take these actions to complete the process.
Your Ring Base Station should find your contact sensor now and connect to it. This will bring the contact sensor back online.
However, if the sensor remains offline, continue to the next tip.
Perform a Factory Reset
If your contact sensor is still offline after you’ve applied all the tips above, factory reset the device. A factory reset will remove all functional issues in your contact sensor and replace all the default settings in the sensor.
The following guide will show you how to factory reset your Ring contact sensor:
- Open your contact sensor’s battery cover.
- Take out the battery.
- Find the tamper button on your sensor’s antenna. Press and hold this button.
- While still holding the tamper button, re-insert the battery in its compartment.
- A LED light will start blinking on the contact sensor. Continue holding the tamper button until this light stops flashing.
- Return the battery cover back to its original position.
After factory resetting your contact sensor, re-add the device to the Ring App. Follow the instructions in step 4 (above) to re-add your contact sensor to the Ring app.
If your Ring contact sensor doesn’t come back online after you’ve factory reset the device, report the issue to Ring Support.
Closing Thoughts
If your Ring contact sensor goes offline, remove and re-insert the contact sensor’s batteries to troubleshoot the issue. After this, you may need to reduce the distance between your contact sensor and Base Station or change the sensor’s battery.
If this doesn’t help, remove and re-add the contact sensor to your Ring app. You can also try factory resetting the sensor.
However, if applying all these tips fails to bring the contact sensor back online, contact Ring Support for help.