How To Set Up Ring End-to-End Encryption

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Rebecca Edwards
By Rebecca Edwards
Jun 26, 2023
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Rebecca helps you stay safe without the stress—30+ yrs in journalism, 12+ in security. Expertise featured by NYT, PBS, Today Show, and more.

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Last Updated: 1 week ago

Updated for accuracy

Learn how to set up end-to-end encryption for your Ring cameras to protect your live and recorded footage.

It seems like privacy and security have never been more important—especially when it comes to security cameras.

If you’ve got a Ring camera, you can tighten up security on your video footage with end-to-end encryption (E2EE) on your Ring camera. End-to-end encryption might sound technical, but Ring makes it super simple to add these extra layers of protection to your video and audio recordings. With video E2EE, no one—including Amazon or law enforcement—can access footage or data without your permission.

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How to set up Ring encryption

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All about Ring's end-to-end encryption

  1. What is end-to-end encryption?
  2. Encryption-compatible Ring devices
  3. How to set up Ring end-to-end encryption
Rebecca Edwards and what is e2ee

What is end-to-end encryption?

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One of the best parts about setting up Ring’s E2EE is that not even Ring or Amazon can access your footage when you have end-to-end encryption.

End-to-end encryption is the technical name for security measures that keep data and transmissions (like emails or texts) from being read or accessed by anyone other than the original sender and receiver of the data.

For security cameras, end-to-end encryption is like a privacy curtain that keeps out any prying eyes or nasty camera hackers. It makes sure your recorded video can be seen only by you—whether you look it up in the app or access it via a notification on your phone.

The end-to-end part means that extra protection completely envelops all of your data and video footage—from beginning to end. It’s a suit of armor that never comes off.

Checklist
How does encryption work?
Remember those cereal box decoder rings? Encryption works a lot like those (but it’s much more secure). The process takes your original footage or file and uses an algorithm to scramble it so anyone who intercepts that file sees gibberish (or ciphertext). The only way to unscramble the ciphertext is by having the key. When you enroll your Ring camera into E2EE, you give yourself the lock and the key so only you can view your footage.

Encryption-compatible Ring devices

Unfortunately, video E2EE doesn’t work with every Ring device or camera in its lineup.

First off, you need to have both the right operating system and a certain version of the Ring app—whether you use iPhone or Android.

We recommend using the most updated version of both the Ring app and your operating system. So if you haven’t done an update in a while, go ahead and do that before you start the end-to-end encryption process.

For iOS users:

  • iOS 17 or newer

For Android users:

  • Android 9 or newer

Video Doorbell Wired, Video Doorbell (1st Gen), Spotlight Cam (1st Gen), Stick Up Cam (1st Gen),  Spotlight Cam (2nd Gen), and Floodlight Cam (2nd Gen) aren't supported for end-to-end encryption.

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Before you get started
Once enrolled, only the mobile devices with permission will be able to access the encrypted cameras. This means you won’t be able to access footage from another device or share clips with others outside of your permissions.

How to set up Ring’s E2EE

Now that you’re all updated and know that your camera is compatible, follow these instructions to set up Ring’s end-to-end encryption.

Step 1: Open the Ring app.

Step 2: Go to the Control Center in the menu.
Tap on Video Encryption.
Select End-to-End Encryption and select to turn it on. 

Ring App video encryption screenshot

Alina Bradford, SafeWise.com

At this point, you can follow the in-app instructions to enroll your Ring account in Advanced Video Encryption. We’ll walk through enrolling your device, getting a passphrase, and testing your device.

Step 3: Generate a new passphrase.

Ring app encryption set up screenshot

Alina Bradford, SafeWise.com

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Do NOT lose this passphrase.

There is no way to recover it if you do, so make sure to store it in a secure password manager or write it down in a safe place. If you lose it, you’ll need to start from scratch, which means losing access to your previous videos and re-enrolling your mobile devices.

Be sure to include all hyphens in your passphrase, no spaces, and enter it in all lowercase letters.

After you’ve safely recorded and locked away your passphrase, tap on Confirm and Continue.

Congrats! Now your Ring account is enrolled in Advanced Video Encryption. Next, you need to give your mobile device permission to access your encrypted Ring videos.

Your videos won’t be protected until you finish the remaining two steps in your Ring app.

Enroll your mobile device

Now that you’ve linked your account to Ring’s E2EE program, you’ll have to select which mobile device can access your Ring camera’s footage. This takes only a few steps.

  1. Go back to the menu and tap Control Center.
  2. Select Video Encryption.
  3. Tap End-to-End Encryption.
  4. Tap Enroll This Device to add it.

Refer to your password manager or written note. And remember, use all lowercase letters, hyphens, and eliminate any spaces. Once you’ve entered the passphrase, the app will enroll your phone, and that’s it.

At this step, you can also grant Ring footage access to other users in your household.

Rebecca Edwards requirements for Ring encryption passphrase

Rebecca Edwards, SafeWise.com

Add your Ring cameras

The only thing left to do is enroll your Ring cameras in Advanced Video Encryption. This step lets you select which cameras you’ll want to encrypt. You don’t have to encrypt every camera in your household, but you can choose multiple devices if you’d like.

  1. Go back to the menu.
  2. Tap Control Center.
  3. Tap End-to-End Encryption.
  4. Tap Enrolled Ring Devices.
  5. Tap Enroll next to each chosen device.
  6. Tap Agree and Continue.

Now you’ve got superhero protection for your Ring camera footage!

Alina Bradford, SafeWise.com

Final word

After you complete setup, go ahead and test your device to make sure everything is working.

For example, if you added encryption to a Ring Doorbell Pro, here’s a quick way to test it:

  • Push the button your doorbell (or trigger motion with a little TikTok dance on the front stoop).
  • That will put your camera to work recording the action and initialize your end-to-end encryption.
  • Then, check to see if you can access the footage from an unenrolled device or if another user (who should no longer have access) can see it.

Now you’ve successfully shut out online creepers.

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Sources

  1. Ring, "Devices Compatible With Video End-to-End-Encryption (E2EE)." Accessed December 19, 2022.