Nest Camera battery not charging

[abcdefghii]

A few days ago my nest camera reported it was offline as the battery was dead. OK, it's gotten low before and charged no problems, climbed up, removed it from the base and connected to the charging cable. Left it all day and then later realized I had not gotten the message it was charged.

Checked the camera and no light blinking on the front, verified I had the plug in correctly, tried a different USB Power Brick, tried a laptop, moved it to a warmer location (although it has not been below about 35F here) and nothing works. 

It is barely 6 months old, ideally, I would have the packaging and a receipt to return it, but unfortunately (and frustratingly if the camera is now dead) have neither.  I have 3 other older generation wired cameras, would have preferred to stick with those, but alas they are no longer available new, so am forced to the wireless one. 

Anything else I can do or am I left with a dead camera?

[FR39]

I have the same problem, battery died while out of town and since then we have tried charging it and there has been no indication that it is charging. 

[abcdefghii]

I've found a few people with the same problem, but no one ever posts a solution and then the thread just gets closed. These cameras are not cheap + subscription costs, should not be dealing with issues like this after such a short time.

[MplsCustomer]

@abcdefghiiand @FR39 

Is your charging cord plugged in with the cord feeding towards the FRONT of the camera?  If it is, perhaps you have a defective camera or charging cord.

If your battery camera is charging, the status light should be pulsing white, anti should be solid white when fully charged (https://support.google.com/googlenest/answer/9268073?hl=en#zippy=%2Cgoogle-nest-cam-battery).

We have had a Google Nest Camera (Battery) plugged in all the time with the optional power cable, so we don't have to take it down to charge it. But I have seen posts in this forum where the battery cameras won't charge due to a defect either in the charging cord or the camera itself.

[abcdefghii]

Yep, cord plugged in facing the front of the camera. It's always the first thing I check because it seems backwards to me, so I double check it is the correct way around. 

I wonder if is possible to check the charging cord with a multimeter, without knowing what the pins are though it may be tricky. If I could figure out the + and - on the charger cord, I could at least verify if the cord is sending power to the camera. 

[MplsCustomer]

@abcdefghii 

I wouldn't know how to check the cord with a multimeter.

Maybe you just contact Google Nest Support (https://support.google.com/googlenest/gethelp). It should be pretty straightforward to verify with them that your camera isn't charging; you plug it in and the charging light does not flash. I just don't know whether they'll offer to send you a replacement charging cord, or a replacement cord AND camera (under the 1-year warranty). Judging from previous posts, it seems they've done both.

By the way, when we got ours in Sept. 2021 we wanted a wired outdoor camera but they had just quit selling them. With all the problems posted in this forum about the battery camera when running on battery power, I'm glad we got ours with the optional power cable. With it plugged in, it's "Live" all the time, the battery is always charged, and its performance is similar to that of our older cameras.

[abcdefghii]

I initially looked on eBay for a 4th wired camera, but the prices people are (or were at the time) asking for essentially a used camera made me buy the battery powered one. I think if I can get this one working, I'll look to install it with it plugged in, even if it means adding an outdoor power outlet. 

In the meantime, will contact google and see what they plan to do about it. I guess they can look and see it is less than a year old based upon them likely being able to see when it was first activated on my account. 

[abcdefghii]

Well, this is odd. I have been trying to get this to charge for at least I think the last 4 days and gotten absolutely nowhere. Contacted Google support, they asked me some questions, LED status etc. Then had me plug the camera in. I had to run to another room to get it (where it has been plugged into an outlet since Sunday). 

Get back to the room I was in, plug camera in, nothing, look again 2 minutes later and the LED charge light is blinking away. It's currently charged to 5% and climbing. Very odd. Checked with Google and it is under warranty until June 2023, so worst case it is covered for another 8 months.

[MplsCustomer]

@abcdefghii 

Perhaps the plug that inserts into the bottom of the camera is faulty and needs to be fiddled with until it's seated properly in the socket and the status light starts flashing white. Shortly after we bought our camera, I saw a couple of posts where customers reported their plugs just fell apart; maybe they're not very durable.

Good luck.

[abcdefghii]

You could be onto something, the support guy said to twist and push the connector on. I'll likely look into either hard wire or a solar panel for it soon.

[MplsCustomer]

@abcdefghii 

If you go solar, note that: "If you’ve connected your Nest Cam (battery) to the Wasserstein Solar Panel, the panel doesn’t directly power the camera. Instead, the battery is trickle charged by the panel, and the camera runs off the battery charge." https://support.google.com/googlenest/answer/11830989?hl=en

[abcdefghii]

That's OK about the solar panel, I think I had seen that somewhere previously, possibly on a review of the solar panel itself. While it would not be terribly difficult to install an outlet, at the same time, the solar option makes it a little more flexible.

[MplsCustomer]

@abcdefghii 

We were fortunate to have an outdoor outlet reasonably close.  I just installed a weather-resistant cover so it could be plugged in 24-7.

[abcdefghii]

That's the good thing here, this camera is going on a newly built detached garage. As is, it would be fairy simple to install an outdoor outlet up in the attic space and then route it through the wall. I might see how much wire I have leftover later, the price of wire means I have been trying to use it efficiently! 

[MplsCustomer]

@abcdefghii 

Or you could use the 5-meter or 10-meter power cable to plug it into an outlet inside the garage and run the cable through a hole in the garage wall adjacent to the camera.  Our older wired Google Nest Outdoor Cameras are wired that way in our detached garage, with the holes sealed with caulk.

[janthadeus]

Hi folks,

I just wanted to jump in real fast to see if you saw MplsCustomer's reply and to see if you still needed some help on this or if you were able to get it sorted out. If you are still needing some help, just let us know and we'll be happy to continue helping.

I appreciate the help here, MplsCustomer.

Thanks,

JT

[janthadeus]

Hey folks,

FR39 and abcdefghii, how's it going? Still need our help?

Jslachta, have you tried the steps shared by MplsCustomer? If so , how did it go? Let me know if you need more help.

Thanks for the help here, MplsCustomer.

Regards,

JT

[abcdefghii]

Mine is good, longer term, who knows, I am hopeful it is a one off type of thing, but until I need to charge it again I won't know for sure.

[Brad]

Hi there, 

Just checking in to see how the conversation is going. Please let us know if you have any further questions or concerns. We'll leave this thread open for a little longer for follow-up questions and concerns. 

Best regards, 

Brad

[Brad]

Hi there,

Just checking in on this thread and the activity on it. We'll leave this topic open for another 24 hours in case there are any follow-up questions or comments.

Best regards,
Brad

[Jslachta]

I'm having the same problem