Skip to main content

How to turn off Amazon Sidewalk on Ring devices

Amazon smart home devices are popular for a lot of reasons (such as their reliability and pricing), but the impressive Amazon Sidewalk network is often overlooked. This intriguing network helps keep your gadgets online even if your Wi-Fi goes out during a storm -- and the company has big plans for its implementation.

Using Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) and 900MHz radio spectrum broadcast signals, Sidewalk networks are transmitted by a variety of Amazon devices in your neighborhood. And when the power goes out at your home, your Amazon devices can still stay online thanks to the Sidewalk network. Sidewalk also helps streamline the setup process for compatible smart cameras, doorbells, locks, and other products. 

Difficulty

Easy

Duration

5 minutes

What You Need

  • The Ring app

  • A Sidewalk-compatible Ring product

A popular member of the Amazon family, various Ring devices are Sidewalk-enabled, with the Ring Spotlight Cam Wired, Spotlight Cam Mount, Floodlight Cam, and Floodlight Cam Pro designated as Sidewalk Bridges. While there are many Sidewalk-ready devices that can receive Sidewalk broadcasts, Bridge products are capable of receiving and broadcasting Sidewalk's range of signals.

Ring Floodlight Camera at night
Ring

Can you turn off Amazon Sidewalk?

Enabled by default, Amazon Sidewalk is an excellent emergency network for your Ring devices, but some users may not want to be sharing precious bits of bandwidth across the zip code. While the amount of data that Sidewalk pulls is very small, that doesn't mean the feature needs to be turned on.

If you own a Ring device with Sidewalk compatibility, here's how you can disable Sidewalk networking altogether.

Step 1: Grab whatever phone or tablet you have the Ring app installed on and launch the application.

Step 2: You'll see a three-lined menu button in the top-left corner of the screen. Select that menu button, and then select Control center.

Step 3: On the Control center screen, select Sidewalk. On the next screen, you'll be able to toggle Sidewalk either on or off. Once you toggle Sidewalk off, the Ring app will ask you to confirm this decision.

Once you've officially confirmed, Sidewalk will be disabled.

Step 4: If you have a change of heart, you can follow the same steps to turn Sidewalk back on.

A graphic showing how Amazon Sidewalk works.
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Is Amazon Sidewalk dangerous?

Sidewalk's network sharing may make some users a little uneasy, and that's not an unfounded fear. Once any web-connected gear is online, there's always a small chance that the peripheral and your web connection can be targeted by hackers.

Fortunately, Amazon's Sidewalk development team has designed Sidewalk to be extremely defensive when it comes to your bandwidth and personal data.

Three powerful layers of encryption are applied to all Sidewalk networks, and any and all transmitted data cannot be viewed by Amazon or other companies.

Editors' Recommendations

Michael Bizzaco
Michael Bizzaco has been writing about and working with consumer tech for well over a decade, writing about everything from…
This Jackery solar generator with solar panels is 45% off, and worth it
A man carries the Jackery Explorer 1000 portable power station with trees in the background.

Even with a surplus of Black Friday deals still taking place there are some Cyber Monday deals starting to pop up as well. This makes now a great time to stock up on some smart home tech such as a portable power station. One of the best deals we’ve seen is on the Jackery Explorer 1000 portable power station, which includes two 100-watt solar panels for its $899 Cyber Monday price at Amazon. This is an impressive discount of $750, as this bundle regularly costs $1,649. Free shipping is included with a purchase.

Why you should buy the Jackery Explorer 1000 portable power station
Jackery has several models that are always in contention to be one of the best portable power stations. The Jackery Explorer 1000, however, not only makes our list, but tops it off as the best overall portable power station on the market. With this portable power station around you can get access to clean and unlimited solar energy. It comes with a smart MPPT controller for optimal charging efficiency, as well as two Jackery SolarSaga 100-watt solar panels. This panels can charge from 0% to a full charge in about eight hours via sunlight, or just 5.5 hours if you want to plug it in to an AC outlet for charging.

Read more
I found the 7 best Lego Black Friday deals in Amazon’s sale
Lego BTS members are on the stage.

Lego is one of the most beloved toys of all time, enjoyed by kids and, increasingly, adults. Sets of Legos combine off-the-rails creativity with an instruction-led activity to allow anyone the capability to build a set with subtle style changes to suit their tastes. Alternatively, if you amass enough Lego blocks, you can make sure about anything. That's why these Black Friday toy deals that we're seeing on Legos at Amazon are so exciting. They allow you to get, combine, and refine many sets to your liking. There are 16 sets available for discount in Amazon's Lego Black Friday sale, if you tap the button below for our curated list. Or, keep reading for some of our favorites.

Our favorite Lego Black Friday deal at Amazon

Read more
I found two Keurig coffee makers for $50 in Amazon’s Black Friday sale
Keurig coffee maker K-Mini on a kitchen counter with lemon-colored cup and bowls.

For most of us, waking up in the morning means having a cup of coffee. Luckily, there are a lot of great coffee makers on sale as part of the Black Friday sale that's going on right now, and if you want something high-quality yet budget-priced, these Keurig deals are perfect. Both the K-Mini and the K-Compact are small enough to take with you everywhere, so you never have to be without your coffee, and if you don't travel a lot, then they're a great option if you don't have a lot of room in your kitchen.
Keurig K-Mini -- $50, was $60

If you want an ultra-portable coffee maker, it's hard to beat the Keurig K-Mini that is literally just big enough to fit a single cup and thin enough that you could potentially put it in a handbag or backpack. As a single-cup coffee maker, it has a one-cup reservoir that's up to 12 ounces so you can fill it with the perfect amount. It also has its own cord storage, and it can brew you a cup in just a couple of minutes, so you're never too far away from your next cup. It also has a 90-minute cutoff safety feature which is both important and greatly appreciated.

Read more