Nest floodlight camera not connecting

[girdlestone]

I have 3 Nest floodlight cameras (wired) and one Nest Door bell camera (wired) - all working perfectly fine.
I have attempted to add a brand new 4th Nest floodlight camera (wired) through the Google Home App and it simply will not connect or add the device. Everything in the process goes fine right up to the point of connecting to my network and it just fails and says try moving closer to your the Nest Cam (battery)! 

It's NOT a Nest Cam (battery) 

My Google Pixel is connected to the same 2.5ghz wifi connection and my broadband is Virgin 1gig. I have excellent connectivity on all other devices, I even have 2 wifi pod extenders. 

The camera that won't connect is nearer to the router than some of the other cameras that have connected. 

Please can someone help. I don't think the answer should be to remove all the other devices first. That would be counter intuitive and I'd worry about not being able to reconnect them as well!

[MplsCustomer]

@girdlestone 

The camera used in the floodlight fixture is actually the battery camera (which we have), so maybe it's worth checking to make sure your new floodlight camera is wired correctly and is actually receiving electrical power (just in case a lack of power is making the install process think it's dealing with a battery camera).  Just a thought from another customer.

[girdlestone]

It was wired by the same electrician who did all the others which are working perfectly fine. I have tried swapping the camera units  around and plugging them in to different base units and the working cameras continued working fine and the new one still one connect I'm any of the other 3 floodlight units. Even though the camera itself has a battery, it won't turn on unless it is plugged in. It will hard reset no problem while plugged in, but it won't connect no matter what I try. I've tried 2ghz and 5ghz but it won't connect to the network. 

[MplsCustomer]

@girdlestone 

Maybe then it's worth contacting Support.  It's odd that the camera is being mis-identified by the install process.

2. Select a category/product family, and type in a brief description of the issue, then click "Next".
3. Click "Other", then click "Next step".
4. Under "Resources", just click "Next step". (Clicking one of the listed links will bring up a Help page page.)
5. Under "Contact options", choose to get a phone call or chat with the team, depending on availability in your country.

[girdlestone]

Thanks for all your advice. I tried contacting UK support earlier. I filled out the form for a callback but it failed saying "try during support hours". Same result for chat. This is despite the support hours saying available until 11:59pm. The other option was to call but the only number was a US number and when I got through they said they couldn't provide me with support and I'd have to call the UK support team. I got cut off before they had chance to give me the number to call. So frustrating. 

[MplsCustomer]

@girdlestone 

Sometimes a Google Nest Community Specialist steps in on posts in this forum to provide a "form" for getting assistance in cases like yours.

[ovidioj]

Hello @girdlestone,

Thanks for posting in the community. 
It's frustrating when a new device fails to connect. I appreciate all your effort in trying to fix the issue on your own. Thank you, @MplsCustomer and @EmptyNester, for helping our community members. Please provide me the following information: 

• What’s the color of the LED status light?
• How far is the device from the router?
• Are there any other devices that experience issues with the Wi-Fi?
• Are there devices or appliances (such as baby monitors, microwaves, cordless phones, etc.) near the device you want to pair? Those devices could interfere with the Wi-Fi or Bluetooth signal.
• How far have you gotten in pairing your device?
• Did you try uninstalling the Google Home app? 

While I gather more information, you can try the following steps: 

1. Make sure it’s on the same Wi-Fi network as the selected network for the Nest device.
2. Bluetooth must be enabled, but not connected to any Bluetooth devices. 
3. Cellular data must be turned off.
4. On iOS devices with iOS 14 or later, ensure that Local Network Access is enabled for the Nest or Home app.
5. Try to set up the device.

Please follow the steps above and make sure everything is okay; let me know how it goes. 

All the best, 
Jorge 

[girdlestone]

What’s the color of the LED status light?

Blue, indicating it's ready to pair 

How far is the device from the router?

3 metres max. It's closer than the other 3 cameras that are all connected to the network fine, so it makes no sense that this could be a WiFi range issue

Are there any other devices that experience issues with the Wi-Fi?

None whatsoever. In fact, if I move/swap one of my working cameras to the location of the camera that won't connect, they continue to work fine. I have also tried to place the new camera that won't connect in a different location by swapping with a working camera. No success.

Are there devices or appliances (such as baby monitors, microwaves, cordless phones, etc.) near the device you want to pair? Those devices could interfere with the Wi-Fi or Bluetooth signal.

No.

Did you try uninstalling the Google Home app? 

No. I'm fearful of having to set up every other device again that is already working. Also, it cannot really be anything to do with my mobile or the app because I have tried adding this camera from my phone, my wife's phone and my son's phone and we all get the same issue. 

[ovidioj]

Hi @girdlestone,

Thanks for your reply.
I appreciate you taking the time to share the information with me. I apologize for the trouble you're experiencing.
To assist you better, we'll need some additional information. I'm sending you a secure form where you can provide all the necessary details, and also please fill out all the information required.
Please make sure you leave your community thread and community username.

Here's the contact us form.

Once you've completed the form, please let me know. This will allow us to investigate the issue further and find a solution. Thank you.

Best regards,
Jorge 

[EmptyNester]

Hello,  I might be able to help.  I'm going to escalate this and hopefully someone from NEST will respond here to help you.  

[girdlestone]

After 2 days of troubleshooting this, I've managed to get the camera connected and working.

[girdlestone · Accepted solution]

Basically I opened a browser and I connected directly to my router. You do this by looking for a sticker on your router which will have an IP address. Something like 1.0.198.168 and it will have a funky password. This will allow you to look at the WiFi settings. I think my issue was that these cameras need to connect to a 2.4ghz signal. My phone however was connected to a 5ghz signal. My router supports both and automatically connects a device to the best signal. This meant when I was trying to connect the camera to the app on my phone, the 2 devices were using different signals. To fix this I temporarily disabled the 5ghz signal and this forced my phone to join the 2.4ghz signal so both devices were now compatible if you like. Once the camera was connected I re-enabled the 5ghz signal and all is working fine now. 

[EmptyNester]

WOW,,,, thanks for posting this update.  That is good to know and it might help other people.

I guess the question is why did this one camera require you to turn off the 5G before it would connect and the other cameras didn't.  ... We will probably never know the answer.