topic Re: Home screen shortcuts to specific Nest devices stop working in Apps / Account

Home screen shortcuts to specific Nest devices stop working

JohnF — Wed, 01 Sep 2021 16:33:35 GMT

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Original poster: John Bowdre

Home screen shortcuts to specific Nest devices stop working

In my home, I have a Nest Thermostat, Nest Guard security thing, and a Nest Hello doorbell, in addition to more speakers and displays than I can keep track of. For quick access to those specific devices, I like to leverage Android's App Shortcuts; I long-press on the Nest app icon to display the list of available shortcuts, then long-press-and-drag each of those (Thermostat, Guard, Doorbell) onto my home screen.

When I want to change the temperature, I can simply tap the Thermostat shortcut and go straight to the appropriate screen. When I want to arm/disarm the security system, I can simply tap the Guard shortcut and go straight to the appropriate screen. When I want to see what's happening in my front yard, I can simply tap the Doorbell shortcut and go straight to the appropriate screen. It's great!

... for a while. Without fail, after a few weeks these shortcuts cease taking me directly to the device I want to control and instead just open the front page of the Nest app. To get the shortcuts working again, I have to remove them all and then repeat the process to set them back up. I don't know if the shortcuts stop working following a Nest app update, an Android OS update, a phone reboot, the lunar cycle, or what, but I know it's extremely irritating when it happens.

I found an older thread which seems to be describing the exact same issue:

https://support.google.com/googlenest/thread/14331436

For what it's worth, I'm currently using a Pixel 5 on Android 11 (RQ3A.210805.001.A1) and am on version 5.65.1.3 of the Nest app. My wife also experiences the issue on her Pixel 4a (same Android and app version).

Has anyone found a solution (or even a workaround) to this problem?

Thanks!

John

Re: Home screen shortcuts to specific Nest devices stop working

JohnF — Wed, 01 Sep 2021 16:34:04 GMT

Hey there John Bowdre,

I'm so sorry for the late response, but I wanted to hop in here to help. I understand how frustrating it might be to not have your shortcuts continue working how they should be, but I'm happy to do some research on this.

Thank you for providing that past thread that contains the same issue. I also did some research on my own, and was able to find that it seems that the shortcuts reset to pulling up the app home screen whenever there is an update to the Android OS which messes with the shortcuts.

As you know, there have been others who have experienced this as well, and I'm happy to take the feedback and pass it forward as it is something that is frustrating to have to recreate your shortcuts all over again after each update.

Please let me know if you have any further questions or concerns.

-from Garrett DS (Community Specialist)

Re: Home screen shortcuts to specific Nest devices stop working

Rhyno — Mon, 20 Sep 2021 22:54:01 GMT

My android has the same issue. Shortcuts no longer go to specific devices, even when choosing them from a long click in the app itself. Is there a fix in the works?