Nest Hubs Gen 2 has become unusuable for viewing Nest Cameras.

[EmptyNester]

For a few years now I have had  a Nest Hub Gen 2 on my desk.   Every day I say "Hey Google show me my Driveway Camera".  And it has worked good for the most part.  Sometime in the last 3 weeks now when I do this it shows me the live image but anywhere between 1-5 minutes the image goes complete black.  Or I get a message on the screen saying "Camera Feed is not available".  At that moment I ask it again to display the Driveway and it comes right up.  So clearly the feed is available.   I have (4) Gen 1 cams, (1) Nest Hello and (1) Gen 2 Outdoor cam and they all do the same thing.   I have a fast internet from Spectrum with 500 down and 20 up.  And I have the latest Eero Mesh Pro in place and the WIFI signal is very strong everywhere.   

And before anyone suggests it, YES I have powered down and powered back up EVERYTHING.  And all the software is Update date EVERYWHERE.   

Is anyone running into this problem?

[MplsCustomer]

@EmptyNester 

That exact same sort of thing happens to us occasionally. In each case, we are able to resume the feed immediately if we intervene. Our cameras and doorbells are always online, all other devices work fine, and we have 950 Mbps down and 16 Mbps up. Since it's never a temporary gap in the livestream from which the Nest Hub then recovers on its own, I've always assumed it's just a temporary glitch on the Google Nest server but the Nest Hub for some reason isn't designed to recover from the glitch and just resume the livestream.

I think it's a Google Nest defect.

[EmptyNester]

@MplsCustomer  Thanks for the reply. I believe it is a defect as well possibly in the new Hub Firmware roll outs.  You mentioned "occasionally" which is what use to happen to me as well.  in the last 3 weeks it is constant. I literally can't watch a live feed for more than 3 minutes.  I have seen it stop and then self-reconnect of few times but not very often.    SO FRUSTRATING that so many of Google's products are so half baked.

[MplsCustomer]

@EmptyNester 

Sometimes the video feed on our Nest Hub freezes for a few seconds and then resumes. Perhaps if the video stream is interrupted on the Google Nest server for more than a few seconds due to network traffic, the Nest Hub is simply not programmed  to handle it and cancels the video feed, rather than freezing the feed briefly and then resuming.

[EmptyNester]

I still think Google needs to fix this. Or not release products that don't work as advertised.  This worked fine for a year and they have somehow broken it.   2+ months ago I could watch the livestream for hours at a time with out any interruptions.  

Also, in this case both the camera and the hub are behind my firewall.  The system should recognize this and create a direct path without even going up to the Google servers.  This way it will still work even with an internet outage.

[MplsCustomer]

@EmptyNester 

I agree. By way of comparison, when I'm on a Zoom video call, there are occasional minor glitches, but I've never seen a participant's video feed simply terminated, even though the participants have different audio and video components and varying Wi-Fi networks.

I sometimes wonder whether Google Nest simply doesn't have enough equipment to handle their paying customers' collective bandwidth.

[EmptyNester]

@MplsCustomer   Thanks for the reply.  I think Google has de-emphasized the  importance of the Nest Cams to their overall plan.  Do you remember maybe about 4-6 Months ago Google had a big layoff?  I'm thinking that all the development people for the Nest cams are gone and they are just working on a skeleton crew.  How else can anyone explain the lack for forward movement in the Google Home app for the last 6+ months when it comes to Cameras.  

Also, I have Cameras from a few other companies and they stream live images just fine without interruption.  

[Dan_A]

Hi folks,

@EmptyNester, @MplsCustomer, we apologize for the inconvenience you’re having with your Nest Hub (2nd Gen). What troubleshooting steps have you done so far? Could you send us the firmware version of your Nest device? Here’s how:

To check which firmware version you're on, follow these steps:

1. Open the Google Home app Google Home app.
2. Touch and hold your device's tile.
3. Tap Settings  and then Device information.
4. Under "Technical information," check for Cast firmware: "X.XXX.XXXXX." If the device is on Fuchsia, check for System firmware version: "X.XXXXXXXX.X.XXXXXXX"

Check the version on your Nest display:

1. Swipe up from the bottom of the display screen.
2. Tap Settings  and then About device. You should find your "Cast firmware version."

