Nest Hello Doorbell cuts out when button is pressed

[DarkGhost18]

I've had my Nest Hello Doorbell since 2018, it worked perfectly and without issue until recently. Now everytime someone presses the button, it cuts out mid ring in the device, and loses power. The camera stops working until maybe 30 seconds later. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to resolve this issue?

[Cekemmis]

 I’ve finally gotten irritated enough to research what is going on with my Nest Hello and here I am. I purchased in early 2018 and am thinking it might just be time for me to replace with something else after reading all of these comments. 

[TheJoe]

Ditto to your comments, we purchase a product/service with expectations of function.  Clearly, lately. for many of us the whizzbang doorbell we purchase is more of a fizzle/dud.  Do we migrate to another provider or wait for "Brad" or Google to assist with a solution......... thinking......

[Cekemmis]

I guess I should be happy it worked well for nearly 4 years. Reviews of the current doorbell have me heavily considering the ring pro/echo show 5 bundle right now on amazon. (The echo show 5 is free) 

[axlahn]

The Ring Pro 2 looks really nice.  But sadly, even that product will eventually face this issue.  It also has an internal battery and from my research, the Ring Pro and Pro 2 are even more of a PIA to replace the non-user serviceable battery.  There's just a lot more to tear down before you can access the battery.

[Cekemmis]

Yeah, I’m pretty sure this is just the name of the game with these types of products. 

[EricO88]

I'm having the same issue as everyone else. I live in Texas and installed my Nest Hello back in 2018. 

Doorbell pressed - camera goes offline for 20 to 30secs.

Doorbell pressed w/chime off - works flawlessly.

This all started when the holiday tones started rolling out. My electrician came by last week to address a separate issue. While he was here I had him check the transformer and both chimes. I even grabbed my original doorbell for testing. He couldn't find any issues other than the nest doorbell. He's seen this issue arise with other customers lately. 

Software: 4110054

[Natrix]

Having the exact same issue in Arizona right now. Push the button, doorbell powers off and powers back on after 20-30 seconds. Got my multimeter and tested the wires to the back of the doorbell, at the chime, and at the transformer. Roughly 18-19 volts at all locations during a button push and without a button push. I've had the doorbell since it was launched roughly and maybe it is lasting longer than others since it does not get as cold here in Arizona so the battery is not aging as rapidly. Turning off the indoor chime seems to help but is obviously not ideal. I've managed to factory reset after trying many times and that does not help. It's either a battery or a firmware issue. I wonder if you could hardwire the connections to the battery and run that off another set of wires, but that is beyond my technical skills.

[gordonkm7281]

Same issue with mine here in Arizona, just noticed it today but haven't tried to turn the chime off to see if it still works, but what's the point of that of it does?

[gordonkm7281]

Hello, anyone else experiencing your nest doorbell going offline for about a min after the button is pressed?  Not sure when it started but noticed it today.   Tried restarting router and wifi network, uninstalled and reinstalled nest app but same issue.

[MplsCustomer]

@gordonkm7281 

I mistakenly provided a link back to this thread in my earlier post. Sorry! There is at least one other thread on this issue:

https://www.googlenestcommunity.com/t5/Cameras-and-Doorbells/Doorbell-stops-recording-for-a-few-seco...

Our two Nest Hello doorbells haven't encountered this issue yet, but they're not two years old yet. I hope we don't encounter it; the link to instructions provided by @axlahn above  (thank you!)  seem challenging.

[hamza66]

If your Google Nest camera or doorbell is offline, it could be due to a number of issues. Start here for troubleshooting steps if your Nest camera or doorbell has already been set up in the app, but has been disconnected.

Important: Before you begin, you should be at home so you have physical access to your camera or doorbell to fix offline issues. You won’t be able to perform many of the troubleshooting steps remotely.

More Information: Click Here

[Brad]

Hey folks.

This is a known issue, I am going to be merging this thread to the main thread found here and will be locking and closing this thread. 

Best regards,

Brad.

[Joshwabrett]

What I’ve done as a workaround (please forgive me if this has already been shared by another user):

I turned off the indoor chime. It’s at the top of the settings menu in the app. It works just fine with that off. That may not be an option for everyone if you are relying on an indoor chime, but we have Google Nest Mini’s and other google home devices throughout the house so we don’t need the indoor chime. This is still an issue that google needs to fix. I believe it’s a software issue. 

