Automated setup fails and locks up phone NestCam Battery

[Semicolon]

I need to know how to bypass the automated google home setup -- the part that is trying to retrieve the wifi information from another nest device on my network.  I have no idea what the problem is - but it just seems to hang and then completely lockup the google home app on my phone.

The whole process is convoluted and ridiculous; there should be a simply bypass button to allow me to add the wifi credentials (but of course, they're trying to do some to prevent home sharing or something -- like somebody is ripping off a subscription...for this?).  I don't even know how old this nest thermostat is -- I just know I never use the Google Home app to mess with it -- because the Nest app is far superior. 

Whatever -- any ideas on how I can get instructions on just a manual setup?  I've tried creating a new "home" in the app; I've tried unplugging the nest thermostat -- this is just ridiculous -- there is no reason it needs to be this complicated.

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Notes:

• 4 NestCam Batteries -- tried them all
• factory reset cameras, three or four times, on two different cameras
• power cyclced the phone multiple times
• uninstalled and reinstalled the google home app
• tried with different accounts in the google home app
• tried with different households in the google home app
• tried with multiple different PHONES
• tried with the existing nest thermostat powered off / removed

Am I going to have to create a brand new google account just to get this thing going?

[Semicolon]

So here's what ended up working.

I charged and powered up an old android phone I had (had been using iphone), installed latest Google Home app.

Then it worked fine!  Yay.

Next thing I did - returned all four cameras to Amazon.  And am having Amazon deliver 4 brand new Ring spotlight cameras to my house this afternoon.

Because working or not -- that's insane that there are no manual overrides -- or that I have to have my camera within a certain distance of my nest thermostat to activate?  What is up with this ecosystem?

[Aadd]

I am having a similar problem with google nest battery doorbell. The doorbell is hardwired and worked fine till I changed my internet provider. Now I have factory reset the doorbell twice, removed and re-added my home in Google home app, reinstalled the google home app and still nothing. On trying to add the doorbell to google home in order to get it working, the app is unable to "find" the doorbell despite holding my phone and inch way from it,

[Jenelyn_O]

Hi everyone,

Thanks for reaching out and for being a step ahead of us. We appreciate you taking the time to troubleshoot your Nest devices. A few questions: what messages or codes did you receive when trying to set up your Nest devices? Are there devices or appliances (such as baby monitors, microwaves, cordless phones, etc.) near your Nest device? Those devices could interfere with the Wi-Fi or Bluetooth signal. If your Wi-Fi router is a dual-band (supports both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz signals), your Nest device may connect to one band better than it connects to the other band, depending on your surroundings. Do you know which channel it was connected to? 
 

Best,

Jenelyn

[Semicolon]

Well, the wife has vetoed the return - she doesn't want to have to learn ring software now.  So I'm now returning the ring cameras I just bought.  Oh well.

I can say with about 85% certainty that my problem was caused by security software installed on my iPhones by my firm.

While this is a "me" problem and not a Google problem - the biggest point of contention is the complete lack of manual setup/control.

Inexcusable.

I spent 2 hours in a chat on this issue with the support team yesterday (they were great).

Error codes?  Really?  With all the detail I had provided, I surely would've included an error code.  No, my symptom was a simple and repeatble application hang.  My situation is likely unique, so I wouldn't be concerned.

Two things that I did learn from my chat: make sure my nest thermostat is online and nearby my camera before doing anything (this is insane and infuriating), and whatever it is that the app does to discover/configure the camera is deemed to be highly suspicious/malicious by an industry leading security technology -- so be wary and be advised.

While I'm here, I'll also just casually drop this is my first device that mandates using the Home app.  Quite disappointed to say the least - the web portal is a complete afterthought, and I haven't seen anything that allows me to do anything with zones in my footage like my beloved nest cams of old.  It has to be at least a few years since Google acquired nest -- I still can't believe the lack of feature parity).

[MplsCustomer]

@Semicolon 

Maybe the process IS highly suspicious. After all, it's getting your Wi-Fi credentials from another Google Nest "assisting device", instead of just letting you select your Wi-Fi network and enter your username and password manually.

By the way, there ARE zones with the newer cameras. In the Google Home app, go to Settings for your camera and drill down to Events | Seen events. For your remaining thoughts on parity, I agree. (We've had a battery camera for 2 years now and are still missing the Nest app functionality.)

I hope your battery camera is plugged in; ours is. There are many complaints in this forum about the camera running on battery power.  If we unplug it, it is very poor at waking up to detect events.