Nest Google Doorbell (wired - 1st Gen)

[ftsang]

My Nest Hello doorbell is starting to go offline when someone presses the door chime button, it's also not reliably ringing my door chime indoors when the button is depressed.  I figure it's time to get a new doorbell (this Nest Hello is probably 5 years old now - it's also starting to crack and delaminate), if I get an exact replacement, am I able to simply install and transfer my new doorbell onto my Nest account and retain all my familiar faces, etc?

[MplsCustomer · Accepted solution]

@ftsang 

The internal battery in the Nest Hello doorbell fails after a year or two.  (Yes, it has one!)  When it fails, the doorbell goes offline for a minute whenever it is pressed. It's happened to all 3 of our Nest Hellos in succession. There is a workaround: if you turn off the "Indoor chime" option, then the doorbell no longer goes offline, but of course the doorbell chime then no longer works. But you can instead rely on "Visitor announcements" on your Nest Hubs, Nest Minis, or Nest speakers.

This is a very long thread on the subject, with over 1,000 replies:

https://www.googlenestcommunity.com/t5/Cameras-and-Doorbells/Nest-Hello-Doorbell-cuts-out-when-butto...

A few customers have pried open their doorbell and replaced the battery with a 3rd-party battery, even though it's not designed to be replaceable:

https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Nest+Hello+Battery+Replacement/131729

I think familiar faces are stored on your account and not on the doorbell.  But you'll lose any history on the doorbell, and if you have a 1st gen Nest Aware subscription you may have to contact Google Nest to get that on a new 1st gen Nest Hello.  (I don't know if they're still selling Nest Hellos.)

[ftsang]

@MplsCustomer 

 thank you for this info! I went and ordered a battery from Amazon and changed it out last night. 

Changing it immediately resolved the problem, in addition, it seemed that the bad battery was also potentially linked to the Nest App perpetually freezing when accessing the camera and also when reviewing historical footage. It would freeze and lock up just after a few seconds of scrolling and take 20 to 40 seconds to unfreeze but then repeat the same cycle of freeze and unfreeze indefinitely. After I changed the battery, this really annoying issue also resolved completely. Thanks again!

[Jenelyn_O]

Hi there,

Thanks for posting in the Google Nest Community forum. I appreciate the detailed experience you shared that might help other Community members in the future. I'm glad that the issue is now resolved. Please let us know if you still have questions or concerns. Otherwise, I'll be locking this thread after 24 hours. 

Thanks for lending a hand here, @MplsCustomer.

Best,

Jenelyn