[nekki]

Got same issue since Nov. Would Google provide any solution for this?

[axlahn]

Just wanted to give everyone a status update.  I received the replacement battery today.  

First off, the doorbell works just fine now.  It was 100% the battery.  Once I got the unit opened up and got a good look at the old battery, it was pretty obvious.  The OEM battery was bulging quite a bit.  This is common with aging LiPo batteries ... especially ones this small.

Some notes and observations if anyone wants to try it for themselves:

1)  Opening the Nest Hello wasn't difficult, but it's also not "easy."  If you've every worked with small electronics, than it's mostly a piece of cake.

2)  I used the disassembly guide on iFixIt (just need to do Steps 1 - 3) and a disassembly video on YouTube created by CNet of all folks.  The video is a good guide to how to get the opening pick around.  Here are the links:

https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Nest+Hello+Battery+Replacement/131729
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7Oz5cRq590

3)  Getting a pick between the faceplate and the main body of the doorbell is a bit hard to do especially if you''re using a soft pick.  I actually used a wide metal opening tool to get it to pry open just a smidgen and then used a large plastic opening pick to essentially saw through the foam adhesive. This step probably took the longest as you don't want to pull up too hard on the faceplate and break it.  

4)  Once opened, finding the 4 screws was like going on a treasure hunt dig.  They may be buried beneath the foam adhesive and covered under a thin piece of plastic.  The iFixIt photos really help here.  Philips #00 screw head size.

5)  After removing the screws, opening up the unit is a bit tricky.  The plastic pick doesn't really work as the rubber gasket creates a good amount of tension.  I used a metal spudger to nudge it open.  Be careful if using a metal tool...you may damage the plastic body.

6)  At this point the battery will be visible and easily swapped out.

7)  Now the annoying part...putting everything back together is easy, BUT now the adhesive for the face plate is ruined.  It's a real pain to complete remove the foam adhesive and it's probably even harder to find double sided foam tape that's as thin as what's being used originally.  For now, I just used some normal double sided tape.  I just cleaned up the remaining foam picking out loose and hanging pieces.  Then I just cut up the tape it small pieces to get as much coverage as possible  It probably won't hold up well in the summer, but if the doorbell holds up, I may just get a silicone cover which should hold everything in place.  

8 )  Oh...and after putting it all back together make sure you charge the doorbell for a bit before trying ring the indoor chime.  I charged for about 30 minutes via USB before attaching it back on the door.

Well, my journey with this BS is over for now.  Google Nest really screwed over their customers.  Good luck everyone if you end up trying this fix.  Or maybe Google will come through and provide extended warranty service....  😃  yeah right 

[axlahn]

REPOSTING AS MY POST FROM A FEW HOURS AGO IS NO LONGER SHOWING UP:

Just wanted to give everyone a status update.  I received the replacement battery today.  

First off, the doorbell works just fine now.  It was 100% the battery.  Once I got the unit opened up and got a good look at the old battery, it was pretty obvious.  The OEM battery was bulging quite a bit.  This is common with aging LiPo batteries ... especially ones this small.

Some notes and observations if anyone wants to try it for themselves:

1)  Opening the Nest Hello wasn't difficult, but it's also not "easy."  If you've every worked with small electronics, than it's mostly a piece of cake.

2)  I used the disassembly guide on iFixIt (just need to do Steps 1 - 3) and a disassembly video on YouTube created by CNet of all folks.  The video is a good guide to how to get the opening pick around.  Here are the links:

https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Nest+Hello+Battery+Replacement/131729
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J7Oz5cRq590

3)  Getting a pick between the faceplate and the main body of the doorbell is a bit hard to do especially if you''re using a soft pick.  I actually used a wide metal opening tool to get it to pry open just a smidgen and then used a large plastic opening pick to essentially saw through the foam adhesive. This step probably took the longest as you don't want to pull up too hard on the faceplate and break it.  

4)  Once opened, finding the 4 screws was like going on a treasure hunt dig.  They may be buried beneath the foam adhesive and covered under a thin piece of plastic.  The iFixIt photos really help here.  Philips #00 screw head size.

