How to wire your battery powered nest doorbell

[Fern33]

I purchased and installed a battery powered Nest Doorbell camera. After 6 months of having to uninstall and charge it every other week, we want to see how we can connect this to direct power via solar panel or wall outlet. However the mount that it came with does not allow for doorbell to be plugged in while mounted. What options or solutions do you recommend?  thanks

[MplsCustomer]

@Fern33 

You do not "plug in" the doorbell; you WIRE it to your doorbell wires or an adapter (https://store.google.com/us/product/ninety7_indoor_power_adapter_nest_hello), or a solar panel (if it is rated to work with the doorbell) attaching the two wires to the two screws on the back of your doorbell.

See the second video on this Google Nest Help topic, starting at about 3:40:

https://support.google.com/googlenest/answer/10732535

Note that you will also have to remove your doorbell from the Google Home app, do a factory reset, and then reinstall it so that you can select the wired option during the install process.

[Super_paulie]

Is it really true that I'd need to uninstall the doorbell and reinstall if I go from battery to wired? I'm about to do the job but it seems crazy I'd have to do that. I assume I'd lose all my familiar faces, history, zones etc as well as there is no way to back them up?

[MplsCustomer]

@Super_paulie 

Well, in the install instructions for the battery doorbell, at about 1:45 in the second video on the post below, you have to select either "Battery" or "Wire terminals" during the install process:

https://support.google.com/googlenest/answer/10732535

You could try searching through your settings to see if there's a way to change that setting.

We have a battery camera, and it has to be plugged in during the install process in order for it to realize it's plugged in and not running on battery power. Customers who add the optional power cable AFTER the camera is running on battery power have found they have to remove the camera and reinstall it in order for it to correctly realize it's plugged in.

I'm just another customer and didn't design it that way.  I don't use familiar faces, but I think they're stored separately from your doorbell (unless it's your only camera/doorbell), but you'd lose history, etc., and there's no way to back that up.

[Super_paulie]

i cant see any other options in the settings or anywhere else. Makes you wonder what the setting does, what does the camera do differently when it is wired compared to running purely on battery power. It seems madness that you need to completely flatten the device and all your settings and things to switch it over, so what it is doing differently that warrants it.

[EmersonB]

Hello everyone,

@Fern33, thanks for reaching out here in the Community. How's it going? Were you able to read the information that MplsCustomer has shared above? Looking forward to your update here.

@Super_paulie, when it's wired, your Nest Doorbell will receive a continuous power and has an infinity symbol instead of a battery percentage. When it's battery powered, Battery life will depend on factors including activity, temperature, and selected camera settings. You can extend the battery life of your camera by adjusting video quality, length of video clips, time between recorded events, and using activity zones to monitor specific areas. 

Nest Doorbell (battery)

• Busy - About 1 month battery life (about 25 - 30 recorded events per day).
• Typical - About 2.5 months battery life (about 13 - 16 recorded events per day).
• Quiet - About 6 months battery life (about 2 - 5 recorded events per day.

To learn more, you may visit our public article about “Save battery for Nest cameras and doorbells”.

I appreciate the help, MplsCustomer.

Regards,

Emerson

[Super_paulie]

That hasn't answered anything I asked?

[EdmondB]

Hey everyone, 

@Super_paulie, for a Nest camera or doorbell battery powered, it doesn’t have 24/7 continuous video recording enabled unless you hardwired it, unlike with the 2nd Gen Nest Doorbell wired and 2nd Gen Nest camera wired. To change the option from battery power source to hardwired, you have to factory reset the Nest device, and on the set-up steps, you will see a prompt asking, “What will your Nest Camera or Doorbell use for power? ” then it will give you 2 options for Battery or Wire terminals.

Let me know if you have additional questions.

Best,
Edmond

[Super_paulie]

Yes I do. Does this mean I will lose my entire familiar face library that I have built up over the last year? I don't care about continuous recording, I simply don't want to have to keep charging up a doorbell for the rest of my life when I can simply wire it in. Why do I need to factory reset it just for that, that's ridiculous. 

[EdmondB]

Hi Super_paulie,
 

Once you factory reset a Nest camera or Nest Doorbell, it will erase all the settings and data, but if you only want the event-based recording on your Nest Doorbell, there is no need to factory reset as it will charge automatically once you connect a wire to the wire terminals on the back of your Nest Doorbell.
 

Let me know if you have additional questions.
 

Best,

Edmond

[Super_paulie]

thanks Edmond, thats the answer i was looking for. Got there in the end. 

For info, there are absolute no guides in Google or on the internet on how to hard-wire a Google Nest Doorbell (battery) without a chime. All the guides already assume you have a chime and im sure many people do not, they simply want to wire it for power.

I would have got the wired version but here in the UK, for some reason Google dont sell it, why would that be?

[EmersonB]

Hey folks,

@Super_paulie,  we appreciate your update and we're glad that you got what you're looking for. As of the moment we don't have any news to share about when the Nest Doorbell (2nd gen, wired) will be available in the UK. Rest assured that we'll take this as feedback and learn from this to deliver a better process and experience in the future.

Thanks for helping, Edmond.

Regards,

Emerson