Cam suddenly can’t find wifi network

[Tori39]

We have five Nest cams and they were all working just fine.  Then tonight one cam went offline. I tried the usual things to get it back online, nothing worked.  It can’t find our wifi network.  I switch to power cords with another nest cam to see if that made a difference. It did not. I removed the camera from the app and try to re-add it. And I got the same problem, it cannot find the Wi-Fi network. All the other cameras are working just fine and our Wi-Fi is working fine. We have made no changes to the Wi-Fi, so I have no idea why this is happening. 

[EmptyNester]

Hello, it sounds like the camera may have failed.   About how old is it?  

I'm going to try and escalate this and see if we can get Google to assist you further.

[Tori39]

The camera was able to connect using the hotspot on my iPhone but it won’t connect to our wifi network.  So the camera does work.  I’m not sure exactly how old it is,  it definitely has some years on it.  Maybe 6 or 7, not sure.  

I talked with a Nest advisor last night and nothing worked.  It does not have a factory reset button so he said to let it sit, unplugged, for 48 hours and that would reset it.  Then try to connect it again.  So that’s what’s going on now….it’s on the floor waiting for 48 hours to go by.

[EmptyNester]

Great, I hope that works. 

You are right the fact that it connect with HotSpot is a good sign.   You probably already did this but I thing it requires you to REMOVE the camera from the app when it is connected via the HOTSPOT so it wipes the WIFI info.  Then follow the directions closely as you want to do a full factory RESET and not just a Reboot/Restart.

Good luck.  And if all else fails you can buy them used on Ebay at reasonable prices.  I have purchased a few of them over the years to replace some of mine that have failed.

Would love to hear back as to how this plays out.  I know a lot of people in the last 2 years have posted this same difficulty in getting cameras re-connected.

[Tori39]

It was removed twice during troubleshooting last night.  Are you saying I should have removed it while it was connected to the hotspot?  I did not do that.

I really don’t want to buy another cam as I will lose Nest Aware.  I can’t get nest aware on any new cams unless I migrate the Nest account to Google which I refuse to do.  Found that out when w added a fifth camera a few months ago.  Very disappointing.

And the only factory reset I can do is wait for 48 hours and try again.  There is no reset button on the camera.

[EmptyNester]

Hmmmm, I'm not 100% sure but it sounds like the last successful WIFI connection was when it was connected to your Hotspot.  So I'm thinking reconnect via the hot spot and see the camera show up.  Then "REMOVE" it from the app and do the factory reset.  This way you know for sure it will stop searching for the hotspot.  However from you said this has me concerned that it will see it as a new camera and mess up your Nest Aware.

Some people have reported that when they switch to a different phone (like another family member or friend) just to add the camera backend they get it work that way. 

But to be honest I'm not 100% clear on how to fix it with certainty.  Google in my opinion has made this process very confusing.  Looking thru the threads of the last few years I see many people spend hours and eventually get it working or some just give up.

I migrated from Nest to Google a few years ago and I haven't had any problems.   One issue is you can ONLY use an email account on gmail to move it.  So I created one just for that.  Also, if I remember correctly when you migrate it the monthly subscription gets a bit less expensive.  

It is very frustrating for all us users so I feel your pain.  If you get it working please come pack here and lets us know what worked. 

[Tori39]

Great news….the camera is now working normally.  It was actually around 55 hours that it sat, more than the recommended 48.  So I tried adding it first thing this morning and it connected perfectly.   I guess I’ll never know why this problem happened in the first place but I’m glad it’s working.  Thanks for your suggestions and advice.

[EmptyNester]

So glad to hear it is up and running.   Yes, I think this will remain a mystery for many folks in the last 3+ years that have had these same re-connection challenges.