Nest cam wifi issue

[CraigJ1980]

I have a Nest Cam Outdoor 1st gen and a Nest cam 2nd gen battery, both hard wired and working perfect until today. Nest cam outdoor was on the Nest app but changed it to Home - no problems. So, I changed broadband provider and got a new router. The newer cam connects ok but the old one won't. Old router was Wifi 5, new router is Wifi 7. 2gig up and 2 gig down. The Home app finds the camera (Nest Cam Outdoor) and connects, but won't do the last step of connecting to wifi, the camera flashes blue. I did bring the new cam in and set it up inside, however, the old camera is permanently wired into the fabric of the building and has to remain outside. Any ideas folks please? 

[Rcroce1948]

I have a similar issue. My 1080p Google nest cams have been working well for a couple of years and about a month ago stopped. I tried to reconnect them a get an error messages each time saying something went wrong. If. I can’t get this issue resolve I may have to go with a different provider. 

[ByronP]

Hi Folks,

Thank you for reaching out to the community. I see you're looking for assistance setting up your Nest Camera Outdoor (1st gen) and need help establishing a connection to your new WiFi network. I understand that your Nest Camera Battery connected successfully, but the older camera is stopping at the final step of the connection process. I appreciate all the troubleshooting steps you've already taken and I can imagine how frustrating this can be. I'm glad to help.

To move forward efficiently, please answer the following questions:

• How far have you gotten in pairing your device?
• How far is the device from the router?
• Are there any devices or appliances (such as baby monitors, microwaves, cordless phones, etc.) near the device you want to pair?
• What is the exact message that appeared when the connections stopped?

Please keep me posted on your findings.

Regards,

Byron

[Rcroce1948]

The paring goes to the end the gives the following message

“Something went wrong

Try connecting again. If that doesn't work, try rebooting your device or turning your phone's airplane mode on and off before trying again.”

ther are no baby monitors. I’m using my phone to connect the device. The device is six feet away from my monitor. 

[ByronP]

Hi Rcroce1948,

Thank you for reaching out to the community. I'm sorry that you're experiencing a similar situation with your Nest Camera. I also appreciate all the information you provided. Help's here.

Based on previous answers, please follow these recommendations:

   Step 1: Create a new Home structure.

Please create a new Home structure in the Nest app. Here are the steps:

1. Open the Nest app.
2. At the top left, tap the menu.
3. Tap Add, and then Continue.
4. Give your home a name, then tap Next.
5. Enter your home's address, and then tap Next.
6. After that try to add the Nest Camera to the new structure.

  Additional troubleshooting options:

• Quit and restart the Nest app or Google Home app.
• Make sure Bluetooth is on. Turn Bluetooth off, then back on to refresh the connection.
• Restart the mobile device.
• Put the mobile device or tablet on Airplane mode, then turn on Bluetooth and Wi-Fi.
• Try a different mobile device.
• Restart the network equipment (router, extender, or modem).

Please let me know how it goes.

Regards,

Byron

[Tuanfluence]

ByronP - I've tried your suggestion and none of these work, sadly.

[ByronP]

Hi Tuanfluence,

Thank you for posting in the community. I'm sorry to hear you're experiencing the same situation with your Nest Cameras. I appreciate all the troubleshooting steps you've already taken and I understand how frustrating this can be. Let's explore additional options.

Step 1:  Test with a Mobile Hotspot.

This step isolates your home network and can help confirm what is likely causing the situation. You will need a second phone to set up the hotspot. Here are the steps:

1. On the first phone, in the Nest or Home app, create a test home structure.
2. On the second phone, turn on a personal hotspot, and then connect the first phone to the second phone’s hotspot. Confirm the first phone is connected to the internet.
3. Factory reset the device. Confirm the camera’s LED light is pulsing blue.
4. On the first phone, open the Nest or Home app, and then set up the device in the test home.
5. Select the hotspot for the device, and then finish setup.
6. Connect the first phone to the regular Wi-Fi network.

Please let me know how it goes.

Regards,

Byron

[Tuanfluence]

Hi Byron -

I tried this, but this did not work. The Nest app will go through the process all the way to selecting the WiFi network and then shortly show the "camera cannot be added to your account"

/ Tuan

[ByronP]

Hi Tuanfluence,

Thank you for your reply. I appreciate all your efforts in this situation.

The team would like to learn more about this behavior. When you get a chance, please fill out this form and let us know when you’re finished. We’ll have someone reach out to you via email from there.

