Nest Cam Indoor Excessive Upload Bandwidth

[MidwestVince]

Hello Google Nest Community:

I have 3 Nest cameras on the premises--a Nest Doorbell (wired), Nest Cam (Battery) mounted outdoors, and Nest Cam (indoors) in my garage.  I also have a Google Home display. The Nest Cam indoor is burning through my data at a staggering rate, uploading over 600GB in the last 2 weeks. My other cameras, which see much more activity, are using a fraction of the data (7GB, and 275Mb, respectively). There are more outdoor activities with the backyard cam and the doorbell cam.  I'm thinking it is highly defective, unless there is a setting that I am missing.  Anyone else out there have a Nest Cam that's acting this way, and anyone have a working remedy (other than getting a warranty replacement)?

I've rebooted it a few times, to no avail. I've now unplugged it altogether until the issue can be resolved.

Settings on both the Nest cam Battery and the Nest Cam Indoors are the same:

• 30 day event history
• Wake up sensitivity=medium
• Video Quality=high
• Night Vision=default
• Microphone=off
• Camera volume=medium

Thanks!

[EmersonB]

Hi MidwestVince, 

Thanks for reaching out here in the Community and for sharing here what you've done. 

If you need your Nest Camera to use less data over the course of a month, you can try a couple of things:

• Lower the video quality and bandwidth settings so that your Nest Camera won't use as much data to upload video to the cloud.
• Use Home & Away Routines (Home app) or Home/Away Assist (Nest app) to turn your Nest Camera on and off automatically. This is especially useful if your Nest Camera has 24/7 video history, so that it doesn't constantly upload video to the Nest service.
• Some Nest Camera and Nest Doorbell models can also use camera schedules to turn on and off automatically to help reduce the amount of data used.

Hit this link to learn more and let us know if you have more questions in mind.

Regards,

Emerson

[EmersonB]

Hello MidwestVince, 

I'm dropping by to ensure that everything is covered here. How's it going with your Nest Camera? Were you able to read the information and check the link I've shared? In case you have an update, you know where to find us.

Cheers,
Emerson

[MidwestVince]

Hello Emerson: Thanks for you reply. I tried all of the suggestions, except scheduling and activity zones, as noted in my original post.

• I've lowered the bandwith from Max to High on initial setup.
• I don't have 24/7 history--just 30 day history.
• The garage has maybe 8-10 events per day--other than that, it's quiet, and dark (save for a few LEDs on some devices.
• The data this camera is uploading is exponentially higher than 2 other cameras  combined. For example, in a 2 week period my Nest doorbell cam and nest battery outdoor cam will upload approximately 200-300mb of videos.  In that same period, the nest indoor cam in the garage will have uploaded ~300GB of videos. This is why I believe it is malfunctioning.  
• I have a spare nest indoor cam I may set up in the garage once my billing cycle from my ISP rolls into next month (so I don't burn through all of my data and get charged for more.)
• I'm an IT pro, and have managed Axis and Milestone camera systems for clients for many years. The google nest cams, while functional, leave a lot to be desired when it comes to configuration, diagnostics, and overall operation.

Looking forward to a working solution for this camera.

Thanks,

Vince

[UserName14]

Hi Emerson,

I believe I have the same issue as Vince. I have a Nest Cam Indoor and last month it suddenly started constantly uploading an inordinate amount of data. Based on the data cap overage notices from my ISP, and compared to previous months, it looks like that camera single-handedly uploaded over 1TB that month (basically using my whole data allotment itself).

I got a Nest Wifi Pro router to see per-device data usage, and that's how I found out the nest cam was the culprit. Based on the router stats, it looks like it's constantly uploading ~15Mbps when in this broken state. This number does not go down even when the camera is "off" (turned off via the Home app, but not actually unplugged), so it's definitely in a state where it's uploading something when it should not be. Rebooting doesn't resolve the issue. The only way to stop it is to unplug the camera (or "pause" it on the router so it can't access the internet), which makes the camera effectively useless.

I managed to get the issue to go away for about a week by resetting the device (removing it from my home and adding it back), but then the issue returned. According to my router, over a week of normal operation the camera uploaded about 35GB (high, but reasonable, about 5GB per day), but then in a single day of malfunctioning suddenly uploaded 75GB (unreasonable, and costly if it were to continue and use up my data cap). For comparison, I have two older model nest cams, and they both used less than 3GB of upload over the course of the same week. 

Since the issue came back fairly quickly after the device reset, it seems like resetting is not a good fix. Something is certainly wrong with the camera, and it's not clear to me that it's something I could fix by changing settings on my side alone (because even when I change settings to not save history, and when I turn the camera "off" via the Home app, it's still uploading 15Mbps regardless). I think I need some help from Google to resolve this issue, or this camera will continue to be useless, unfortunately.

Best,

UserName14

[MidwestVince]

UserName14: Thanks for sharing, bummed that you're experiencing the same issue.  Do you have more than 1 nest cam indoor? If so, are the other units burning through data uploads in a similar fashion?  I've got to wait to the next billing cycle to even think of bringing another nest cam indoor online or tinker with the original offending unit further.  Looking to see of others are experiencing similar issues as well!

Good luck!

Vince

[UserName14]

Hi Vince,

Thanks as well for posting! Glad (I guess?) to know I'm not alone.

I only have the one "Nest Cam Indoor" (which is malfunctioning), but I do have two older nest cams (set up through the Nest app, rather than the Home app) and a Nest Doorbell (battery) (set up through the Home app) which all seem to be working well and using way less data.

