topic Re: Nest doorbell battery late recording in Cameras and Doorbells

Nest doorbell battery late recording

Jelmer_ — Wed, 08 Sep 2021 10:55:27 GMT

The google nest battery start recording very late.

My sensitivity on events/video is set on High, I'm able to test with or without wire (it doesn't matter).

When I view the video in the history, the person is seen while he or she is walking back the same way. Meanwhile all I got is a recording of their back. I have 1 big zone.
And to be fair, sometimes it does do a right job recording the person upfront., but the failure rate is way to high right now.

Re: Nest doorbell battery late recording

mdr2 — Wed, 08 Sep 2021 15:30:07 GMT

I have the exact same problem. For the life of me I don't understand why a brand new design in 2021 doesn't have a 2-3 second look-ahead buffer where it always has 2-3 seconds of video before the 'trigger' event. Another very popular competitor to nest has this feature.

Re: Nest doorbell battery late recording

Kroezer95 — Thu, 09 Sep 2021 05:32:56 GMT

Agreed…I always seem to see the person walking away. Disappointing…

Re: Nest doorbell battery late recording

russellg99 — Fri, 10 Sep 2021 15:23:02 GMT

I've had several phone calls and email exchanges with support about this exact issue, and finally got a useful response from a support agent yesterday:

"I received feedback from our Engineering team that there are many Battery Cameras that are experiencing this issue and we are currently working on the fix. They also provided additional troubleshooting steps that may or may not work while fixing this. Here are the troubleshooting steps that you may try:"

Open the Google Home app.
On the home screen, select the camera that you want to change the settings.
At the top right, tap Settings.
Select Video
Select Wake-up sensitivity and change to High (Default - Medium).

Changing the sensitivity seems to have helped a bit, but I'm still seeing some recordings start when the person is right at my door, other recordings start when they're approaching from about 10 feet away, and very occasionally, a perfect recording that starts about five seconds before they enter the video frame out on the sidewalk. Changing the angle of the camera and removing objects in the foreground doesn't seem to have made a difference. I don't have any activity zones setup.

I believe this is an issue with the camera itself, NOT something related to the mobile app or the WiFi connection, as some agents told me, because:

When I test it by walking up to the door, the light around the button doesn't start to flash (indicating that it's recording) until I'm almost standing at the door. When it works correctly, the light starts flashing when I'm far away.
The point at which it starts recording changes even when nothing else is changing related to the camera angle, the stationary objects in the video, the lighting, or the camera settings. Repeated tests only a minute or two apart produce completely different results.
The camera is capable of recording even when the WiFi connection is not working, and certainly it doesn't matter what version of the mobile app you have installed on your phone, or if it's installed at all.

The battery doorbell updates itself automatically - there is no manual update option - so hopefully we'll see a fix soon. If you go to Settings / Device Information, you can make note of the current version, which I'm seeing as 1.57.

Russell

Re: Nest doorbell battery late recording

mdr2 — Fri, 10 Sep 2021 16:00:25 GMT

This is still a big problem for me. I changed the sensitivity and it had minimal effect on fixing the problem. Big big flaw for a product out of the starting gate in my opinion. This needs to be addressed quickly. (IE not 2022).

Re: Nest doorbell battery late recording

gt34 — Sun, 12 Sep 2021 20:21:49 GMT

I have the same issue. Only seeing the second half of a person detection (person walking away from door after delivering a package. Sensitivity setting doesn't seem to help.

Re: Nest doorbell battery late recording

Brad — Mon, 13 Sep 2021 16:58:05 GMT

Hi there,

Wondering if you still needed assistance with this issue? Please let me know!

Best Regards,

Brad.

Re: Nest doorbell battery late recording

mdr2 — Mon, 13 Sep 2021 17:24:43 GMT

Hi Brad, yes, hoping for more assistance on this topic. Has it been reported to the appropriate people that have the power to fix this? Do they agree it is a problem and needs to be addressed quickly?

ARLO cams addressed this by introducing what they call "Foresight". Here is how it works....

https://kb.arlo.com/000055572/Why-does-my-Arlo-camera-start-recording-video-before-the-trigger-event-happens

Re: Nest doorbell battery late recording

russellg99 — Mon, 13 Sep 2021 17:27:20 GMT

@Brad wrote:
Wondering if you still needed assistance with this issue? Please let me know!

Yes, this is an open case and engineering is supposedly aware of it. See my long post above, and please let us know if you have any additional info.

Thanks,
Russell

Re: Nest doorbell battery late recording

gt34 — Mon, 13 Sep 2021 17:28:50 GMT

I had someone come to my door this morning and I only got a recording of him ~4 feet from my door, placing an advertisement, and then leaving. Ideally, the recording would have started at the beginning of the walkway which is 30ft away and in direct line of site of the camera.

My doorbell is wired with wake-up sensitivity set to high.

Re: Nest doorbell battery late recording

russellg99 — Mon, 13 Sep 2021 17:31:15 GMT

@mdr2 wrote:
ARLO cams addressed this by introducing what they call "Foresight".

Actually, the Nest Doorbell battery camera has that as well, and I've seen it on the rare occasion that the recording works correctly. When it does, I see the video start about 5 seconds before the person triggering the event even enters the frame.

Hopefully they'll fix it soon.

Russell

Re: Nest doorbell battery late recording

russellg99 — Mon, 13 Sep 2021 17:34:02 GMT

@gt34 wrote:
My doorbell is wired with wake-up sensitivity set to high.

Interesting that yours is wired, because I thought this was an issue unique to the new battery doorbell. Or are you saying you have the battery doorbell but it's actually installed with wires?

Re: Nest doorbell battery late recording

Kroezer95 — Mon, 13 Sep 2021 17:39:02 GMT

mine is hard-wired and I have the same issue

Re: Nest doorbell battery late recording

mdr2 — Mon, 13 Sep 2021 17:40:54 GMT

Mine is wired and I have this problem. I think the problem starts with the idea that the new wired doorbell (if it is in fact wired) does not get the 24/7 recording like the previous version. However for the life of me I don't understand why Google has taken this feature away.

Re: Nest doorbell battery late recording

gt34 — Mon, 13 Sep 2021 17:43:48 GMT

I have the new battery Nest Doorbell, but I connected it to my existing wiring.

Re: Nest doorbell battery late recording

russellg99 — Mon, 13 Sep 2021 17:49:30 GMT

But is it the battery version of the doorbell, which can also be wired, or the previous one that requires a wired connection?

Re: Nest doorbell battery late recording

mdr2 — Mon, 13 Sep 2021 18:38:18 GMT

Hi Russellg99, we are talking about the new "battery" doorbell. The older doorbell (which I have switched back to) has 24/7 recording with the Nest Aware subscription so this is not a problem.

Re: Nest doorbell battery late recording

russellg99 — Mon, 13 Sep 2021 20:11:55 GMT

Right - I just wasn't sure which one Kroezer95 was using when he mentioned above that his was hard-wired.

Re: Nest doorbell battery late recording

Kroezer95 — Mon, 13 Sep 2021 20:18:13 GMT

Sorry, I have the new battery version as well

Re: Nest doorbell battery late recording

Jelmer_ — Tue, 21 Sep 2021 22:30:19 GMT

I'm wondering if this is the right place to report about these quirks, maybe the google issuetracker is a better place?