Nest app crashing on iPhone

[MarcoLit]

I have an iPhone 14 pro iOS 16.1.2  and for the last couple months my Nest App heats up my phone after viewing a camera or video after about five minutes of playback on one of my Google hub cameras and then the app crashes and kicks me off the app.  I have uninstalled and then reinstalled the app a couple times but hasn’t fixed the issue.

Any other suggestions?

[AngelNside]

@janthadeus @Princesss Why pretend you’re investigating the issue then continue to ignore paying consumers who are checking in and asking follow up questions?  Including my fellow Community Members above!

If this is something Google does not intend on fixing, be transparent so we can make informed decisions!  I’ve reached out many times in many ways.  I had an iPhone 11 pro, husband has an iPhone 14 and now I have iPhone 14 pro and all these devices have the same exact challenges!  You can no longer claim these to be isolated issues.  

Please be reasonable and provide some answers or progress (if any!)

[Sisaveli]

I also have had the same issue and what I’ve noticed is that when I edit my subscription or I should say they canceled it because of mistake the next time the subscription started everything was fine and it was fine for months and now once again, it messed up and they canceled it so I lost all my 60 days when I paid the same. It was the same exact day I had to restart the subscription one of my cameras, doing it all the other cameras aren’t, but one of them is doing it all the time now and it from the beginning of the subscription. 

[magnuskolsson]

I am having exactly the same problem.

I have 3 different Nest installations (in three different homes) and it crashes everywhere, across 5 different devices (iPhone 13, iPhone 14, iPad Pro etc.)

In total across all houses I have 28 devices and this is completely useless as of now.

Moving completely over to UniFi. This is such a disgrace from Google / Nest.

[magnuskolsson]

and by the way, I have also tried using the Google Home app (even though I cannot access historical recording from this app, but at least to see LIVE feeds). The absolutely insane thing is that the Google Home app is crashing too when viewing camera feeds, so this problem is not isolated to the Nest app itself!

[Benjycov]

Hi Everyone,

i have exactly the same problem, both the Nest and Google Home Apps crashing on iPhone, two different phones and the app crashes regularly. Typically while browsing all the cameras, but can be while viewing a similar camera or while switching homes.

I’ve read all the other posts on this thread and maybe we collectively at least try and work out if we have anything in common that is unusual about our setups.

So here are the things like are ‘unusual’ about mine:

1) Multi-home - I have three ‘homes’, with cameras at two of them (in different countries). 

2) A lot of cameras, 10 at one home, 16 at another.

3) I also have a lot of Nest Protects, 18 at one home, 10 at the other, and 4 at a 3rd fake home because the limit is 18 protects per home (randomly).

4) I have a Google Workspace email and I regular GMail account (just for access to Nestcams) active on my phone.

5) I use Oauth2 to grant my home automation system access my cameras and nest protects.

6) I have a mixture of different generation  Nestcams, original Nest app based and the newer battery Google Home only version.

Have any of you other posters got any of the above in common with me?

Other info I’ve figured out that others might find useful;

1) The app definitely crashes if my phone switches networks, for example if it drops off your wifi and moves to the cellphone network the app crashes. To this end I found that turning off WIFI assist on my iPhone helps a little. 

2) I use a platform called Home Assistant for my home automation, I have my Google Home account integrated into that and I can browse all my Nest cameras via the Home Assistant app and that doesn’t crash - though the experience isn’t quite as fluid. 

Regards… Ben

[magnuskolsson]

Ben - 

Great idea to compare notes!

Here are some details about my setup

1. I have multiple homes (2), in different countries

2. I have lots of cameras in one home (20), but only 5 in other home, and both homes crashes

3. I only use normal gmail accounts for Nest (no workspace emails invited to the homes), but I do have workspace emails on my device in Gmail / GSuite products

4. My cameras are all original Nest Cam indoor and Nest Cam outdoor. They are not IQ

5. I have a Home Assistant installation that I had linked to Nest, but I disabled that integration as super slow and live feed not sufficient

6. I also experience some more stability over Cellular vs. Wifi, but it eventually crashes on both

7. The crashes happen on every single device (iOS), so clearly it has something to do with the general setup / account

8. Viewing on nest.com works fine

[magnuskolsson]

One more test: accessing my house with only 5 cameras using a Google account that ONLY has access to this house works fine. No crashes.

