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Ring Doorbell Chime Buzzing

I’ve had a Ring video doorbell for about two years now. All of a sudden, last week, after someone rang the bell, the chime started vibrating and making a humming noise.

I removed the cover for the indoor chime and noticed the metal rod that strikes the plate was vibrating rapidly, causing the whirring, humming noise. It was like it was stuck between trying to ring and not ringing.

It had never done this before. The only way to get the buzzing to stop was to disconnect the power. Disconnecting power causes two major problems. First, the Ring device will no longer charge. Second, the indoor chime won’t ring when someone hits the doorbell.

Looking online there seem to be plenty of reports of people having trouble with buzzing chimes, usually when they first connect the doorbell and sometimes after a month or two. I didn’t see any reports of this occurring after one year, let alone two. Maybe there was one report and the person said it was the Ring doorbell going bad and they had to replace it. I was sure hoping that wasn’t my issue. A two year lifespan for a $200 doorbell is not a good long term solution.

I called Ring and unlike when I called support for installation issues when I got the device, I now had to sit on hold for a pretty long time, maybe 30 minutes. The person who answered was nice enough. He asked me to email him a picture of the doorbell’s bracket and wiring, so I disconnected the doorbell and emailed him a picture while we were on the phone. He said everything there looked good. He then asked me for the name and model of my chime unit. I have some generic brand that the builder has installed. The phone support person asked me to send him a picture of the unit. I know it isn’t on their approved chime kid list, but I explained it worked fine for almost two years, that I doubt it is a compatibility issue now. He agreed. He put me on hold, checking in every few minutes and then told me that the company is aware of a recent issue that is causing the buzzing noise issue and they are working on pushing out a firmware update which should fix the problem. He said he would email me when the update is complete.

After a week I didn’t hear anything back. I went ahead and reconnected the electrical wiring today and fortunately, there is no buzzing, the doorbell chime works when someone pushes the doorbell, and device shows as hardwired again so it should be charging.

Hopefully the problem has been solved on their end and they got a firmware fix that will keep it fixed. I can only guess they may have changed some electrical current settings to either speed or slow charging and that too much or too little current being sent did causing the buzzing problem.

Time will tell if this fix will stick.

6 thoughts on “Ring Doorbell Chime Buzzing”

  1. I have that issue now, I did what you did with disconnecting the power and put it back on again, I also have that chime pro that is hook up with the doorbell and it wouldn’t chime when the doorbell bottom was pressed. When I disconnect the power the the ring doorbell and let run by the battery the ring chimer stops buzzing.

    Any resolution???

  2. I have not had any buzzing return since I plugged it back in. I did get an email a few weeks later saying the firmware had been updated and they hoped that fixed the issue. I have noticed that my doorbell doesn’t always fully ring when someone pushes the button on the doorbell. It makes more of a sickly hum/ring that I wouldn’t hear if I were not nearby. I suspect they tried making adjustments to the amount of power going to the device to try to keep the battery fully charged, but too much power must have led to the buzzing. Just a complete guess on my n part, because otherwise I don’t know how a firmware update could make any difference. It could also be that my doorbell is started to fail but the problem is only intermittent right now. I really hope that isn’t the case. It would be an expensive device to have to replace after such a short time.

  3. July 2019, this happened to me after doorbell functioned perfectly for two weeks. Wonderful support person walked me through diagnosing the problem, sent her photos and then instructed me how to re-set the doorbell. Basically you “ADD” a new unit which erases the first one. Everything works perfectly now. No real explanation for why it went haywire.

  4. I had the exact same problem. After one year of no issues at all, the Ring doorbell wouldn’t turn on and the doorbell chime would buzz. It turned out that the wires connecting to the Ring doorbell was shorted! The wire insulation had worn out and the bare wires were touching each other. I was able to fix by wrapping electrical tape over the exposed parts of the wire.

  5. By any chance are you using a jet pack to connect to your Ring? We were and had the loud buzzing sound. We replaced the SIM card in the jet pack and the buzzing went away. Could just be a coincidence. But worth investigating!

    1. I’m not sure what a Jetpack is for the Ring doorbell but I know we don’t use one. We just have ours hardwired to the chime that was connected to our original wired doorbell the house came with. I do think our electrical hookup is a bit unusual but I haven’t had any more buzzing since. I’m thinking there may have been some update that changed the power draw and caused the buzzing but I’m just glad it isn’t doing it anymore. Thank you for sharing your experience as it will likely help others.

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