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Nest Doorbell Camera: Unable to view live video feed

jkalber
Community Member

Hello,

I purchased a Nest Doorbell (battery) that is wired (I know that's confusing but it is.  I don't need to remove the doorbell to charge it, it charges automatically).  The doorbell was working perfectly fine for many months up until about a month ago.  Since then, the Live feed is very intermittent.  When I click on the Live button it says

"Live video unavailable: The camera may be unreachable or saving battery."

I have tried the following with no luck.

1.) Turning the camera off and back on from the Google Home app

2.) Removing the camera from the mount and restarting the camera

3.) Removing the camera from the Google Home app, factory resetting the camera and joining it back to the Google Home app

4.) Replaced the doorbell camera with a brand new one

 

 

This is extremely frustrating, I'm unsure if there was an update to the app and or camera that caused this issue.  I know for a fact that it's not a network issue because the doorbell camera is showing strong signal strength on my home Wi-Fi network.  I have done some searching around and it seems that many people are experiecing the same issue.

1 Recommended Answer

jkalber
Community Member

Alright, I have an update.  It looks like my home network was the culprit - even though my initial router was showing the doorbell had a strong network connection, that doesn't look to be the case.  I just upgraded our home network with a Google Nest Pro Wi-Fi Mesh system.  I have one of the access points near the front door.  After installing the new network, I am now able to view the Live Feed 100% of the time where previously it was quite intermittent. 

View Recommended Answer in original post

11 REPLIES 11

MplsCustomer
Bronze
Bronze

@jkalber 

I too have seen numerous posts about being unable to view a live video feed for the battery doorbell. (We have 3 of the older Nest Hello doorbells.)

Is your battery doorbell installed in a region where cold weather could be affecting it? The battery, which is trickle-charged when the doorbell is wired, cannot be charged at temperatures below freezing:

https://support.google.com/googlenest/answer/11830989?hl=en

 

I live in Texas so cold weather definitely is not the issue, we only see below freezing temps a few times a year.

janthadeus
Community Specialist
Community Specialist

Hi folks,

 

I’m sorry to hear about your experience viewing your camera live feed.  Let’s see what’s going on — a few questions: how far is the doorbell from the router? Does your phone have a pending software update? Were there any changes to your Wi-Fi network? Also, are there devices or appliances (such as baby monitors, microwaves, cordless phones, etc.) near the doorbell?
 

Here are some troubleshooting steps you can try:
 

  1. Close all the apps running in the background of your phone, reopen the Google Home app. Then, check your camera live feed again. 
  2. At the highest video quality setting, your camera can use a large chunk of the internet connection to stream video. Slower internet service might not be able to keep up. Check your internet speed here: https://goo.gle/2JaUmYI. The page would show your download speed then click “Show more info” to check your upload speed. Have a look at this article for your guide: Internet bandwidth and speed requirements for Nest cameras.
  3. Open the Home app Google Home app.
  4. Touch and hold your device's tile.
  5. At the top right, tap Settings .
  6. Choose Video.
  7. Under “Video quality,” choose Max or High.
    • High settings uses less bandwidth.
    • Max settings uses more bandwidth.
  8. Restart your phone, turn it off for 60 seconds then turn it on.
  9. If you have a dual band Wi-Fi frequency switch your connection to 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi to improve your connection.

Let me know how it goes.

 

I appreciate your help, MplsCustomer.
 

Thanks,

JT

Good evening JT.

1.) The router is in the same location that it's always been, nothing has changed.  To add to that, within the router settings - I am able to see connected devices and the Nest Doorbell is showing a strong/good signal.

2.) My phone does not have any pending software updates.  I am running iOS 16.3.1

3.) There have not been any changes made to the home network/Wi-Fi

4.) There are no other devices or appliances near the doorbell.

5.) I do have dual-band Wi-Fi and have already made sure that it's on the 2.4GHz network.

 

Your troubleshooting recommendation of turning the phone off and back on did not resolve the issue.

My network speeds are as follows:

Download speed = 660Mbps

Upload speed = 36Mbps

Latency = 11ms

Loaded = 45ms

janthadeus
Community Specialist
Community Specialist

Hey jkalber,
 

I’m sorry for the delay. Thanks for checking that for us. Could you turn off your Wi-Fi, switch your connection to cellular data then let me know if that helps?

 

Thanks,

JT

Hello JT, I turned my Wi-Fi off and switched over to cellular data but that didn't make any difference.

@jkalber 

When you say "I did that", what did you do?

On my iPhone, I have two ways to download a clip:

1. I can view the event, select the "More" icon (the 3 dots) in the upper right, and select "Save clip to device".

2. I can select "Event details" and click on the "Download" icon in the upper right corner.

The clip is downloaded to my camera roll after displaying the message I included earlier.

The first time I downloaded a clip, I was asked something about whether I wanted to give the Google Home app permission to access everything, or just the photo being downloaded. I can't remember the exact wording, but I selected the latter. Since then, I get the message I included earlier, and I select "Keep Current Selection".

 

Hello, sorry but I'm not understanding what you are saying.  No where in any of my posts did I reply with "I did that" and this issue isn't about downloading clips.  The issue I'm having is viewing the doorbells live video feed.

@jkalber 

I'm very sorry.  I had another post on my screen and was trying to respond to something entirely different and got a phone call in the middle.

jkalber
Community Member

Alright, I have an update.  It looks like my home network was the culprit - even though my initial router was showing the doorbell had a strong network connection, that doesn't look to be the case.  I just upgraded our home network with a Google Nest Pro Wi-Fi Mesh system.  I have one of the access points near the front door.  After installing the new network, I am now able to view the Live Feed 100% of the time where previously it was quite intermittent. 

Juni
Community Specialist
Community Specialist

Hi jkalber,

 

I’m glad your issue is resolved now. I’ll keep this thread open for one more day. If you need further help, let me know.

 

Thanks,

Juni