topic Re: Home/Away Assist Problems in Nest Thermostats

Home/Away Assist Problems

junalmeida — Thu, 25 Nov 2021 17:01:53 GMT

The home/away assist is not working as expected. It often thinks I'm away when I am home, and turns it to Eco mode. Today I am not home, and it thinks it is, heating the house for no one.

Everything seems to be set correctly, and yet the support team suggestion is to "buy another phone".

Re: Home/Away Assist Problems

JohnV — Sat, 27 Nov 2021 20:26:08 GMT

I am having the same issue. It is a pretty crappy app that only works some of the time. This is absolutely the worst performing application I have ever used. I have also double checked all settings, reinstalled app, logged out / logged in and no change in behavior. I leave the house and get far enough away that it should go into away mode. Sometimes when I look at the app, it is fine and in away mode, other times when I open the app, THEN it decides to go into away mode. I have location settings set to always on my iPhone. Yesterday, I left and went for a walk at least 1/2 mile away from home and it never went into away mode.

This is really frustrating as I have to remember to check the app when I am gone to make sure it actually went into away mode. What good is having a "location aware" app if it only works 'some of the time"???

And no, I do not need another phone, I have other "location aware" apps that are working just fine and very reliably.

Re: Home/Away Assist Problems

junalmeida — Sat, 27 Nov 2021 20:45:57 GMT

It is interesting to see that you use an iPhone, and I use an Android, so it could really be a widespread issue. Unfortunately support guys refuse to see they have a problem, and leave their customers frustrated. If only I could do the same for my customers, I would earn money easy, right?

Re: Home/Away Assist Problems

JohnV — Sat, 27 Nov 2021 21:35:49 GMT

Totally agree. I develop software to do systems integration for a number of clients - not that hard to monitor to see what is going on and provide a fix... 🙂

Re: Home/Away Assist Problems

LifeonMars — Sun, 28 Nov 2021 16:10:54 GMT

Having a similar problem recently in the UK. iPhone Home/away not always switching when away. I have reset everything and some days when i am out, I check the settings and find that no events are shown and the Thermostat has not switched to away., even though I have been a long way a way from home. This is only happening recently, prior I had no problems with the same phone.

Re: Home/Away Assist Problems

KazzieB10 — Mon, 29 Nov 2021 16:00:35 GMT

I'm having same issue with iPhone8. Come home and I have to sign out and in again to my account to get it working. Am I supposed to walk past the thermostat to get it to come on?

Re: Home/Away Assist Problems

LifeonMars — Mon, 29 Nov 2021 16:21:54 GMT

KazzieB10 are you also in the UK ? I think the problem is in the Nest App as as I said It has only started recently, The Thermostat should also recognise that there is no one at Home and should switch to away if you have set that up under Home/Away settings as well as the iPhone . I have found that signing in and out every so often does seem make it work but only for a short time. Some thing is not quite right with Nest/Google app either, with the app not finding location of my iPhone when I am away and the Thermostat not realising no one is home. All has been reset but problem exists intermittently.

Re: Home/Away Assist Problems

JohnV — Thu, 02 Dec 2021 17:37:29 GMT

Okay - I found a potential work around. I now keep the Nest iPhone app open in the background. I had been 'swiping up' to close it before. Even closing it though worked fine until recently.

So, something is definitely changed to where, apparently, you may need to keep the app open and 'minimized'.

I thought that it might use up the battery having it open in the background, but after doing it this way for > 24 hours, battery usage is only 1%

So far it has worked consistently, going into away mode when I am gone and going back to home mode when I return.

Your mileage may vary.... 😎

Re: Home/Away Assist Problems

miltex145 — Fri, 10 Dec 2021 14:25:36 GMT

https://support.google.com/googlenest/answer/9261396
Under either the "Nest thermostats" or "Nest cameras and Nest doorbells" sections.
For me, the "Your camera didn’t switch on or off as expected" topic under the "Nest cameras and Nest doorbells" section fixed my problem. As I suspected, the "Google Home" and "Nest" apps on the iPhone are fighting each other and causing Home/Away Assist not to work properly. What resolved the problem for me was following the instructions under bullet point #3 which was to setup the "Routines" function within the Google Home app which sets it as running the Home/Away assist function with my iPhone from now on which automatically shuts it off within the Nest app. Now the 2 apps don't fight each other anymore and the cameras properly turn themselves on when I leave and off when I return home. Interestingly enough, I'm finding that it works best if I do the same with my wife's iPhone except set the Nest app to run her Home/Away assist which then automatically disables it within the "Routines" function in the Google Home app. I found that if both of our iPhones are setup to have the Google Home app control the Home/Away Assist function, the cameras will turn themselves on when she leaves the house and I'm still home as well as vice-versa. It would have been nice if Google hadn't ruined a good thing and just left the Nest app alone in the first place instead of making the Google Home app have to be running in tandem with the Nest app on our devices in order for the system to work.

