Google wired outdoor Nest Cameras not sending notifications

[lmw11]

Hello,

Our electrician has just installed our outdoor wired Nest cameras.  Two questions I hope someone can help me with:

I have downloaded the Google Home App and have labeled each camera within the App.  The cameras are functioning fine and although I have opened settings and have allowed for Push Notifications, I am not getting notified of any movement,  activity, or sound at any of the camera locations.  What have I not done or what should I do differently to receive motion and other notifications via my cell phone (iPhone)?

Is the Home App the correct App or should I be using the Nest App?  I prefer not to subscribe to Nest Aware - is this necessary?  I am hoping to manage the cameras and using the correct App.

Thank you very much for any suggestions/help!

[qapnguyen]

Even though notifications enabled within Google home app, you should check push notifications outside of the app are enabled for it as well.

As you're an iOS user. iPhone -> Settings -> Notifications choose Google Home or may show as "Home" app and toggle the alerts/change tone etc there.

FYI after an event capture there is a 5 min cooldown just in case you plan to test by running back and forth, but only notice it logs only one event during that time.

[lmw11]

Hello,

Thank you for your reply!  Appreciate the iOS Settings reminder and I did double check that on my phone's Home App and Notifications are allowed.  

I admit, I did test by running back and forth.... : )

[MplsCustomer]

@lmw11 

If you installed your "outdoor wired Nest cameras" in the Google Home app, it would seem you have the new Google Nest Cameras (Battery) with the optional power cables, since the older Google Nest Outdoor Cameras are installed in the Google Nest app.

In the Google Home app, configuration for notifications is done under Settings | Events and Settings | Notifications. You need to turn on "Push notifications" and you need to turn on which events on which to receive notifications.

The Google Nest Camera (Battery) stores detected events for the most recent 3 hours, so you should be able to view those events under the camera's History or Full History without a Nest Aware subscription.

These are Google Nest Help topics on alerts and notifications.

"Camera alerts"
https://support.google.com/googlenest/answer/9210305?hl=en

"Troubleshoot Nest camera alerts":
https://support.google.com/googlenest/answer/9230439

"Troubleshoot notifications and emails from Nest"
https://support.google.com/googlenest/answer/9296548

[lmw11]

Hello,

Thank you very much for your reply! There are 5 outdoor cameras (purchased 7/22, installed 9/22), battery but hardwired to house.  Each camera is labeled for its specific area and working such that I can watch live video if I open the App and click on a specific camera.  Based on your response, I double-checked the setting in my iPhone Settings and those settings are correct and I have allowed Push Notifications for each camera in the Google Home App.  When I am in the Google Home App and allow Push Notifications, there is no prompt (as mentioned in instructions below) that would allow me to customize alerts from the cameras.

Home app

1. Open the Home app .
2. Touch and hold your device's tile.
3. Tap Settings .
4. Select Notifications.

Notification types

Push notifications

You can turn push notifications on or off for your phone when your camera detects activity. When enabled, you can receive camera alerts as long as you're signed into the app.

You need to turn on push notifications in the app to receive any camera alerts about a person seen, your doorbell ringing, camera offline, and for other camera alerts. You can then turn individual notifications on or off to customize alerts received from your camera.

There has been activity at the house that should have resulted in notifications from 4 of the 5 cameras yet nothing.....  

Anything else you can think of??  Is it possible I have the incorrect or incompatible App??  I have scoured the Google site for info. so not sure what I am doing wrong.  

Thanks again!

[MplsCustomer]

@lmw11 

For each camera in the Google Home app, have you gone to Settings | Events and turned on People, or Animals, or Vehicles, or Motion?  You can also set up activity zones and turn these on by zone.

https://support.google.com/googlenest/answer/9231819?hl=en#zippy=%2Cevents

On your iPhone, under Notifications | Google Home, is "Allow Notifications" turned on?

[lmw11]

Hello,

I greatly appreciate your guidance and clear instructions! 

On my iPhone, Allow Notifications for Google Home is turned On.