5)  After removing the screws, opening up the unit is a bit tricky.  The plastic pick doesn't really work as the rubber gasket creates a good amount of tension.  I used a metal spudger to nudge it open.  Be careful if using a metal tool...you may damage the plastic body.

6)  At this point the battery will be visible and easily swapped out.

7)  Now the annoying part...putting everything back together is easy, BUT now the adhesive for the face plate is ruined.  It's a real pain to complete remove the foam adhesive and it's probably even harder to find double sided foam tape that's as thin as what's being used originally.  For now, I just used some normal double sided tape.  I just cleaned up the remaining foam picking out loose and hanging pieces.  Then I just cut up the tape it small pieces to get as much coverage as possible  It probably won't hold up well in the summer, but if the doorbell holds up, I may just get a silicone cover which should hold everything in place.  

8 )  Oh...and after putting it all back together make sure you charge the doorbell for a bit before trying ring the indoor chime.  I charged for about 30 minutes via USB before attaching it back on the door.

Well, my journey with this BS is over for now.  Google Nest really screwed over their customers.  Good luck everyone if you end up trying this fix.  Or maybe Google will come through and provide extended warranty service....  😃  yeah right 

[nekki]

Could you share where to get battery for replacement? Thank you.

[Zeddie]

It's not just Google, but also Ring.  I had the Ring Pro, exact same issue after a year.  One was replaced just before the warranty ran out.  The replacement exhibited the same behavior after another year (and now outside of warranty) so I decided to get the Nest Hello instead in November 2019.  Now (January 2022) - again, just a little over a year (3 years, 2 months), it is happening to me again.  I'm actually a bit impressed it lasted much longer than the Ring Pro, BUT I am dissapointed that Google support lied to me.  Before I bought the Nest Hello, I remember asking them if they have an user non-replaceable battery and they said no, it's hard wired.

I really wish Ring and Nest/Google discloses there is an internal battery even on their hardwired doorbells.  I haven't seen anywhere disclosing or detailing how they work, but it's easy to just hypothesize:  To ring the chime, the doorbell MUST disconnect itself from the wires to short them.  This activates the door chime.  During this time, it's under battery power.  Power returns quickly after it's done ringing the chime.

I wonder if the engineers can use a capacitor that can keep the doorbell powered up for a short amount of time while it's chiming the bell.  This will increase it's lifespan considerably since it's not reliant on an internal LiPO battery.

[DaniielCrz]

Ok so I had the same issue for a couple of weeks tried everything from removing it, changing power supply etc. But after I changed the settings of the doorbell ring tone to the factory setting it went back to normal and didnt present the issue anylonger. It's worked fine for the past 2 weeks now.  Give it a try and let me know if that worked for you guys. Good luck and happy holidays! 

[nekki]

I now remember that I met same issue last year when I applied season tone. I am trying to use default tone for days. Seems it's the solution.

[Row06]

Same issue. So I need to replace the battery, even though it's wired? My bell doesn't ring anymore though, either. Even though chime is on. Thought it was powered by my house. Haven't done any sort of troubleshooting, just due to the fact I've been lazy. I decided to search for it today, cause I'm finally over it. I only know someone is at my door because after it gets going again, I get a notification for a person, even though they rang the bell and have been standing there. If they don't push the button, I get a quicker notification that someone is there, by "person detected". Sooo- what's the majority say for this issue? I couldn't believe how many pages this issue had.

[Tim780]

I read someone saying that once they turned off the winter theme ring and turned it to the default "ding dong" it stopped cutting out. 

I tried it last night and it appears to have solved the problem. It may be a little too early.to tell, but maybe simply changing it to the standard door bell sound stops it from cutting out. 

I haven't tried it more.than once, but I'll try if a.few.times this weekend to see if it's fixed. 

[axlahn]

It's a temporary fix.  I first noticed the problem when I tired going to holiday rings.  I think the themed rings switch over to the battery for a bit longer than the regular sound.  Eventually, even the normal ding dong will make the unit restart.  It's still the battery.  It's weak enough to not work with the longer themes, but good enough to work with the default sound.

[HLGBellyHop94]

Soo... Google. When can ya'll help us out?

I have the same issue, when the button is pressed the doorbell goes offline immediately. Takes about a min to reset and come online.

Help. 

