Google Indoor Camera Night Vision Too Dark

[LK18]

We just set up the Google Nest Indoor 2nd Gen camera as a baby camera. As you can see in the image below, the night vision is all but worthless due to focusing solely on the walls to left and right. Any idea how to fix this aside from moving the camera? We have a Nest IQ Indoor (2018) and it’s night vision is superb - never had an issue like this before.

Edit: this is apparently affecting a lot of us Nest users. If you are also having this issue, please add your voice below so we can get more notice by Google.

[DJSuprimeW]

hey, has someone news about this issue?.... or still thread solved, but not?.....

[gmanist1000]

It’s obviously not solved. These forum “reps” are literally useless and provide no actual technical insight or knowledge into the matter. This needs to get to engineering to make a difference. 

[SpottedQuoll]

The "Community Specialists" are paid Google staff; their job is to make problems "go away" on the fora.  Either they gaslight customers into believing it's their problem/issue they need to troubleshoot themselves, or they at some point magically mark some nonsense post as "accepted solution".  Take a look at the other fora, notably the Nest WiFi one.  Some issues have been running for years (a record one for more than 4 years; obvious major bug, unresolved).

[MplsCustomer]

Since this night vision failure is not happening to all customers or on all Google Nest cameras, perhaps Google Nest--with their internal knowledge--could come up with a list of questions that might point to something all the failing cameras have in common.

[adrie]

It makes me think if this is indeed a software problem or a LED failure . Just saying… 

[Vitti]

Glad to see I'm not alone with this issue. Sad nothing has come of it. Pretty pointless to have a camera that doesn't work at night anymore. Chiming in to say my camera started this a little while back in hopes that a solution is found. 

[BB2015]

Thought I was going crazy and it’s always been like this. (We just got back from a 3 week vacation) I just spent forty minutes at 3am adjusting all settings and resetting our cameras. We use ours for nursery and playroom cameras and now I can’t see my 7 month old and 2 year old. This has obviously got to be a Google issue Brad my dude. 

[pamepros]

Same over here, all of a sudden our camera is way darker, didn't move it or anything 

[lsto]

Same for me. Our camera is super dark, can't see anything. Just happened a few day ago, didn't change anything. 

[Btotusek]

Just purchased my nest today to replace our owlet cam. We installed the new camera and tested before bed and thought it had great quality! Turned off the lights and put my toddler to bed and this is the result.... wth?! 

 

[DJSuprimeW]

yup thats the big problem/issue rightnow for atleast almost 2 weeks now.. much people having this issues. with night vision issues to dark, and with blurry green screens.. and since the last update today, i got more issues, slow loading in the camera live feed. and few cameras cant finding the camera error.

Google Home App Version: 2.59.1.9   Im from the Netherlands.

P.s. I tryed with older apk files, older home app versions, but nothing fixxed yet.. so i hope google comes with a update.. 🙂 

[MplsCustomer]

We're on Version 2.59.211 from 4 days ago and are in the U.S.  Our 2nd gen indoor camera is NOT having this problem.  Could this be happening to customers outside the U.S. and/or on particular versions?

[DJSuprimeW]

mabey, but... Btotusek has the indoor cam 2nd gen new today and the same issues. so i think its not anymore a failling leds. but more software issues.. ithink?... but i tryd older apk versions of the home app. but  nothing fixxed the issues. or a update has broking stuff...? 

[dantheuxman]

I am located in the US and it is happening to me. Oddly, it is happening with the cameras at my 2nd home in Pennsylvania, which has newer gen cameras. Not my primary address that has first gen cameras. 

[gmanist1000]

Why is this continuing to be marked as resolved? This is not resolved. Keep this open until it's actually fixed. 

[DJSuprimeW]

because brad is not reading or listening or something....  i think something about a week. and much people telling him that... so yeah its frestrating... -_-

[dantheuxman]

Because Brad is a bot. And like a bot, he is replying based on his AI programming and the solution algorithm which was provided to him. Super frustrating.

Brad is a lie. 

[SpottedQuoll]

We just need to start new threads and link to this one until they fix it.  They're trying to hide it by marking as resolved, but it's possible to keep it in the spotlight by simply making new threads until they act decently on it; starting by recognising the real issues.  In this case: a faulty firmware/software update.

[Brad]

Hello there,

If you're also experiencing poor night vision quality, make sure you give the previous troubleshooting steps a try first. If those don't work, please fill out this form, and a higher tier of support will reach out to you. 

Best regards,

Brad

[adrie]

Can you please post the form to return the camera? 

The camera did not move , was working fine , now is not working. These are my steps to troubleshoot. 

Thank you

[DJSuprimeW]

true story! Brad dont wanna listen, much people telling this to him...but brad has no eyes to read or something... lol

[Brad]

Hi folks,

We are still collecting information on this, and would love your feedback. Please use the form I previously sent to tell us more about your experience. Support should reach out to you for next steps.