However, accessing the same house using another Google account (which also has access to my second House [where I have 20 cameras]), crashes the Nest app. This is even when I am only viewing the house with 5 cameras (which worked fine using the other google account on the same phone as per above)

....

[Benjycov]

Good work!  We have very similar setups.

My gut feel (especially based on your latter test) is that this is a multihome or lots of cameras issue. I shall try mine with separate gmail accounts with access to only one home.

PLEASE Can other people issue post your setups so we can compare and get more supporting evidence.

[magnuskolsson]

Hi,

Were you able to figure something out with further troubleshooting?

Viewing the cameras from the Nest Home website works fine for me, but not across any of my iOS devices.

I have tried a bit with the Google Home app as well (rather than the Nest app), and while it is stable if I only view one camera at a time, it does indeed crash when I go to the multi-camera view by clicking the 'camera' button on the top in the app.

Does Google Home crash for you too when viewing multiple cameras?

[MarcoLit]

All sources/apps, except my desktop, crash within a minute of viewing a camera or a recording. 

[Rick383638]

The google home app is the most confusing and worst camera viewing all I’ve ever seen in my life.  The Nest App used to be great but now they have let it all go. 

[magnuskolsson]

fully agreed with this. but trying to troubleshoot so want to know if Google Home app is crashing too

[MarcoLit]

Yes, Google Home app is crashing too.

[Rick383638]

Nest App has been crashing for over a year.  Just switch to Ring, they take the App and cameras more seriously.  Dropcam was a fabulous product and google has destroyed it 

[iChip]

Same. Happening for the last few months for me. 

[Benjycov]

Hi, would you mind sharing some details on your setup, we are trying to work out what those of us who have problems have in common.

1) Do yoI have multiple homes?

2) How many cameras do you have? 

[MarcoLit]

Yes two portal cameras, one a one location and the other at a different location.

[magnuskolsson]

What WiFi do you have? I am on UI Ubiquiti. 

[Alpi2]

There are 4 cameras at one location. One master login. Appears to happen mostly on apple products. 

[MarcoLit]

It does not matter what Wi-Fi. It happens anywhere I am, including if I’m just on cellular.

[csylng]

Multihome

primary - 8 cameras + nest home max

secondary - 1 camera (nest home max)

[Benjycov]

Hi Marcolit, we are trying to work out what those of us have in common (see end of the thread for more details), however it is looking like something to do with multihome and/or lots of cameras.

Can you share some more details on your setup? 

[jennyH3]

1 house - 16 cameras

crashes with wifi & cellular use

all of my extended family members have the same issue with their cameras

[Nest_App_Suck]

One house, three cameras, nest app crashes all the time (I am using iPad as a monitor for these cameras). What a junk this app is. 

[Bailey01]

I really don’t know why I’m paying for Nest Aware if I can’t view the videos without it crashing in 10 secs.  Please let me know if there is a fix or I am going to switch to another service. Ty! 

[Cpagility]

I was having the same problem for months. I finally called support and now it’s working well after these steps. 

Here are the steps that we did today for future reference:

1. Verify the device’s Date and Time settings are correct and automatically set.
1. Settings General Date and Time.
2. Tap Set Automatically toggle it off and then back on.
3. Make sure that the timezone, date, and time are correct.
2. Check for any available iOS updates .
3. Uninstall the Nest or Google Home app .
4. Power cycle the device.
5. Reinstall the Nest or Google Home app from the Apple App Store

You can check this link for Nest app requirements: 

•  

[UserFran]

Hi Everyone,  same problem.  Seemed like got worse and worse over time.  We have 30 cameras.  One camera was always disconnecting or giving a bad image.  The other day I  completely removed that camera. The application seems to be stable now.   I am thinking a bad device causes server disconnects and hangs / crashes the IOS device.  

[Rick383638]

Don’t you love how you’re trying to pull footage of a shooting for police, and the screen dims down on iPhone so bad that you can’t even see what you’re trying to get. You can’t make this stuff up. Every possible setting to alleviate that won’t 

[UserFran]

Hi Rick.  I save little videos of my menagerie and have not had that happen.  All I can think of is low battery mode might do that. Seen that in general.  Wonder if the battery condition can be checked.  Does it happen when plugged in and full battery?

[magnuskolsson]

Bless you!

I think this is indeed the case!