[Leob]

Doing my part to keep this thread alive lol. I can confirm that this issue is affecting my doorbell from 2018. Noticed that sometimes it doesn't shutoff but 90% of the time it does.

[Freelook]

I have the exact same issue.  Doorbell reboots when someone rings the bell.  Camera goes offline for less than a minute.

[chesterfredric1]

I am also having the same issue.  Disabling the indoor chime "workaround" works for me. GOOGLE/NEST - if this is an issue we all are dealing with you should have made the battery user-replaceable and not a built-in component. Perhaps a hardware update for future devices should be implemented and you should cover all of us that invested in a doorbell that is failing within its few years of use. 

[Brad]

Hey folks, 

I am sorry to hear that you are having issues with these battery issues. Please continue to fill out this form here and provide any additional case numbers there as we are still collecting feedback. I have some steps to try from your fellow Community Members that I believe could help you out.

• Try turning off the "Indoor Chime On/Off" in the nest app for the doorbell, then try factory reset.
• Make sure you keep your indoor chime setting to off or else the doorbell could go dead every time it's pressed.
• If you still cannot factory reset the doorbell, remove it from the wall, then bring it inside and plug in a micro usb cable at the back to charge it a bit.
• Then do the factory reset that way.
• Again, make sure indoor chime is off after factory reset to prevent doorbell shutting of after the button is pressed.

Please let me know if you need further assistance! I look forward to your response. 

Best regards,

Brad.

[Chris4678]

My nest doorbell (not on battery thats just the only option for some reason) now stops recording when someone rings the doorbell. this is about the most important time for it to be recording and it it is failing. If you ring the doorbell the video stops for about a minute before it resumes. 

[sockpuppetsami]

Thank you for unlocking this thread.  Help is still needed.  No resolution has been reached.

[TheJoe]

Great, I appreciate the acknowledgement of my concerns.  Just send along a new doorbell and will call it good.  (perhaps you put some sort of disclaimer on the packaging so we as consumers understand we might get 3 years or so of functionality out of the equipment before it's unhappy and sad).

Best, Joe

[Brad]

Hi there,

Just checking in to see if you still need assistance with this issue. Please let me know if you need further assistance. 

Best Regards,

Brad.

[sockpuppetsami]

Brad.  Help is still needed.  No resolution has been reached.  You have not provided any assistance.

[RMForlenza]

Repeated apologies with no information or update is extremely frustrating. 

One would expect the shear volume of issues would get a response from Google. Unfortunate,  it seems Google will continue to deny the issue and ignore it. Sadly,  Google has already walked away from many of us who chose to support Google and buy the doorbell, cameras, and security system. 

I have all three . I went all in with Google for my home automation.  The current situation is not good. Parts foe Kmy security system have been unavailable.  My doorbell video **bleep**s off when the doorbell is rung, rendering it fundamentally useless.

I wonder how many in this chain would be willing to join together on a class action lawsuit?

[yukoncornelius]

Why reset it if we don't turn the inside chime on??

[Jim2]

Why should we have to go through all of this nonsense?  Not all of us are handy with tech and tools and to some this is a big pain in the neck. If we all have the same issue around the same time and after following these reset steps people STILL have the issue, shouldn't you and Google do something about it? 

[jaredbodine]

Yup! Mine had done this for a couple months now. And I already replaced the transformer and checked with my multimeter, so it has to be the doorbell. 

[Cekemmis]

Replacing an internal battery is beyond my technical ability. I opted to get and install a ring pro while it was on sale. In the long term, this isn’t a great solution because recycling of the old product may be hard in certain areas. Maybe these companies will consider making it easier to change certain components in the future. 

[gophia]

Add me to the list. Bought the doorbell about 3 years ago and  the video drop started early this year (2021) every once in a while but during the last two months, the video drops happens every time someone ring the doorbell.

If it is the battery, at least make it available to purchase.

[mmarkm315]

I don't think this is really a battery thing/power issue. I believe this has to do with the chime ringtones. I switched to one of the christmas ones recently and noticed the issue last few days. I turned that back to default and it still had the problem, but only tried once. Switch the chime to off since I have plenty of google home devices around the house and it works just fine. 

So chime stays off, makes no difference to me. They just need the software fixed. I wouldn't go wasting your time changing battery, factory resetting, buying a new one.