Best regards,

Brad

[bomerboy7]

Submitting info on this through your link now

[LOS8900]

I’m having this issue and I just purchased these cameras 6 weeks ago. I’m confused why you guys are taking your time on trying to fix this issue? I use these in my children’s rooms and it’s pretty much pointless to have them in there if the night vision is not working, and the camera is only showing me a dark room. At this point, I think I’m better off returning these cameras, and purchasing some thing that actually works. your responses are completely stupid and you should primarily focus on fixing this issue instead of having people fill out stupid forms.

[SpottedQuoll]

Welcome to the forums... This is their standard practice.  They're just trying to keep everyone busy and distracted while avoiding responsibility.

[Jamief1207]

My camera now seems to be getting stuck in night vision mode during the day. Customer support has been useless. What a waste of money. 

[MplsCustomer]

@Jamief1207 

In the past, a couple of our cameras (one 1st gen and one 2nd gen) have gotten stuck in night vision during the day a couple of times. Toggling the "Night vision" setting off and on resolved it.

[Pargreen]

anyone for a solution? I noticed mine was the same bug as yours. Any update? 

[gmanist1000]

9to5Google has picked up on this issue! Maybe we’ll get some answers now. 

https://9to5google.com/2022/10/17/nest-camera-night-vision-update/ 

[DJSuprimeW]

hello folks,
i notice a new sort weird issue.
someone has this to, beside the night vision issues?..
some new blurry weird screen issue?.... now on 4 cameras?
Weird Blurry stripes Mess ???

[riegel28]

Same issue here! Did you ever figure out what to do without moving the camera?

[SpottedQuoll]

Hi everyone.  I simply made a new thread: https://www.googlenestcommunity.com/t5/Cameras-and-Doorbells/Google-Indoor-Camera-Night-Vision-Too-D... .  Not marked as resolve, and *boom* at the top of the board.  Don't let them bury the issues with false "accepted solutions".  Just keep piling on replies in the new thread if you wish.  Eventually online tech publications will pick it up and write articles about it.  It's sad we need to shame them into fixing their bugs, but then again given that they don't take responsibility otherwise, I see no other way. 🤷

[Bik]

Night vision on both my google nest 2 wired cameras are now useless after latestes update.  Thought it was hardware issue at first but definately not as both 2nd gen cameras affected.  1st gen cameras are working fine.  Another fine mess by google! Will be returning for a refund.  

[Jlee1]

Amy updates to this?? My camera is doing the exact same thing....

[Bik]

No, google need to sort this out, the camera night vision is now useless.

[SpottedQuoll]

I, and many, many others, have this problem: https://www.googlenestcommunity.com/t5/Cameras-and-Doorbells/Google-Indoor-Camera-Night-Vision-Too-D... .

It has likely started since a recent firmware/software update of Nest Cams, at least including the Nest Cam Indoor.  I, and all others, have not moved our cameras a single millimetre (for many, including myself, these are literally screwed into the wall after all).  It worked well before, now it doesn't work well anymore.  The problems are:

• Night vision is occasionally way too dark, capping darker intensities to pitch black.  All contrast and image features are effectively masked.
• Colours as well as video quality (or compression) is completely messed up in lower lighting conditions, where night vision has not (yet) kicked in).  Blurry overly compressed (mpeg type of artifacts) video is the result.  My cat's colour quite literally blends into the floor's colour now.

Again, none of this happened until some weeks ago.  I/we didn't change anything to our setup.  Everything points to a firmware/software stuff-up.

The above linked thread was sneakily marked by some @Brad "Community Specialist" as resolved (he accepted his own "solution"; nobody else accepted it).

• @Brad please respect your paying customers and urge the developers of the firmware/software to fix their stuff-up.
• If you're a journalist of typical tech or Android publications reading this: please write about it.  Also take a look in the Nest WiFi fora, where similar practices are playing out, with "Community Specialists" not enabling solutions, but trying to hide problems and/or gaslight customers into believing they are at fault.  Please write more articles along the style and content of e.g. https://9to5google.com/2022/10/19/google-nest-wifi-pro-longevity/ .  Thank you.

[Cdbw]

I have this same issue and is very frustrating. Support has done nothing to help with the issue and is most certainly due to a bad firmware update. This issue only occurred after an update and my camera hasn’t moved at all. The video quality is also significant degraded compared to just a few months ago. 

[BrentVdS]

Same issue! From one day to another the screens went black when on night mode...

Send a few emails to Google support, they send me 3 new cams but the problem stays the same!

It seems that they also don't know what to do. PLEASE FIX THE FIRMWARE/SOFTWARE PROBLEM.

[Djross22]

Oh yeah, still the same issue I am having too.

[SpottedQuoll]

Yep, clearly firmware/software related.  Additionally, I'm noticing far worse motion detection under the aforementioned lower (artificial) light conditions where the colours are smudgy and mpeg compression artifacts are showing.  Likely the motion and people / animal / familiar face / etc.. detection runs on the already processed video data, and is thus affected by these issues as well.

This needs to be fixed ASAP; I'm paying for Nest Aware for a reason, not for events being constantly missed.  @Brad will Google refund our subscription fees for the duration the system is crippled by their own developers' bugged firmware/software updates?  Please provide a response, so we can decide whether complaints need to be filed with our national consumer watchdog.