Can’t connect to assisting device

[azhops]

I am adding my doorbell through the google home app.  I follow the directions up to scanning the QR code.  It has me agree to term and get the google doorbell to be plugged in with a blue light.  That all works.  I hit next and it spins for a while trying to setup.  The screen changed to “Connecting to assisting nest device”.  A few moments later it says it “Can’t connect to assisting device”.  

I am stuck trying to simply link my doorbell to ky google home app.  Seems pretty silly since all other products link up just fine. 

any ideas?

[MplsCustomer]

@azhops 

If you search this forum for "assisting device", you'll find this is a huge and perennial problem. Quite some time ago, Google Nest decided it would be "easier" for new cameras and doorbells to get their Wi-Fi credentials from another Google Nest device--an "assisting device"--rather than having us enter our Wi-Fi's network name (SSID) and password manually. The problem is that it frequently does not work.

Two workarounds suggested by other customers are:

1) Temporarily turn off or unplug your other Google Nest devices while you're setting up your new battery doorbell; 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 Google Nest devices back on.

2) Create a temporary new "home" in the Google Home app and add your battery doorbell there. Then remove it from the temporary "home" and add it to your regular home.  Then delete that temporary "home", which should now be empty.

We haven't had the "assisting device" error happen to us, so I don't know if either of these workarounds will work for you.

Even though this has been going on for a year, Google Nest still has no solution.

[azhops]

I will try #1.  For #2, how do you add it to the right home without having the same problem?  I am not sure how to move a device from one home to the other. 

thx. 

[MplsCustomer]

@azhops 

We haven't had the "assisting device" error, so I'm guessing at how creating a temporary "home" is a workaround. I think that if you are setting up a new Nest device in a new, empty "home", Google Nest will NOT find any "assisting devices" and so will allow you to select your Wi-Fi network name (SSID) and enter its password manually. Then, once your battery doorbell has its Wi-Fi credentials, you can go into Settings, select "Remove device", which will remove it from your temporary "home", then add it to your regular "home" (which is supposed to work because it already has its Wi-Fi credentials), and then you can delete the temporary "home" (which will again be empty at this point).

Again, I haven't tried this, so this is supposition on my part.  Maybe you'll be lucky and turning off or unplugging all of your existing Google Nest devices will cause you to get prompted to select your Wi-Fi network name and password manually, thereby getting your battery doorbell installed.  Then you can just turn your other devices back on.

For a year now, Google Nest customers in this forum have been asking Google Nest to give us back the old method of manually selecting the network name and enter the password--as an alternative to trying to get the credentials from an "assisting device".  Either that, or fix the "assisting device" process.

[azhops]

I tried both options and they did not work.  The only nest device I did not turn off was the thermostat.  I also got a new unit shipped so this is happening on both. 

[janthadeus]

Hi folks!

Thanks for your help here, MplsCustomer.

I'm sorry to hear that you can't pair your Nest Doorbell (battery) to your account. Thanks for your efforts. Could you remove your thermostat first then pair your doorbell battery to your Google Home app? Here's how. 

Let me know how it goes.

Thanks,

JT

[azhops]

I tried both and neither worked.  The only nest device I did not turn off is the Nest thermostat.  

[azhops]

The final solution that worked: 

1) I removed my nest thermostat from my google home app.  
2) installed the google nest doorbell.  With the thermostat gone, the assisting device step was skipped and it went right to connecting to joining device and I was asked to pick my wifi connection. 
3) added the thermostat back to my google home and nest app.  

it looks like to me that the big is in the thermostat’s inability to be an assisting device. 

[aatienza]

Hey azhops,

Thanks for letting us know. Reach us out if you have any other questions, we're here to help.

I appreciate the help, JT.

Thanks,

Archie

[aatienza]

Hey there,

Since this thread hasn't had activity in a while, we're going to close it to keep content fresh. Feel free to submit another post, and provide as many details as possible so that others can lend a hand.
 

Thanks,

Archie