Last updated 2026-08-28
Mounting
Mounting a doorbell camera without drilling
Every one of these trades something away. Knowing which trade you're making is the difference between a camera that survives a winter and one that ends up face down on the step.
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Four ways to do it, and what each costs you
There is no option here that is strictly best. Pick by the surface you have and by whether the camera needs to come off again.
- Adhesive plate. A backing plate held on with heavy-duty mounting tape, camera screwed to the plate. Cleanest look, holds well on smooth surfaces, and removal takes patience and sometimes heat.
- Door-frame or trim bracket. Hooks over the frame or clamps to trim, no adhesive at all. Fully reversible and the safest choice in a strict lease, but it puts the camera where the frame is instead of where you would choose.
- Peephole mount. Replaces the existing peephole. Leaves no new hole because it uses one that exists, and it is the standard answer in apartment corridors.
- Siding or seam clip. Clips into the seam between siding panels. Covered on its own page below, because uneven surfaces behave differently.
The two surfaces that defeat adhesive
Adhesive needs a smooth, clean, non-porous surface and a temperature range. Two very common surfaces fail it.
Brick and rough stucco give the tape almost no contact area, so what looks like a firm bond is a few high points doing all the work. Anything powdery or flaking, old paint included, means you're bonding to a layer that is itself letting go of the wall.
Making an adhesive mount last
Clean with alcohol, not household cleaner
Surface cleaners leave a residue designed to repel water, which is the opposite of what you want. Isopropyl alcohol leaves nothing behind. Let it dry fully.
Apply in the warm part of the day
Check the tape's stated minimum temperature and respect it. If it is cold, warm the surface first and give the bond longer before hanging any weight.
Press hard, then leave it alone
Firm pressure for a full minute across the whole plate, then leave it for the dwell time on the packaging, commonly a day, before mounting the camera. This is the step people skip and it is the one that decides whether it holds.
Add a tether if the camera is worth stealing
An adhesive plate resists a steady pull far better than a sharp twist. A short security tether turns a walk-away theft into a job needing tools.
Security
All-metal anti-theft doorbell mount
A metal box that wraps the doorbell and hangs on the edge of the door, clamped on the inside face. Nothing is drilled into the door or the wall. It makes the camera awkward to lever off. It is no kind of lock, and nobody should buy it believing the camera cannot be taken. Inward-opening doors only, and not storm doors, screen doors or anything that swings outward.
No-drill
No-drill 3M VHB doorbell mounting plate
The adhesive plate the renters guide describes. It carries industrial VHB tape and an alcohol wipe, which is the right cleaner and the step people skip. Fits Ring Video Doorbell 1, 2, 3, 3 Plus and 4, plus Battery Doorbell Plus and Pro, so check your own model first. The listing includes stucco in its surface list, but rough stucco gives tape a few high points to hold and very little else.
No-drill
Peephole mounting bracket for Ring Video Doorbell 1 and 2
Mounts the doorbell through the hole your door already has. That is the answer in an apartment corridor where the wall is not yours and the door is not to be drilled. Molded PETG, and third-party: Ring did not make it. Compatibility is narrow and that is the whole decision: Video Doorbell 1 and 2 only. It fits your door if your door has a standard peephole, and it fits your doorbell only if your doorbell is one of those two.
If that didn't fix it
Put it up and it did not stay?
- Siding, brick and uneven trim: the two surfaces that defeat adhesive whatever you clean them with
- Your camera is pointing at the sky: if it holds fine and simply looks the wrong way
Related
- Vinyl siding and other uneven surfaces (when there is no flat spot)
- What renters are actually allowed to install (the lease side of it)