Google home outdoor camera offline randomly

[Inder1]

I have Nest Cam with floodlight that randomly goes offline for a few hours. It's offline right now. There is no problem with wifi as I have other Nest (prior to Google home)  cameras which are connected to the same wifi and work without a hitch. The floodlights do turn on when I stand in its range and I see the green light of recording but the app on both my phone and the web browser shows it offline. Anybody else experiencing similar issues. 

[Inder1 · Accepted solution]

Hello,

WiFi doesn't seem to be the issue as I have Nest camera (doorbell) closer to the router point and Nest cameras (indoor) which are farther than the Floodlight Cam and all work fine. Infact, the floodlight cam worked fine with the same WiFi with minimal outages since I bought it (March 2024). The outages have become worse over the past week or so and the camera has been offline for the past 24 hours. I have tried turning WiFi OFF and ON. I have tried turning the power OFF and ON for the camera. Nothing seems to work

[gilleslibre]

Is the floodlight some distance away from your router? If so, you could be experiencing connectivity issues with this single camera.

I had a similar problem with one of my five cameras located at the far end and exterior of my house. I had no problems with four of them, but this one kept disconnecting. I corrected the problem with a wifi extender close to the camera positionned inside the house. 

[Adapo]

I have the same issue. WiFi is not a problem as I have another camera 2 feet away in the same area. 
it’s ridiculous. 

[Inder1 · Accepted solution]

Hello,

WiFi doesn't seem to be the issue as I have Nest camera (doorbell) closer to the router point and Nest cameras (indoor) which are farther than the Floodlight Cam and all work fine. Infact, the floodlight cam worked fine with the same WiFi with minimal outages since I bought it (March 2024). The outages have become worse over the past week or so and the camera has been offline for the past 24 hours. I have tried turning WiFi OFF and ON. I have tried turning the power OFF and ON for the camera. Nothing seems to work

[gilleslibre]

This is a mystifying problem. As you have tried everyting, I have no other solutions, but, to completely eliminate the wifi connectivity issue, is it possible for you to take the floodlight away from your house and reconnect it close to the router? 

[gilleslibre]

The outside wall could create a barrier to the wifi. 

[Adapo]

yes!!! It’s been happening for several weeks. thought the camera was the problem so I bought a new one to replace it. However, it continues to happen. Both cameras are working fine because I tested them on other mounts, but the floodlight is not working while the camera is mounted. The light and motion detection work fine, but the camera will not record video and says off-line while connected to the floodlight mounting system. I hope they have a fix for this because if I have to climb up the ladder one more time as they instruct me to do, I’m going to throw the whole thing into my pond. 
the floodlight design is deficient and ineffective. It was horrible to set up a year ago and now inoperable 

WifI is fine, connectivity is fine, electric connection is fine: camera does not operate or charge and either says offline or unavailable. 

[mccarsond]

Hi, Adapo

This problem started for me 5-6 weeks ago on 2 floodlight cameras that had been operating fine for years.  I'm still just cutting power to them for a couple minutes, let them run on battery, then turn power back on.  Then they come online, work for 2-3 days and repeat.  The always report motion with a phone alert and record, even if they say "offline," so they aren't really "offline."

I figure in the Google product lifecycle (good product - mess it up - discontinue), we are in the mid to late 'mess it up' phase 🙂

[ovidioj]

Hello @mccarsond,

Thanks for posting in the community.
Thank you for sharing the details about the connectivity issues you're experiencing with your Nest Floodlight cameras.

I understand the frustration of intermittent connectivity. To help us troubleshoot this issue effectively, please fill out this form to provide more details. This will allow us to investigate the problem further and provide tailored assistance.

Please inform me when it's complete. Thank you. 

All the best, 
Jorge 

[Inder1 · Accepted solution]

Update folks: The camera is working back online. I turned OFF the router and got distracted with other things and turned it back on after 40-50 minutes. I was about to get the ladder, go outside and pull the camera down in last ditch effort to get it to work when the camera came back online. I can even see the events that happened while it was offline, so it was probably saving it to memory. I have no idea why having the router OFF for 40-50 minutes worked but not the 2-5 minute duration I had tried several times earlier. I did not change the internet provider or change the camera location or any of the WiFi settings. I wish I had a more concrete solution to offer here. I hope good folks at Google are able to figure such issues out because I was nearly out of all options and was thinking of getting a Ring camera

[gilleslibre]

Euhm? If it was recording, it was not offline as the Google solution save to the cloud. 

[Inder1]

This leads to more questions really. If it was not offline, then why was it saying offline in both the browser and the app? If it was recording and uploading, why were the recordings not available to be viewed in both the app and the browser? 

[gmelanymelissa]

Hi there! 

Thanks for posting here in the community. I'm sorry to hear Nest Camera Outdoor got offline randomly. Help's here!

To better understand the situation, I'd like to ask a few questions:

• Is your Nest camera with floodlight working properly?
• Are you able to see the video history?
• Have you checked the camera's power cable and connection?

@gilleslibre, thanks for your help. That's a great resource for everyone!

Keep me posted.

Best regards, 

Melany

[Inder1]

Hi Melany,

Here are the answers:

• Is your Nest camera with floodlight working properly? Yes, it is now working correctly. The intermittent problem resolved itself (although mysteriously as I mentioned in my last comment).
• Are you able to see the video history? Yes, I am including the event history when the camera was showing itself as Offline. 
• Have you checked the camera's power cable and connection? Yes, I have. As I mentioned earlier, the floodlights used to power ON and I could see the green light in the camera even when the camera status was showing it as Offline. Infact, I had turned it OFF and ON again in order to try and get it work but to no avail.

Thanks. 

[gmelanymelissa]

Hi @Inder1,

Thanks for the follow-up information.

It seems your Nest camera with floodlight is working correctly now as you indicated previously. I just wanted to check in and see if you're still experiencing any kind of inconvenience. If so, I'm happy to follow up and look for more troubleshooting steps.

Let me know if you have any other questions.

Best regards,
Melany

[mccarsond]

Hi, Inder1...same issue here with 2 floodlight cams.  I found if I turn the switch off the camera is connected to and let it run on battery, it comes back online in a couple minutes and then I turn the switch back on.   Of course, in 1-3 days, I'm back to offline again (but it does record and send alerts while "offline" so....)

It started about the same time as when users on this board started saying "I can't re-add my camera back to the app" or "I can't complete setup."  I'm guessing that is probably related.