Deleted owner from Google Home Account by mistake

[ekmhenry]

Hi All,

My wife deleted me from my Google Home account even as the owner and we all lost access to cameras, thermostats etc. Did I loose access to my recordings in my Google nest aware subscription?

Do I have to reset all devices to regain access? 

I have a large home with many devices and would hope there is an easy way to to resent everything.

Also why Google will not protect the Owner account with 2 factor to prevent an invited user to delete the owner account? 

[MplsCustomer]

@ekmhenry 

The way Google Nest has it set up, all members of a "home" or "household" have full access, which is why your wife was able to delete you.

If your wife deleted you as a member, can't she just invite you back in as a member?

[ekmhenry]

Yes she did invite me back, but I lost access to all cameras and thermostats. All my video recordings were deleted and lost. I had to reset all cameras to get them back and reconnect Thermostats. Google has many security features to confirm adding new users and devices but does not protect you and your data when someone other than owner delete you intentionally or mistakenly. 

[MplsCustomer]

@ekmhenry 

I thought you would just get your access back, so I looked up Google Nest's Help topic on removing members from a "home". It seems there are a couple of odd exceptions that may have caused your problems (see link below):

"Nest Hub Max might get removed and video history footage could be deleted."

"If the member you remove from the home migrated their Nest Account and Nest devices (such as cameras and thermostats) to a Google Account, those devices may be removed from the home. Data associated with their Nest devices and the home may be permanently deleted, including video history footage and thermostat settings."

Those are odd exceptions indeed. In my case, if I got removed from our "home", it seems I could lose a bunch of data as well, since I migrated my Nest Account to a Google Account back in 2020.  They must have some peculiar old code in their systems.

https://support.google.com/googlenest/answer/9155535?hl=en&sjid=378140385278969341-NC#zippy=%2Cremov...

[ekmhenry]

Yes I agree, and yes you will loose data/recordings and if you have a lot of devices like I had a lot of resetting and re-setup of speakers smart lights, thermostats and groups. There seems to be ample security prompts and 2-factor authentication to add accounts but nothing to protect you when removing an account even by accident. 

[EmersonB]

Hi everyone,

@ekmhenry, thanks for reaching out here in the Community. With regards to your event history, the member who'll remain in that home will still have the ability to view the recorded events and they can just invite you so that you'll have the access back. Other features like filtering the restrictions of the invited home members and the security with a 2-factor authentication is not available. I'd suggest you send yours with our Send Feedback form to let the Google Engineering team know about your concern. While they won't respond directly back to you, this is the best way to let them know about this. Let us know if you have additional questions.

I appreciate the help, MplsCustomer.

Regards,

Emerson