Regards,

Byron

[Tuanfluence]

Hi ByronP -

No problem. I'll fill it out tonight.

/ Tuan

[Tuanfluence]

Hy ByronP -

I submitted the form. There's a 1000 character limit, so I'll add more here. The hotspot method gives the same errors. Nest app says "can't be added to your account" after adding WiFi info through the app, and Google Home app will say "can't connect to camera" after scanning the QR code on the back. Looking through my network monitoring setup, I can see that the cameras connect to the WiFi settings that were previously there when they did work, but they wouldn't grab any IP address from DHCP. Seems like some firmware update to them from the "Transfer to Google Home" process bricked them when I tried to transfer them back to Nest from being frustrated with some issues with the Google Home app.

Thank you.

/ Tuan

[ByronP]

Hi Tuanfluence,

Thank you for your reply. I understand how frustrating this must be.

I received your form, and our dedicated team will reach out for further assistance.

Please keep an eye on your email for further instructions.

Regards,

Byron

[Tuanfluence]

Hi ByronP -

Thank you, and I appreciate the follow through!

/ Tuan

[Tuanfluence]

Hi ByronP -

Just wanted to follow up and tell you that I was contacted by Google support about this thread with a suggestion to try and add the camera using the Google Home app. But I had mentioned here that this doesn't work. It'll scan the QR code but then say it cannot connect to the camera, and there's nothing left to do.

Thanks.

/ Tuan

[Rcroce1948]

I followed all of your recommendations and I am having luck in reinstalling my cameras. Are there any  other suggestions  you can recommend. 

[Rcroce1948]

That should be no luck reinstalling. 

[Rcroce1948]

I see that other customers of yours are having similar connectivity problems. 

[Iggy8285]

I have exactly the same issue with 2 of my older gen 1 Nest Cam outdoors.  Both stopped working around the same time.  Worked fine for years, now will not connect to WiFi.

I have tried:

• Changing my WiFi network to 2.4Ghz only
• Changing my WiFi SSID
• Trying a different WiFi router and SSID entirely
• Using a mobile hotspot to set them up
• Setting it up with 2 other devices (My Pixel tablet and an old Amazon Fire tablet)
• Setting it up with an old version of Google Home app (Google Home 3.37.55.2)
• Removing them from the Nest app
• Removing them from the Google Home app

Nothing works, they camera's continuously flash the blue light and the app reports a connection problem during setup.  What's interesting, is that they appear to connect to my WiFi routers just fine during setup (as shown in the router in active wifi devices), but the app does not recognise this.

I contacted Google support, they gave me £50 credit for each camera, so I used it towards the latest outdoor Nest cam.  They said it must be some kind of hardware failure, they're both at least 4 years old.

[Iggy8285]

I just realised I still have a 1st gen indoor cam, that I wasn't using so I thought I'd try and set it up, exactly the same issue.  So now I will try and get Google support to give me more credit.  

Definitely sounds like a Google issue, rather than hardware faults with all 3 of my 1st gen cameras.  All 5 of my gen 2 cameras work just fine.

Found a Reddit thread with others experiencing same issue: https://www.reddit.com/r/Nest/s/xWA7x898xE

[Iggy8285]

Google support gave me £25 credit for my original Nest indoor cam.

Found another Reddit thread with someone else with this fault - https://www.reddit.com/r/Nest/comments/1p46kyx/old_cameras_dead/

[Tuanfluence]

I'm also having this same issue. And I tried transferring my Nest Cam Gen 1's back to Nest using that feature inside Google Home app and all of my cameras refuses to transfer back. Tried deleting them entirely from Google Home, and then adding them back to Nest, but it says the cameras are already transferred to Google Home. So I tried that and 5 out of 6 cameras were re-added to Google Home, and the 6th is behaving the same as you mentioned in your post. Google Home says it "can't" connect to the camera during setup, and the Nest app will, but then fail at the end and says "can't add to your account."

Google... please don't buy a company that did it all smoothly and well, and then destroy it. It's a real shame. There are countless people complaining about issues after the acquisition, and that tarnishes both Google and the supposed "value" you got from the acquisition, wasting billions.

[PolYGame]

Same problem here

[Tuanfluence]

Based on my investigation, it seems like the camera will connect to WiFi but fail to obtain an IP address via your network's DHCP server. Forcing a static IP address won't work either. There's no network flow even if it's connected. The camera's blue LED will stay flashing because of this.