I hear what you mean about the billing cycles. Fortunately I get one "grace month" from my ISP since I haven't gone over the cap before. Otherwise, this camera bug was using so much data it would have cost me $100 last month in overage charges.

[Irraphional]

I'm having the same issue. We have four of the wired, 2nd gen cameras. I recently reset all of them,  and for a while, they functioned properly. They'd briefly upload when there was an event, but otherwise use virtually no bandwidth. Seemingly randomly, one will "hang," consuming the entirety of our upload bandwidth, even when turned off in the app. Even worse, when it's in this hang state, it doesn't actually record events, and live view is unavailable. Resetting fixes this for a little while, but it often hangs again in a few days. If I'd known they'd behave like this, I would've bought something else. In my estimation, the software is broken and has functionally bricked hundreds of dollars of hardware.

[MidwestVince]

I'm sorry to hear others are having the same issue. I hope this community is monitored--these nest indoor cameras are essentially useless until the software and/or firmware is updated. The sad part is that I had 2 of the Nest DropCam HD's that Google is no longer going to support, so Google offered a 50% discount to "upgrade" to the nest indoor cameras. The DropCams worked perfectly. The nest indoor cams are bandwidth sucking disaster.

[MidwestVince]

Well, I've contacted Google support on the matter.  We'll see if it gets anywhere, as the tech is going to escalate the situation.

I was able to email the router traffic analysis showing over 1.2TB of data uploaded by this Google Nest Indoor Camera in July and August. There were very few viewable events, though, as others have reported.

It's past the 30 day return window, so I'm not confident on a refund. The ravenous upload cost me big time in data overages in July and August. 

I'll keep the thread updated with any resolution to the issue.

Vince

[KerryD]

We're also experiencing said issue - we have (2) Nest Cam Outdoors, and (3) Nest Cam Indoors (G2,) and they've been humming along just fine for a couple months. Then, earlier in the week, one of the indoor cameras starting uploading approximately 120GB a day, compared to the usual 5GB. Paying overages on bandwidth because this camera decided to go absolutely haywire. Will keep my fingers crossed that Google does something to address this issue. Thanks for those who posted and left information. Cheers.

[MidwestVince]

Hi Kerry: Thanks for posting on this issue.  Are your outdoor cameras the version with the battery and the magnetic base? How have the outdoor cameras been behaving bandwidth wise?

Thanks!

[KerryD]

The Outdoor cameras are the versions with the battery and magnetic base, we also have them hooked up to the Wasserstein solar panels. So far they've been just fine in terms of bandwidth. And so have our other indoor cameras.

But here's a look at the historical and current behavior of the rogue camera - almost an 8x increase.

Historical PerformanceRogue Bandwidth Utilization

[MidwestVince]

This is very similar to the rate my rogue indoor camera was uploading data (but not actual video footage). I have a second new indoor camera in the box, but am concerned about it going rogue as well (unless a get a definitive fix).

That's good news about the Outdoor Cams--their firmware seems to be much more stable.

Thanks again for sharing the info!

[LK5]

I have exactly the same issue! My whole internet suddenly started dropping in the last month. I have a doorbell and an outdoor camera both behaving properly but my indoor camera is constantly maxing out bandwidth ( i have about 19mb upload speed, it takes 99% of that) Even when off or when i tell it to only record events.

I have to physically unplug it and suddenly my home network behaves again.
This cant be a coincidence this has just started happening to several people. Has there been a firmware update?

[MidwestVince]

LK5: Thank you for sharing. I haven't seen any updates lately. TBH, I pulled the plug on the indoor camera last week. The Google Tech I'm working with suggested activating the home/away routines, but I just don't trust (nor can I afford) another data overage to find out if that actually works. I have a second nest indoor cam still in the box that I was going to install, but will hold off indefinitely.

[Dgoradia]

I have the same issue. 5 indoor cameras daily uploading 40 to 50 GB each on lowest quality setting. My monthly broadband bill has shot up significantly. Are there any Google nest forum where we can report this and get this resolved ?

[MidwestVince]

Hello Dgoradia: Odd that it has affected all of your indoor cameras.  That is an indicator of a systemic issue. I have been working with Google support, as this Nest community forum isn't a direct tech support channel.  They are replacing my indoor camera, but if it is a software/firmware issue, I'm not sure replacing it will cure the problems.  I'll keep this thread updated once I receive the replacement.

Thanks!

[CodyC]

Same thing is happening to us. We've got limited bandwidth (especially upstream), and finally got a router that gives us better network stats. It turns out our two nest cameras are *constantly* sending data to the cloud, though we explicitly do not pay for 24/7 recording (Nest Aware Plus) and only have the event-based Nest Aware plan.

This is unacceptable. I'm about to block their internet access, and we'll probably be replacing them with something that can more reliably do event detection and storage locally.

[MidwestVince]

Cody: Yes, keep an eye on that data upload.  Contact Google Nest support, and provide any data you can from your router that shows the camera uploads. My camera replacement arrived this week, so I'll monitor the network and see if it actually improves with the new camera.

Thanks for sharing on the thread--perhaps the more that come forward will help with Google addressing the problem.

Vince

[MidwestVince]

Update!

Google issued a replacement Nest Indoor camera, as it was still under warranty. I've been monitoring it closely, and the data uploads seem to be in line with the Nest Doorbell cam and Nest Outdoor Battery cam. I'm calculating it will upload about 10Gb per month in comparison  to 600-700Gb from the malfunctioning unit. 

If your camera is uploading excessively, I'd recommend getting a replacement asap.

I'll update the thread if anything changes!