For each camera, under the Settings Icon in top right corner, I have two categories, General and Device Features.  General offers two choices - Device Information and Notifications, clicking Notifications option I have Allowed Push Notifications for each camera and am not receiving any notifications or alerts.  I do not have any options with Settings|Events....

Is it possible I have the wrong Google Home App???  Again, I can view Live Video on each camera and am able to hear sound and noises but only when I go into the Google Home App.  My goal in installing these cameras was to receive notifications and alertson my iPhone from what the cameras sense or hear.  

I honestly have no idea what I am doing wrong.  I don't think it is supposed to be this challenging...

Thank you!

[MplsCustomer]

@lmw11 

Yes, you have two categories, General and Device Features.

Look under Device Features.  You have 4 options: Battery, Events, Video, and Audio.

Select Events. Under Seen Events, select the events for which you want to receive notifications.

See screen shots.

[lmw11]

Hello,

Again, thank you so much for your patience and detailed responses.  I have spent hours on Google site and reviewing your instructions to no avail.  When I open one of my cameras and click on the Settings icon, I do see what you copied above in your Front Yard Settings, however, my choices do not include Events option.  I don't know how to attach a screenshot but I only have:

General

Device Information

Notifications (Push notifications are turned on for this and all other cameras, both in App and on my iPhone)

Device features

Battery

Video

Audio

under this in red is 

Delete video history

Remove device

There is no Events tab available in Settings for each camera or at the main location that lists each camera.  I've had contractors at the house for the past 3 days and although the cameras are working, I'm not receiving any notifications that the cameras are detecting activity.  Cameras are new. 

Is it possible that my electrician could have installed using Google Nest App and I have loaded Google Home to monitor??  

Apologies for the continuous questions and thank you!

[MplsCustomer]

@lmw11 

That is really remarkable. The Google Nest Camera (Battery) cannot be installed in the Google Nest app, so that's not the problem. The problem is that your cameras are simply missing the Events option under settings. That's weird.

I would suggest contacting Google Nest Support starting with this link:

https://support.google.com/googlenest/gethelp

In the meantime, I would suggest that you edit the title on your original post to call attention to the real problem, something like this:

"Events" option under "Device features" is missing in "Settings" for Battery Camera

[lmw11]

Hmmmm, my cameras are hardwired with a battery back up...  perhaps I am using the incorrect App???

In any event, I greatly appreciate all of your insights and advice - thank you VERY much!  I will post another question and will contact Support - thanks for the suggestions.

Best,

lmw

[MplsCustomer]

@lmw11 

One more thing.  If you go to Settings | Notifications for your cameras, after "Away-only notifications" do you have a sentence that says "You can create zones and customize event detection in event and zone settings" with the last part a blue link (see attached screen shot)?   If you click on the link, do you get a "Seen events" screen and can you then configure events that should receive notifications?  If you CANNOT access this, then that's another piece to what's so strange about your situation.

The Google Nest Camera (Battery) (shown in the screen shot below) uses the Google Home app. The options shown on your screen do NOT appear for cameras in the Google Nest app. The odd thing is that the Settings screen for your cameras matches what we see in the Google Home app EXCEPT that yours is missing the "Events" option. There might be some unusual setting that could cause that, but I have no idea which one, and it's happening on all of your cameras.  Perhaps it's the version of your iPhone or the operating system.  Which iPhone do you have and what iOS version are you on?

Instead of creating a whole new post, you can go to your first post in this thread, click the dropdown in the upper right corner of the post, select "Edit Message", and then update the "Subject" line in the message.  Then you don't have to start over from scratch.

Events and zone settings link

[aatienza]

Hey folks,

I'm dropping by to ensure that everything is covered here. I hope that sheds some light on the issue.

I appreciate the help, MplsCustomer.

Thanks,

Archie

[janthadeus]

Hi everyone! 

Checking in — how's it going with your Nest Outdoor camera? Still need our help?

Thanks for your help,  MplsCustomer and Archie.
 

Regards,

JT

[janthadeus]

Hey there,

We haven't heard any updates from you. I'll go ahead and lock this thread in 24 hours. If you happen to have the same concern feel free to reach us out here or start a new thread. 
 

Cheers,

JT