Can’t Connect Nest Camera to Existing Network

[Cammie]

I have a new Nest Outdoor camera (battery) and new Nest doorbell (battery) I’m trying to add to my existing Nest network. When I go through the setup process in the Google Home app, it starts looking for a device to assist with set up. After trying for a few minutes, it times out and aborts set up. 
I have 3 wired cameras already set up and operating on this same account. I don’t know what device it’s looking for. Any advice?

[David_K]

The easiest way to workaround this is to disconnect your 3 existing cameras first, setup your new camera and doorbell, then reconnect your existing cameras. This way it won't try and connect to your existing cameras to get your Wi-Fi information, which is what it is getting stuck on.

[MplsCustomer]

Why in the world doesn't Google Nest address this "assisting device" defect? We are lucky it hasn't happened to us, but hundreds of customers have posted in this forum about this defect over the last 10 months.

[ditowindya]

Experiencing this issue too. Weirdly, I can add my new camera on a new home setup. Is it possible to bypass the "assisting device" feature? It looks like the direct connect flow (w/o other nest devices) have better success rate.

In this case, should I climb on top of my house to retrieve the setup code of the older cameras to move to the new home?

[David_K]

Is it possible to bypass the "assisting device" feature?

No, the only two workarounds are:

• Temporarily disconnect your existing camera(s)
• Setup the new camera(s) in a new home

[ditowindya]

Yeah, tl;dr, climbed up my house and took a picture of the setup code from the back side of the camera.

Disconnected my first camera, and added both old and new on the existing home (didn't create a new one).

[ChrisWY]

Bypass should really be an option as mentioned in my reply below.

[Brad]

Hey there,

I just wanted to jump in real fast and thank you for your feedback. Please feel free to submit your feedback to us. I've put instructions for feedback below.

• Open the Google Home app

• At the top right, tap your account.
• Tap Feedback 

• tap the type of device you'd like to submit feedback for.
• To display available emails, in the "From:" section, tap the arrow on the right. Select your email address.
• In the feedback summary, write a brief description of your issue.
• Be sure to check the box for Screenshot and System logs.
• To submit feedback, at the top right corner, tap Send 

If you need anything else, please let me know.

Best regards,

Brad

[Brad]

Hi there,

Just checking in to see how the conversation is going as there's been a lapse in activity on this thread. Thank you @David_K for all of your help!

Best regard,
Brad

[Cammie]

This is a nightmare. 

• I figured out the mounting plate was not in the box with the doorbell.  I need to get one before I can mount it.  
• For both the camera and the doorbell, I can get video, etc. and they appear to be set up.  However when I go back to the Nest App nothing is there.
• When I removed the camera from the Google Home app, I can't add it again because the blue light doesn't come on and it's again looking for an assisting device.  
• What is the assisting device it's looking for??  If I have to buy one, I will.  But I just need to know what to buy.

PLEASE HELP!

[MplsCustomer]

@Cammie 

Sigh. In the past, Google Nest used to have us set up our Nest cameras and doorbells by selecting our Wi-Fi network and entering the password. Then they decided--I guess--to make it "easier" for us by getting that Wi-Fi configuration data from one of our previously installed Google Nest devices. So an "assisting device" is just another Google Nest device that is already working.

The problem is that the process doesn't work very well, and your new Google Nest device for some reason can't find the "assisting device", and as customers, we have no idea which one of our already-working Google Nest devices is regarded as the "assisting device".

Some customers, like @davidking  above, have reported success with either of these two work-arounds:

1) Temporarily turn off or disconnect your existing Google Nest devices (like your existing wired cameras) while setting up your new Google Nest device; hopefully, this then causes the device to let you select your Wi-Fi network name and enter the password (the way it used to work in the past).  Then turn your other Nest devices back on.

2) Temporarily set up another "home" in the Google app, add your new Google Nest device in that home, which--since there are no other Google Nest devices in that home, hopefully causes the device to let you select your Wi-Fi network name and enter the password. Then, once the Google Nest device is working, remove it from the temporary "home", add it to your regular "home", and delete the temporary "home".

We have not encountered the "assisting device" error, so I have no idea whether either of these will work for you.

Google Nest has not admitted to any of the above, and--in spite of hundreds of "cannot connect to assisting device" posts in this forum--has not fixed the problem or offered an official solution.

Oh, and by the way, Google Nest decided that its new cameras and doorbells released starting in the fall of 2021, like your Google Nest Camera (Battery) and Google Nest Doorbell (Battery) would work ONLY in the Google Home app and NOT in the Google Nest app OR on the home.nest.com website. Like many of us with old and new cameras or doorbells, you'll now have to use 2 apps. Google Nest's Vice President posted this about the 2-app approach back on Sept. 29, 2021; there has been no update since:
https://www.googlenestcommunity.com/t5/Blog/Message-from-our-GM-Updates-for-our-Nest-customers/ba-p/...

[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

[ChrisWY]

See this thread here. It's a long running issue going almost a year back that the genius Google engineers have yet to find a fix for. As a fellow software engineer I'd be fired if I took this long to resolve a customer blocking issue like this.

Anyhow, I experienced the same when I attempted to add a new Google branded Nest battery Camera to a Home account with an existing Nest camera installed before Google bought Nest.

To resolve it I had to do the following. Remove the old nest camera from the account and consequently lose all video history I had with that device as well. I also removed the old 1st gen nest thermostat I had. I then used the Google Home App to install the new camera first. Since there were no "assisting devices" on the account the install worked.

@Brad - Pro feature suggestion, if Google engineers can't find a fix, can we at least have a bypass option implemented where we can manually set up a new device instead of the app forcing users down the path of assisting devices? That would at least resolve this from being a blocking issue to just an inconvenient one.

Anyhow, after adding the new camera in the Home app, I then had to go back to the Nest app and install the thermostat second, and then finally the old original camera. After that I had all 3 devices listed in my "home".

That said, Nest was set up at my wife's preschool before she acquired the business. For pro users looking for an alternative I highly recommend checking out Blue Iris. It's a one time fee of $45, you can run the server application on any modern windows machine, and you can add 100s of different brands of cameras to gain access to features like POE (something Ring even supports) which is much easier than messing around with degrading battery life in 10 degree F weather, or needing an electrician to install receptacles all over the outside of your house. It's what I run personally on my home and once set up requires almost no maintenance.

Also, something not mentioned was that the camera we bought listed as "outdoors" on the box only comes with a USB charger rated for indoor use. We had to spend another $35 on the weather resistant power wire but the worst part is that it was out of stock everywhere locally so we had to put the project on hold, wait days for it to ship, and then return to finish the install. Why this wire isn't included in the box is beyond me. Do people really use the battery function and take down the camera daily to recharge it lol?

Anyhow, best of luck for those with the same issue finding this thread down the road.