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Auto record when doorbell rings

Skirkland
Community Member

Hi, community!

I have my doorbell set to record motion at night. But I’m wondering how to set it to record when the doorbell rings during the day. My event feed tells me the doorbell rings but unless I turn the camera on immediately, I miss who’s actually rung the bell.
what am I doing wrong?

17 REPLIES 17

Brad
Community Specialist
Community Specialist

Hi there,

Sorry to hear you're experiencing this, as I can imagine it has been an inconvenience. I would love to look into this further for you. Are you using the Nest Doorbell (battery)? If so, what are your settings like for motion events? Which settings do you currently have enabled?

Best regards,
Brad

Skirkland
Community Member

Hey Brad, we have a Nest Doorbell - wired.

I have combed through the doorbell settings in the app, looking for an option to have the camera automatically record when the doorbell is pressed, even if the camera is turned off, and can't find it. We have the schedule feature on, and home/away assist on. We have familiar faces and visitor announcements set to on also, but I find this has never worked. When the doorbell rings, I'm notified on my devices, but if I don't reach the notification immediately to turn on the camera, I have absolutely no way of knowing who was there.

If I have the camera set to on all the time, then I'm notified every few seconds - even though we set zones for the porch only, as the traffic outside my home is busy.

I was hoping there was a way to have the camera automatically turned on and record when the doorbell rings, even if the camera is current outside of the schedule.

Ideally, we'd want the camera to only record when there is activity in the zone we specified. However I find that we get notifications for *anything* the detector picks up,

Brad
Community Specialist
Community Specialist

Hi there,

I believe that activity zones will help you out in this situation. You can learn more about them here. I hope you find the article helpful!

Best regards,
Brad

Skirkland
Community Member

Thanks, Brad!

as I mentioned in my last reply, we have zoned set up, however they don’t work - we get notifications for everything outside the zone, and inside it. This is why we have the camera turned off during the day, as notifications every time a car drives down our street is entirely unnecessary.

We only want the camera to record during the day when the doorbell is pressed. Not when there is motion or sound.

Brad
Community Specialist
Community Specialist

@Skirkland

I apologize, I must have missed you mentioning Activity Zones. I am afraid what you seek is not an available feature. As long as you have a Nest Aware subscription and your camera is connected to Wi-Fi, you will get alerts regarding events. You can change the sensitivity of each event, in each zone, but you can't only have the camera go on during the day.

Best regards,

Brad

Skirkland
Community Member

That's frustrating. Isn't the purpose of a video doorbell to record video when the doorbell is used?

If I could only get notifications for events occurring within a zone I've chosen, that would also be fine. But sadly even with a smaller zone defined, we still get notifications for every event that occurs within the scope of the video.

So what I'm learning is, it's either on and notifying me all the time about every little thing, or it's not. That isn't the kind of customizable service I've learned to rely on from Google products and tech.

Thank you for taking the time to clarify and respond, Brad. It's much appreciated!

Brad
Community Specialist
Community Specialist

Hi there, 

 

I apologize for my late response, but I am just checking in to see how the conversation is going. Are you still experiencing this concern? Please let me know. 

 

Best regards, 

Brad

Skirkland
Community Member

Yes. There’s still no way to have the doorbell record a visitor when the doorbell rings unless all notifications are on. 

During the day, I don’t care if there’s activity in my porch zone - unless someone rings the doorbell. If I miss the ring, I want to be able to go back and see who was there later. 

Brad
Community Specialist
Community Specialist

@Skirkland

 

If your doorbell isn't reading visits as an event, have you tried to factory reset your doorbell? I may recommend it as it can give you a fresh start moving forward. Just verify that your settings are correct and reading the events you want, and verify that you have an active Nest Aware subscription as well. 

 

Best regards.

Brad

Skirkland
Community Member

I think you've forgotten what my feature-request is, Brad. 

The doorbell recognizes when the doorbell rings. That's not a problem. What the doorbell DOESN'T do is automatically record when the doorbell is pressed. This is what I want. I have a short front porch and yard. Using zones for motion/sound detection isn't as helpful as it might be for most. I don't want a notification every time there's movement. But I would like for the doorbell to record the visitor when the doorbell is pressed, in the event I don't get to the notification in time before the visitor leaves.

Brad
Community Specialist
Community Specialist

@Skirkland

 

Thank you for sharing your Feature Request with us. We’re always looking for ways to improve, and appreciate your feedback. You can send it at any time using your devices by saying, "Hey Google, send feedback," or by following the steps found here. This thread will remain open for 24 hours for any follow-up questions or concerns. 

 

Best regards,

Brad

Skirkland
Community Member

So what I’m hearing  is, there’s no way to have the camera record when the doorbell rings. 

How is it possible that the development team missed that?

Brad
Community Specialist
Community Specialist

@Skirkland

 

If the camera picks up the person approaching as an event, or package, or familiar face, it all depends on if you have an active Nest Aware subscription. But the doorbell will not auto-record unless it is an event. 

 

Best regards,

Brad

Skirkland
Community Member

The repetition here is frustrating, and I hope you can appreciate that. 

I have a Nest Aware subscription. I also have zones activated and scheduled for when I want activity to be recorded in my driveway - usually at night. 

I've attached a screenshot of where we want activity registered. However, somehow, activity outside of this area is also registered, meaning a constant barrage of notifications during the day as our street has a lot of car and foot traffic in daylight hours. So, we turn off zone notifications during the day, especially since we are usually home. However, we can't always answer the doorbell, and want to be able to know who was there, even if the camera is off during the day because we don't want our phones to ping every time a car drives past. 

I don't see how this is so confusing. We don't want to be notified if someone drives down the street, even though the street is not inside the zone we've set. We only want to know WHO rang the doorbell if we can't access the app when it's pressed.

What's the point of having a video doorbell if you can't record video when the doorbell is pressed?

 

 IMG_3348.PNG

Brad
Community Specialist
Community Specialist

@Skirkland

 

Thank you for providing a screenshot. Please go ahead and fill out this form, and a higher tier of support will be reaching out to you with next steps. They will be able to assist you further with this inquiry. 

 

Best regards,

Brad

EmersonB
Community Specialist
Community Specialist

Hello everyone,

@Skirkland we got your form — thanks for filling it out. Our team will reach out to you via email to further assist you. If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to create a new thread as I will be locking this thread after 24 hours.

I appreciate the help, Brad.

Regards, 
Emerson

Bob13
Community Member

Not sure if you e checked this, but when you set up zones, you can select what notifications and events trigger recordings. But, you can also select the same for outside your set zones. I have a zone setup for my front porch with all notifications and events. For the outside of zone stuff I have it set to record person events but without notifications. Works pretty good for me, hopefully it helps.