Cameras keeps going offline randomly

[AndyFord]

I have 5 Nest cameras and they go offline randomly. I had one that was offline for about 2 months and came back to life today. I then had two other cameras then go offline that were working perfectly yesterday!?!

I've read in previous threads indicating that wi-fi distance is generally the issue, however, it does not make sense that these cameras sometimes work and sometimes do not - at random.

Any suggestions?

[MplsCustomer · Accepted solution]

@AndyFord 

If it's affecting all of our cameras, Wi-Fi issues seems to be a more likely cause.

Wi-Fi signal strength, affected by anything between your access point(s) and your cameras, could also be an issue.

A couple of years ago, we had trouble with our front door doorbell going offline at times, even though it's less than 10 feet from our Xfinity router/modem. Repositioning the router/modem slightly resolved that.

We also have a camera that's 25-30 feet from the nearest access point, with a pretty weak Wi-Fi signal. Adding an inexpensive directional antenna to our Linksys router keeps that camera online.

[MplsCustomer · Accepted solution]

@AndyFord 

If it's affecting all of our cameras, Wi-Fi issues seems to be a more likely cause.

Wi-Fi signal strength, affected by anything between your access point(s) and your cameras, could also be an issue.

A couple of years ago, we had trouble with our front door doorbell going offline at times, even though it's less than 10 feet from our Xfinity router/modem. Repositioning the router/modem slightly resolved that.

We also have a camera that's 25-30 feet from the nearest access point, with a pretty weak Wi-Fi signal. Adding an inexpensive directional antenna to our Linksys router keeps that camera online.

[gilleslibre · Accepted solution]

I had a similar problem with one of my five cameras, which is the furthest from my router and outside, on the other side of a brick wall and aluminium siding. I corrected the problem for that camera by adding a wifi extender. It now, very rarely disconnects for a couple of seconds. 

Your wifi must be at issue. You could try a new router, or a mesh router for better coverage throughout your house, and/or more throughput from your Internet provider. 

Please keep us updated has to your actions and the results attained. 

Goodluck. 

[BoonieCamera]

@AndyFord, if your offline behavior is random across all your cameras you might also consider your Internet bandwidth budget may be being used up causing one or more of the cameras to lose their connection to the Google/Nest server.  The camera stream uplink to the Google/Nest cloud servers require a fairly hefty minimum bandwidth individually and the minimum BW requirements can add up with each camera deployed.  

Keep in mind as well that the Google Home app that is required for Gen 2 Nest cameras only allows you to manage camera bandwidth between "High" and "Max" with no option for "Low" that was previously available with the Nest App. 

Also keep in mind that the camera uplink bandwidth requirement is dynamic and increases when "events" are triggered.  

The result is that the aggregate uplink BW from your cameras can be substantial and can surge significantly based on the settings for BW and events. This may result in seemingly random connection difficulties.

For specifics on MINIMUM BW requirements, see this page

https://support.google.com/googlenest/answer/9245832?hl=en#zippy=%2Creduce-the-amount-of-bandwidth-y...

and expand the relevant section for the equipment you are using.

And remember Gen 2 Nest cameras can only be managed by Google Home and have only "high" and "max" image quality settings meaning increased minimum bandwidth requirements from prior Gen 1 and DropCam products.