Battery Camera Detection Worsened Over Time

[JackWarsaw]

I installed 2 Nest battery cameras about 3 months ago. Initial detection of people and animals was great. As time has passed detection hos degraded. The camera at my front door used to detect people as much as 25 feet away and animals at 10 feet. Now people aren't being detected until about 6 feet or less. Animals are down to about 3 feet. The backyard camera is slightly better.

Both cameras are fully charged and have been reset. Any other suggestions?

[MplsCustomer]

@JackWarsaw 

I don't know why event detection would get worse over time unless lighting conditions have worsened. However, there are lots of reports in this forum about poor event detection when the battery camera is on battery power because it is then in "Idle" mode.

We've had a Google Nest Camera (Battery) for a year, plugged in with the optional power cable, and it is "Live" at all times and detects events as well as our older Google Nest wired cameras. However, if I unplug the camera and walk in front of it, it doesn't detect that as an event.

[JackWarsaw]

The attraction of theses cameras was that they didn’t need a cable, so adding one defeats the purpose. As for lighting conditions, they have changed a bit as the seasons have progressed, but both cameras are looking at well lit areas. The cameras are detecting events, but not as well as initially. For instance, people were being detected on the front sidewalk about 15 feet away from the door. Now it’s down to about 3 feet and sometimes less. This is in bright sunlight. The same thing is happening in my back yard.

Since Google pushes software updates to the devices automatically and without notification of the change, I find myself wondering if my experience is because of a change in the software. They don’t provide a list of changes or even the date that the firmware was updated.

[Brad]

Hey there,

Sorry to hear this, if they were my cameras, I would feel the same in this case. It is possible that your camera is learning to ignore certain irrelevant motion events, but not having any of the more important ones could feel different. 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. 

Best regards,
Brad

[Brad]

Hi there, 

Just checking in to see how the conversation is going. Please let us know if you have any further questions or concerns. We'll leave this thread open for a little longer for follow-up questions and concerns. 

Best regards, 

Brad

[Brad]

Hi there,

Just checking in on this thread and the activity on it. We'll leave this topic open for another 24 hours in case there are any follow-up questions or comments.

Best regards,
Brad

[JackWarsaw]

I've done some experimenting and one of those has produced positive results on power management, but also resulted in a number of undesirable side effects.

I've had both cameras set up with zones for activity detection and have said to ignore activity outside of the zones. As a test, I removed the zones from one camera. Battery usage has improved considerably on that one, but now I'm getting notifications about events that are of no interest to me such as a person walking in the next yard over or past my back property line. The battery of the one that's still using zones is unchanged.

My next test will be to remove zones from the other camera to see if there's any effect on the battery.

I can't imagine why zones should increase battery consumption unless there's a lot more processing going on to handle the exclusion that I thought that there was.

[Brad]

@JackWarsaw

Sorry to hear that you're experiencing troubles with charging your device. I know that keeping your Nest doorbell charged is very important, and I would love to help you out.

When it comes to keeping your Nest Doorbell (battery) up and running, here are some articles and troubleshooting guides for the best charging practices:

• This is a great article on general charging times for your devices.
• This helpful article tells you how to save the battery with your doorbell or camera.
• And this last article, will go over charging expectations when you may live in a cooler/colder environment which will address charging temperatures, etc.

I hope those articles help shed some light on charging and maintaining battery levels of your Nest doorbell or camera!

Best regards,

Brad

[aatienza]

Hey there,

I just wanted to follow up to see if you still need our help. Please let us know as we would be happy to answer any questions you may have. 
 

I appreciate the help, Brad.

Thanks,

Archie

[aatienza]

Hey everyone,

Just checking in to make sure that you've seen our responses. Please let me know if you have other questions or concerns as I will be locking this in 24 hours if I won't hear back from you again. Feel free to start a new thread and we'll be happy to help.
 

Thanks,

Archie

[JackWarsaw]

I've seen the responses and none of them has been particularly helpful. The only thing that seems to have eliminated my detection issue has been to delete activity zones.

