My Nest doorbell camera (battery) can't record/sense the car in my driveway

[Huey818]

My Nest Doorbell (battery) doesn't seem to detect cars pulling up or leaving my driveway.

I read here on Google Nest Community that others have experienced the same or similar thing and have thus far been unable to get it resolved. This seems like a major product defect since part of the reason I got this doorbell is for security. You may say, "well it will detect a person approaching your car". NOT ALWAYS- and when it does, that's dandy but if that's all it records, that's pretty useless. ESPECIALLY if I'm asleep at night and it stops recording when it no longer detects a person (i.e. when they successfully break into my car and proceeds to drive away!)

This issue has been happening since pretty much the moment I installed it. I get an alert that a person has been detected and I can see it's a family member getting into the car. But then the video stops. It doesn't record the car starting and pulling away. Not even as a subsequent event. Nor does the doorbell cam detect a car pulling into the driveway. Only when someone exits the vehicle does the doorbell realizes that something is happening. This problem exists regardless of whether or not I have zones setup.

Add to that, although the doorbell is set to high sensitivity and can even capture people walking on the other side of the street, it doesn't always capture people in front of the house until they're less than 10 feet of the front door. That doesn't make any sense to me. I would like to know if this is a software problem and if there is a fix.

These are the things I have tried so far:

1. Reset the camera and reset the internet modem. Did them both. Still have the same problem.

2. Turn off notifications and then back on - does nothing because vehicles are not being recorded to begin with.

3. Created zones. Then deleted them because that didn't fix the problem of cars not being detected in the driveway. Cars in the driveway are not detected whether or not zones are setup.

[Huey818]

Update- 2024-01-21

As of now, after resetting the doorbell and removing the zone, it is now pick up cars leaving the driveway but not pulling up. Starting to think buying this doorbell is a mistake considering all the hassle it's causing.

[Lance_L]

Hi Huey818,

Thanks for reaching out to the Community and sharing all the steps you’ve taken to fix the issue. I’m sorry to hear that you’re having issues with the Nest Doorbell (battery). Let’s check it out.

Please try the steps below and let me know if it helps:

1. Check for Android system updates and install them if there’s any.
2. Turn off all notifications for the Nest doorbell.
3. Uninstall the Google Home app.
4. Restart the mobile device.
5. Reinstall the Google Home app and sign in.
6. Turn on the notifications for the doorbell and check if the issue persists.

Keep me posted.

All the best,

Lance

[Huey818]

Hi Lance,

Appreciate you taking the time to respond. I would like to point out that the issue isn't so much as not receiving notification of cars in my driveway, it's that the Nest Doorbell (battery) doesn't even pick up cars arriving at all. Even with the car departures, it is only if the action is a smooth transition from detecting someone getting into the car and then the car leaving within 10 seconds. If the driver doddle even a little, the recording stops (failing to record the engine starting and vehicle leaving).

Although the Nest Doorbell (battery) successfully recorded a car pulling into the driveway today, I believe it's because a car passing the house just moments before triggered the recording and that the continuous motions kept the recording going.

However, I will execute the steps you have provided within the next 24 hours. Hopefully, this solves the problem moving forward. Thank you again for your assistance.

[Lance_L]

Hey Huey818,

It was our pleasure, and we appreciate you keeping us informed. We’ll be patiently awaiting further updates from you or any additional questions you may have.

Regards,

Lance

[Huey818]

Hi Lance,

I have completed the steps you provided but the problem still persists. The Google Nest Doorbell cannot capture events where cars pull into the driveway or leaving the driveway.

[Huey818]

So I signed up for the Nest Aware as advised by Google Customer Service (which is ridiculous to me) and it still does nothing to improve the situation. Not only do I only get snippets of 10-20 seconds of events, it seems like as soon as the sensor stops detecting motion, there is a cool down period before it detects anything again. For example, if someone walks out of frame or behind something for few second, the recording stops and won't pickup any activities immediately after. Seems like a serious design flaw to me.

At this point, I am wholly disappointed in the Nest Doorbell Camera (battery) and the lack of a proper solution to fix the problem. I think I'm going to give up on it and seek out alternatives at this point. 😞

[Huey818]

Alright, so at this point I don't think there is a real solution to this problem and apparently, no one can help - not even Google customer support which was very disappointing. My next step is to find a suitable replacement and get rid of this thing.