Cannot add Zone on Google camera - "Couldn't Turn On" Message

[nestsimonm]

I have two brand new Google Battery/Powered cameras. The installations went very well but I cannot add a new zone to either. I have already read many posts and see that Google Support first says (poor excuse for bad QA) uninstall and re-install the camera.

I did that and I still get the infuriating message "Couldn't Turn On", as if the camera is off. But when I click on the "Open camera" I get to a live feed and everything is fine. I can also see all the past events.

Not sure why Google cannot solve such as simple issue. Google forced us to use Google Home instead of the Nest App where I was always able to add, edit, or delete a zone.

Goole, please ACTUALLY solve this issue. there are posts going back to 10/23 with not solution from Google Support except for "our engineers are aware of the issue and working on it"

[mdr2]

So I think you need to make sure you have the nest aware active before it will let you add zones.    You get 30 days for free and then it expires unless you pay for it.    You can check the status of your nest aware by going into the Google Home app and hitting the gear (settings) and scrolling down to Nest Aware and it should tell you.

[nerys]

Hi nestsimonm,

Thanks for posting in the community!

I'm so sorry to hear that you are having difficulties with the activity zone of your Nest Cam (battery). No worries; I'm here to help! Just to get started, I have a couple of questions for you: 

• Are you experiencing this problem with both of your cameras or just one?
• Do you see the error "Couldn't Turn On" when trying to activate the camera itself or when specifically enabling the Activity Zone?

It's important to clarify that creating activity zones is possible without a Nest Aware subscription. All second-generation Nest cameras have this feature enabled by default.

If you have more questions for me, feel free to reply to this post. I'll be happy to assist further. 

Best regards,

Nery.

[nestsimonm]

Nery

That's the exact problem. The cameras are working fine and are all active, but frequently when I try and add a zone, I get an error as I described in my post.

It's completely illogical to have a feature that acts like the camera is not active!  When I get the error "Couldn't Turn On" and then click the link to the camera, everything is fine. It's so disheartening that this functionality works perfectly in the older Nest App (I still have three Nest Cameras) but Google's poor functionality & coding prove it is flawed.

I'm usually able to create a zone after waiting hours but as opposed to the Nest app, when I do finally create a zone on the Google app and camera, I still get notifications for the whole camera view.

The only reason for me to create a zone is to eliminate a small section of my camera's view that shows every view on a road. I want to see this but not get a vehicle alert for every car on the road, only when it enters my driveway. Again on my older Nest cameras this works as expected, on my Google camera it makes no difference.

Simon

[nerys]

Hi nestsimonm,

Thanks for getting back to me!

I understand the frustration when trying to set up your activity zone, but your app does not allow you to do it. This might be caused by a weak connection. How far is the camera from your router or point? 

Another step we can try is trying to create the zone on a different device, like another cellphone, tablet, or iPad.

Let me know if these steps are helpful for you. 

If you have more questions for me, feel free to reply to this post. I'll be happy to assist further. 

Best regards,

Nery.

[stevennnn621]

I’m having the same issue

[nerys]

Hi stevennnn621,

Thanks for posting in the community! 

I'm so sorry to hear that you are having difficulties creating an activity zone. I'm here to help! Have you tried all the steps I've stated above? If so, can you please provide me with the results? To see what more steps we can try.

In the meantime, if you have more questions for me, feel free to reply to this post. I'll be happy to assist further.

Best regards,

Nery.