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Green light comes on for no reason.

Kenty
Community Member

I have nest cam (battery) set to never record. I only use it to check in on my dog remotely. Yesterday I noticed the green light came on solid for two minutes for no reason.....I was not accessing it. Does this mean someone else has hacked into it? 

12 REPLIES 12

MplsCustomer
Bronze
Bronze

@Kenty 

Below is Google Nest Help's page on what the lights mean. It says a solid green light means "Everything is working normally -- Your Nest camera is turned on, connected to Wi-Fi network, and is processing images in its view.  Your camera could be recording activity and saving it to the cloud, or it could be using local storage to record and save video if it’s offline."

https://support.google.com/googlenest/answer/9268073?hl=en#zippy=%2Cgoogle-nest-cam-battery

I believe this green light is a legal privacy requirement to let people know they may be on camera. See this 2019 article, where Google Nest said "When the camera is on, the status light will glow green.":

https://www.engadget.com/20############-google-disables-nest-camera-status-light.html

Thank you very much for responding. I am very clear on the meaning of the green light. So I guess that means someone else had figured out how to hack into my camera. It is not set to record anything. Ever. The green light normally only comes on when I access the camera from my phone to view it. So, if I'm not accessing it and it's not set to ever record anything that can only mean someone else has accessed it. That's concerning. Thanks again!

@Kenty 

The light is supposed to FLASH green if someone is viewing the camera feed.

I don't know what the camera is supposed to do if recording is turned off.  The wording on the Google Nest Help page implies that the green light might still be on.  Our Google Nest Camera (Battery) is part of our Nest Aware Plus subscription and so is recording, so the green light is on all the time.  But on our camera, I don't see any way to turn off recording except by not setting up any events.  My guess is that, without a Nest Aware subscription and without any events, the green light might still come on whenever the camera detected something in front of it.

Maybe some other customers who have the Google Nest Camera (Batttery) without a Nest Aware subscription can comment on if and when the green light comes on.

Brad
Community Specialist
Community Specialist

Hi there, 

 

I apologize for my late response and thank you for all of your patience while waiting for a reply. I definitely understand how frustrating your situation must be, and I wanted to make sure that your concern was acknowledged. Do you still need help with this issue? I know that there's been a delay in response since you posted.

 

Best Regards, 

Brad.

Kenty
Community Member

Thanks for replying, Brad. I still have this concern. This is the Google Nest Camera (Battery). Not the doorbell, the camera. I have set it so that the camera does not react to any motion and never records events. The only time the camera is active is when I access it from my phone. When I access is from my phone the green light comes on to indicate the camera is active.......this is expected behaviour. However, there have been several times I've been home and noticed the green light come on when I'm not accessing it. I can't think of any reason why the green light would come on unless someone else has hacked the camera. I posted here to find if that is the case. My wifi security is pretty tight but I guess it's still possible someone is accessing it. Are there ANY other conditions that would cause that green light to come on?

Thanks,

Kent.

Brad
Community Specialist
Community Specialist

@Kenty

 

The green light is on most of the time if it is providing a live feed. The phone app doesn't have to be opened for it to still be streaming a live feed to your device. Here is a great article here on the status lights for each of our Cams and Doorbells. Take a look at the article as it explains what the lights mean. I highly doubt anyone is hacking your account. If you share access with anyone else, they can also view the camera feed as well. Just a thought of course.

 

Best regards,

Brad.

Brad
Community Specialist
Community Specialist

Hi there,

 

Just checking in to see if you still need assistance with this issue. Please let me know if you need further assistance. 

 

Best Regards,

Brad.

Kenty
Community Member

 

    Thanks for checking, Brad. I appreciate the info. The page you provided states that when the green light is on solid:
"Your camera is turned on, connected to Wi-Fi, and is processing images in its view.

Your camera could be recording activity and saving it to the cloud, or it could be using local storage to record and save video if it’s offline."

Based on this there is zero reason for that green light to ever be on unless I am accessing it remotely from my phone. The camera is set to never, ever record anything so that green light should never come on. At this point it looks like there are no answers and I've just started hanging a towel over the camera when I'm home. Thanks for trying. 🙂

Brad
Community Specialist
Community Specialist

@Kenty

 

If you do not want your cams to record, then I would suggest not having them turned on. They are meant to record events. If you have a Nest Aware subscription, it will basically always record footage for events, and show a live feed.

 

Best regards,

Brad.

Kenty
Community Member

Brad....I don't know why I'm having so much trouble getting the issue across. My camera NEVER RECORDS anything based on the way I have the settings. I can look at the history log and for every day going back three months it says "No recorded events". THE CAMERA IS NOT RECORDING ANYTHING! I have all recording disabled. Yet the green light still comes on periodically. I can't explain the situation any more clearly. Thanks! 😊

Brad
Community Specialist
Community Specialist

@Kenty

 

I understand I suppose. I am not sure why the status light matters if the recording is disabled. You can report it as a bug in the app. I don't know if there is anyway to turn off that green status light unless its turned off or unplugged.

 

Best regards,

Brad.

Brad
Community Specialist
Community Specialist

Hey Folks.

 

At this time, I'll go ahead and lock this thread. If you're still experiencing problems, feel free to start a new thread and we'll be happy to help.

 

Best Regards,

Brad.