Even though I've not found a solution that allows me to use zones, I'm not sure that there's much value in keeping this open. I definitely won't called it solved, though.

[JackWarsaw]

One of the recommendations to save battery in “Save battery for Nest cameras and doorbells” is to use Activity Zones. As I noted in the item to which you (Brad) replied, removing activity zones has actually improved detection within the range that had been within a zone and improved my battery life. That doesn't make a lot of sense to me.

[MplsCustomer]

@JackWarsaw 

Google Nest does not tell us much about what's changed in a version release, but for iOS devices, you can see the Version History with approximate dates by going to the App Store, searching for "Home", selecting the "Google Home" app (don't click on "Open", and you'll get a screen that lists the latest version and its date and a link to "Version History".

I wonder whether the worsening detection you're seeing is happening when the cameras are on battery power. I haven't noticed any change in the year we've had our Google Nest Camera (Battery) plugged in with the optional power cable, but then I haven't done meticulous comparisons. (We got it because they quit selling the Google Nest Outdoor Camera the month before.)

[JackWarsaw]

As I mentioned in a reply to you previously, one of the attractions of these cameras was the lack of a need for a cable. Adding an optional power cable defeats that.

[MplsCustomer]

@JackWarsaw 

I understand. I was merely sharing our experience that the battery camera seems to function far better when plugged in. In our case, having it plugged in works for us because we bought it after Google Nest quit selling the (wired) Google Nest Outdoor Camera.  Judging from other posts in this forum, it seems the battery camera's performance when on battery power is not very acceptable.

[Brad]

@JackWarsaw

You should be able to change the settings of which kind of events are being detected and sent to you. I assume you have an active Nest Aware subscription, so try to play with those settings and lower the sensitivity for those events that you do not wish to see. 

Best regards,

Brad

[JackWarsaw]

Adjusting settings was one of the first things that I did and I continue working with them to try to find ones that capture the things in which I'm interested and skip the ones that I'm not.

[Brad]

@JackWarsaw

I am glad to hear that you're actively looking into those settings. It definitely is a case where they need to be adjusted from time to time. These are learning devices, so it's always good to make sure they are working how you want them too, setting-wise. Continue to monitor those changes, and if this continues, please reach out to support for further assistance.

Best regards,

Brad

[Brad]

Hi there, 

Just checking in to see how the conversation is going. Please let us know if you have any further questions or concerns. We'll leave this thread open for a little longer for follow-up questions and concerns. 

Best regards, 

Brad

[Brad]

Hi there,

Just checking in on this thread and the activity on it. We'll leave this topic open for another 24 hours in case there are any follow-up questions or comments.

Best regards,
Brad

[EmersonB]

Hi folks,

@JackWarsaw chiming in to see if you still need assistance with this. Let us know if you have additional questions.

Thanks for the help, @Brad, @MplsCustomer and Archie.

Regards,
Emerson

[JackWarsaw]

Thanks for reaching out. Since I deleted zones on both cameras detection's gotten better although they're now detecting things about which I don't care. I'm thinking that for now that's about as good as it's going to get.

[EmersonB]

Hi JackWarsaw,

Thanks for getting back to us. It's good to hear that it's getting better. Just a reminder, the camera simply uses software to look for changes in color and lighting. 
 

There are a few things that can trigger unwanted alerts or false positives, here are common triggers to name a few:

• Changes in the light level
• Shadow moving across the frame. For example, if a cloud moves in front of the sun.
• Trees or bushes swaying near the customer’s important areas.
• Headlights or flashing entering the field of view.

To know more about this, just hit this link.
 

Try these steps:

• Try restarting your Nest cam, Wifi router and your phone.
• Reinstall the Nest App.
• Create an activity zone again.

Keep me posted.

Thanks,

Emerson

[JackWarsaw]

The things that are now being detected after deleting the activity zones are those that are beyond the areas in which I'm interested such as people walking past the house on the public sidewalk or in my neighbors' yards.

I had already tried your recommended steps without success.