Re: Home/Away Assist Problems

SueWilk — Tue, 14 Dec 2021 06:25:41 GMT

Set the Nest thermostat to "Away" when we went on holiday. On our return we find that this didn't work and the heating has been working at max capacity while we were away. We dont have any other Google products that could have interfered with the settings.

Re: Home/Away Assist Problems

LifeonMars — Tue, 14 Dec 2021 06:56:45 GMT

The problem seems to be with Google Home and Nest app Not working together. I have noticed that when manually set to away using the phone the thermostat setting still shows as on on the apps. . Also when deleting apps and reinstalling the Google Home app wants to change my Home/away assist using phone to a different phone even though I only have the one phone. I have deleted both the Neat app and Google Home, reset the Thermostat and Link to factory settings and Re set up the nest app using iPhone and Google Home. I think the problem is with Home/away and phone location with Google Home. Your thermostat should have sensed that no one was home but obviously some thing was telling it it was at home. Wish Google would sort it. Worked fine before they bought nest and integrated having to use Google Home as well

Re: Home/Away Assist Problems

LifeonMars — Tue, 14 Dec 2021 14:48:45 GMT

I have completely reset everything my Nest Learning Thermostat, Heat Link and my Google speaker. I have only used the Nest app on my iPhone to reconnect the Thermostat and heat link. Home/Away is on and I have set my iPhone to decide if I am Home/away and also the Thermostat. I have ignored any Goggle home settings except to log in for my Google speaker. I can access the Nest app from my computer (macBook) but I originally set it up through my iPhone. The iPhone switched the Thermostat to Eco when I went out and the Thermostat also noticed there was no one at home also. So it is looking promising after a complete reset of everything and redone through the phone. If it starts playing up again, I will stop location access to Google home but keep always location access to the Nest App and see what happens. I am pretty sure that Google Home and Nest app are not talking to each other like they should. I am a UK user.

Re: Home/Away Assist Problems

LifeonMars — Tue, 14 Dec 2021 23:57:34 GMT

I think the problem is if you allow Location always on your phone (mine an iPhone) ,to both the Nest App and Google Home. Set Google home to Location "Never" but your Nest App to "always" This worked for me, with Nest Thermostat and Google Speaker.

Re: Home/Away Assist Problems

LifeonMars — Thu, 16 Dec 2021 22:28:26 GMT

Still having problem with learning thermostat, auto switching to away on iPhone but Home/away is not switching to eco temp when away, although set up.

Re: Home/Away Assist Problems

Nohows — Mon, 20 Dec 2021 21:21:12 GMT

Yep, same here. Always worked fine before Google bought nest, but has got worse and worse. I ended up migrating my account to Google home from nest, thinking this might sort it. No such luck. When going out it now sometimes doesn't work at all, sometimes shows that the phone left home and then when it returns later ...but doesn't switch to eco as it's meant to while I'm away from the house. It's random and therefore impossible to work out what the problem is. Having to now try and remember to manually turn it down and up when going out and returning, which defeats the whole object. So frustrating!

Re: Home/Away Assist Problems

junalmeida — Mon, 20 Dec 2021 21:35:18 GMT

With the help of some smart home apps, like home assistant, you could use the API to set eco mode to on and off when away/home

That's what I am doing since Google fails to see the bug.

Re: Home/Away Assist Problems

LifeonMars — Wed, 22 Dec 2021 07:05:25 GMT

Presently have a case running with Google nest on Twitter about this, after running some checks, advised to just try Home/away /assist using phone only , in Home/away/assist settings just have phone and not Thermostat checked as well . And ensure you have location settings set to always in Nest app. ( presently only using Nest App) Everything appeared back to normal with these settings with Home/AwayAssist quickly applying eco mode when I was away from home. So problem seems to be with Thermostat/ Home/Away setting conflicting with phone Home/Away settings.

Re: Home/Away Assist Problems

junalmeida — Wed, 22 Dec 2021 22:41:02 GMT

Got this advise to, however this makes no sense. Thermostat sensor is supposed to set it to home, not away, in the case that I leave home but left some guests not enrolled, thermostat should be kept on to detect someone is home.

Re: Home/Away Assist Problems

LifeonMars — Thu, 23 Dec 2021 11:39:52 GMT

So, so far with Thermostat Home/Away Assist off, Only Nest app using phone, works OK.

Put google home app back on phone to use google mini and only using phone for Home/Away/Assist in Nest app, it fails . Have to log in and out of app to get it to work or delete Google Home.

Have now added Thermostat Home Away/Assist to Nest App will see how that works.Heating should be onHeating should be onHeating should be offWorking Home/away/assist with Phone only

Re: Home/Away Assist Problems

LifeonMars — Fri, 24 Dec 2021 16:53:58 GMT

seems to be another thread re this problem

https://www.googlenestcommunity.com/t5/Nest-Thermostats/Home-Away-Assist-returning-home-always-stuck-in-eco-mode/td-p/37827/page/2