topic Google Home App: "Can't Connect" since resetting phone - no home/away routines or presence sensing in Apps / Account

Google Home App: "Can't Connect" since resetting phone - no home/away routines or presence sensing

timhewison — Sun, 26 Mar 2023 16:09:58 GMT

Since doing a factory reset on my phone (Samsung S10), Google Home app says "(!) Can't Connect", at the top of the home screen where I would like to find "Set up home and away routines".

I have set up some cameras and would like to set up some routines, since we were burgled recently. I am using a Google Nest Wifi for everything.

Other symptoms, which may be related:

No option in Presence Sensing in the options for Google Home app
Cannot create new routines called "Home" or "Away" - it says "Name must be unique" - although I don't have any routines called that, except the default "I'm home" or "Leaving home" ones (same for household or personal routines)

I have tried all the following - to no avail:

Enabled location in permissions for Google Home app
Set Google Home app battery use to unrestricted
Rebooting Google Nest Wifi
Switching phone to US English and rebooting (and German) - was in UK English
Uninstalling Google Home app, clearing cache and data, re-intalling
Installing Google Home app on an old iPhone - it doesn't generate this warning, but does not offer home and away routines.
Googling my symptoms endlessly
Shouting at the wall

Re: Google Home App: "Can't Connect" since resetting phone - no home/away routines or pres

smsdavis — Mon, 27 Mar 2023 16:42:31 GMT

I have this same problem this morning and I didn't make any changes. It seems the Google Home app just refuses to work at all today.

Re: Google Home App: "Can't Connect" since resetting phone - no home/away routines or pres

timhewison — Fri, 31 Mar 2023 19:23:13 GMT

Google Home App now says "Set up home and away routines" as expected. I did just turn off the Google Nest Wifi hub and back on after 10 seconds. Not sure that was the fix, especially as I had already tried that. But don't know what else could have fixed it.

Re: Google Home App: "Can't Connect" since resetting phone - no home/away routines or pres

LovelyM — Tue, 04 Apr 2023 18:52:56 GMT

Hello everyone,

Thanks for posting here in the Community. I'm sorry for this experience.

@smsdavis, @timhewison, I want to check if you're still having issues accessing the Home and Away routines in the Google Home app. Please give me the app version that you are using so we can look into this further.

I look forward to your response.

Best,
Lovely

Re: Google Home App: "Can't Connect" since resetting phone - no home/away routines or pres

timhewison — Tue, 04 Apr 2023 20:01:19 GMT

Thanks for checking in. As mentioned, the problem seems to have resolved itself now - thanks. Although it would be nice to understand what fixed it, let's just hope it doesn't revert...

Re: Google Home App: "Can't Connect" since resetting phone - no home/away routines or pres

LovelyM — Wed, 05 Apr 2023 19:52:46 GMT

Hey timhewison,

We're glad to hear that this is now resolved. We'll take your words as feedback and we appreciate you flagging this for us. I'll be locking this thread in the next 24 hours. If you have new issues, updates or discussion topics, feel free to start a new thread here in the Community.

Cheers,
Lovely