My setup has 25 cameras and app crashed constantly. I tried everything!

I unplugged all devices from power, and connected them back 1 by 1. It seems that 1 (or possible 2) are the culprits. I believe it might either because their power or their WiFi signal is unstable and hence maybe they send some corrupt data to the Nest servers which in turn crashes the iOS app.

I have quite a large scale setup with 20+ wiFi access points and all the Nest cameras powered by PoE using a PoE->USB adaptor. So it seems now that in some cases that setup is unstable (either the power or the Wifi) and hence they cause the issue. I will troubleshoot some more and report back, but 100% sure that it was linked to 1 (or possible multiple) cameras that caused this issue for the whole setup!

Magnus

[Rick383638]

POE? These are not Ethernet… 

I have 50 cameras and removed all but 1. The app crashes no matter what. Also, the functions such as filters don’t work. It’s complete garbage 

[magnuskolsson]

Do you have another Home with cameras using the same Nest/Google account? If so, that could be the problem. If I was viewing Home #1 (with only working cameras), but I also had access to Home #2 (that has some crappy cameras), then the app crashed in both cases! so almost as if the crappy / corrupt camera was sending some crap to the Nest app that crashed the iOS app even when I was viewing another home. hopefully this helps in troubleshooting...

[Rick383638]

My app will sit perfectly and never crash until I touch the screen.  The second I touch the screen it crashes and says error connecting to nest server, try later.  It’s worse on LTE than WiFi 

[Rick383638]

I will be moving all 200+ customers to Ring.  Ring answers the phone, they answer questions, don’t reply with BOTS, and they fix problems.  Google has zero interest in any customer service for fixing issues. I’ve been battling this for 3 years.  Most important the Home App is ridiculous.  Not a SINGLE customer wants anything to do with it.. people want the Nest App.    Do yourself a favor and just dump them… I’m fed up

[magnuskolsson]

I was in the same boat, ready to give up, but based on the recent post here I decided to do the painstaking thing of physically unplug all 25 cameras and plug them back one by one. I am now down to 3 cameras that when connected makes the app crash. Trying to troubleshoot now if it is because they have poor Wifi connectivity or if the power is unstable (because I am feeding them over PoE with a USB converter). Or if it is simply that some of the cameras have completely crapped out and sending network gibberish which is making the iOS app crash..

right now, 22 (25 minus 3) cameras plugged in and connected and iOS app has been running for 5 mins [and counting] (vs. previously 5 seconds only before crashing each time!)

[magnuskolsson]

ok, so each time a camera is connected OR disconnected, the iOS app crashes.

so if you have one (or many) cameras that 'come and go' either because of poor power or because of poor Wifi, then the app will crash. Even for healthy cameras, the first time you connect it (or disconnect it) the app crashes once [seems like crash is required to update the device count / what cameras are online vs. offline].

i remain having 3 cameras fully disconnected as they seem to be the root cause in my setup; I will monitor in 24-48 h and report back, but seems promising...

[Rick383638]

NO, the all crashes regardless of the camera.  Cameras have NOTHING to do with it. Remove all cameras and the app still crashes.  You can’t even see history.  It’s the all can’t connect to Nest service 

[UserFran]

Hi everyone.   Thank-you Magnus for sharing.  I have two homes setup.  One home has 1 camera.   I still occasionally crash on both homes but the improvement was so significant I had to post.  It’s been a nightmare so I know how you all feel.  I need my cameras for safety as I care for an aging parent.   I had installed 3 access points to form a triangle of coverage with a nighthawk router as my first access point.  I also checked all Ethernet outlets and discovered one part of the house was only 4 wire.  That’s 2 twisted pairs.  Max speed 100 mbs.  I have gig internet. Got that fixed. But problem persisted.   I also disabled 5 gig connections. Still apps crashed.   When I removed that bad camera.  It was  critically damaged by a curious o’possum and finally had to be removed for good.  I am still amazed at the difference I am seeing with the app. Both nest aware and google home are more stable.  PS. We have a number of camera for viewing live our back yard menagerie.  That’s how the O’possum found it.  Hope this helps. 

[Rick383638]

Define bad camera. Either they power on and work or they don’t. I’ve take many apart 

[Rick383638]

I can’t believe people are buying this. The website on a Pc works flawless.  Regardless of number and m homes and cameras. Ugh …..