Take a walk through any neighborhood, and you’re bound to see a few Ring video doorbells installed next to front doors. The brand is increasingly popular, thanks to an ever-growing product lineup that makes it easy to find a device for all budgets and security needs. But one of the peskier features of Ring is the need for a Ring Protect Plan — a monthly subscription service that unlocks the majority of the camera’s most useful features.

One such feature locked behind a Ring Protect Plan membership is the ability to save Ring doorbell videos. Without a plan, you’ll really only be allowed to view a live feed of your video doorbell. The plans are pretty generous, with the Basic plan costing $5 per month and offering video history for up to 180 days, making it a worthwhile investment for homes worried about their security.

However, it is not currently possible to save Ring doorbell video without a subscription. While you might be able to get away with using a third-party screen recorder to capture images from your phone or computer, these are less-than-ideal solutions. Even worse, Ring might terminate your account if they discover you’re circumventing their plans and accessing premium content for free.

With that in mind, here’s a look at how Ring saves video, along with whether you can save video locally and how to save videos through the Ring app. For more details on the Ring Protect Plans, be sure to consult our Ring Protect Plans guide.

If you have a Ring subscription, Ring saves video to the cloud. Once videos are saved, you can go back and rewatch them or download them to your device.

If you have the Ring subscription, then saving video and viewing old footage becomes easy and possible all within the app.

You can download saved videos locally to your devices, either from the mobile app or from the Ring website. To save video on your computer, go to Ring’s website and log in to your account. Select History > Manage. Select the videos you want to save — you can pick up to 20. After that, hit Download, and then Ring will compress and zip all the videos together and download it to your computer. When you decompress and open the folder, each video appears as an MP4.

If you’d rather download the videos to your phone, you’ll follow similar steps. On your phone, open the Ring app, then tap Menu > History. Next, scroll to the video you want to download, tap the Three dots to its right, and tap Share. Next, tap Download, and a pop-up menu should appear to download the video. After the video is downloaded, you’ll find it either in your Photos app (Apple users) or Files app (Android users). Note: You can only download one video at a time on the phone.