Let’s make sure we get to the bottom of this.

Kind regards,

Dan

[MplsCustomer]

@Dan_A 

For us, livestreaming is interrupted only occasionally, and can always be resumed immediately by reselecting the camera, so we haven't done any troubleshooting. Here's the information you requested:

Nest Hub Max

Fuchsia Version: 11.20230306.3.134
Cast firmware version: 1.69.362882

Nest Hub

Fuchsia Version: 11.20230306.3.134
Cast firmware version: 1.69.362882

Note that the Google Nest app does not indicate whether the device is on Fuchsia.

[EmptyNester]

Looking at the HUB in the Google Home app it says

Cast Firmware: 1.69.362882    System Firmware 11.20230306.3.112014

On the HUB it says Fuchsia 11.20230306000690,  Software version 52.94.19.5633000690, Chromecast firmware 1.69.362882.  

[Dan_A]

Hello everyone,

Thank you for the information, and my apologies for the delay. A few more things to isolate further. Do you still have an active Nest app? If so, kindly confirm if the issue is also happening on your Nest app.

Keep us posted.

Best regards,

Dan

[MplsCustomer]

@Dan_A 

We still have an active Google Nest app. As I said earlier, our livestreams are interrupted only occasionally, and it is usually one of our Google Nest Outdoor Cameras, and when the livestream is interrupted, the camera is not in fact offline and we can immediately resume streaming on the Nest Hub or Nest Hub Max.

I think it may also have happened once with our plugged-in battery camera.

[Mike_Richter]

I have google nest app for nest smoke alarm.

but the issue is the same on an iPhone that doesn't have this app installed.

Mike

[EmptyNester]

I tried the NEST app and the problem does not exists there.  It seems to stream the live image for a log time.  However it frequently starts and stops sometimes for 20-30 second before it continues. This is also a problem but a different problem.

[Dan_A]

Hello everyone,

We appreciate all your efforts. We'd like to take a deeper look into this for you. Please fill out this form with all the needed information, and then let me know once you're done.

Kind regards,

Dan

[EmptyNester]

@Dan_A Hello Dan, with all do respect I'm not going to jump thru more time consuming hoops.  I have done SO MANY of these over the years for Google and I never hear back and nothing seems to ever get done in a reasonable time frame.  You have all the information to go figure this out.   I was in software development for many years and we never made our customer jump thru all these hoops.  After a problem was reported we just went to work to first reproduce the problem being reported and then fixed it.  

[Dan_A]

Hello there,

@drrc, we got your form — thanks for filling it out. Our team will reach out to you via email anytime soon. Please continue the conversation there.

@EmptyNester, apologies for the delay. We know how you feel and we’re doing our best to give you the best support possible. The reason for the form is for our higher tier of support to contact you via email for more information and troubleshooting steps. 

@All, have you had the chance to fill out the form? Let us know once done.

Best regard,

Dan

[drrc]

thankfully, mine seems to have started working normally again in the last day- was there a software update/fix done?

[Dan_A]

Hello everyone,

Apologies for the delay!

@drrc, thank you so much for that wonderful information. We are always finding ways to improve and looking for resolution in the best way we can. Updates were rolled out.

@All, could you confirm if your concerns are now resolved?

Looking forward to your responses.

Best,

Dan

[Mike_Richter]

I am having the same issue.

This started happening July 19, 2023

Here are my issues

1. live view stops after few min 
2. Notifications on Pixel 7 and iPhone are not consistent (missing)/images not showing
3. when viewing the timeline - there are spots that should have notified but failed
4. the timeline shows a seconds of recordings instead of a min after motion/event

No changes made to my config and was working for almost a year since my purchase

I've rebooted and with no avail

Sofware vesion: gq-user 1.57 openmaster 266328

[drrc]

this problem has also just started for me in the last few days. I have had the doorbell working well with 2 hub and 2 hub max's for years without issue, and now I constantly get an error "Camera feed is not available". the camera feed is available fine on all hubs- clearly a new software problem.