Newer Nest Cams - Unreliable Connection (Live Video Unavailable)

[jgself]

I keep having issues with my newer Nest cams...specifically the battery powered cams and the floodlight cams. They will be working fine and then suddenly one or a couple of them will show "Live video unavailable. The camera may unreachable or saving battery." Battery levels are always fine. The floodlight is hard-wired. I have LOTS of Nest products, including Nest Wifi with good Nest repeaters. Coverage at my house is not the issue. I have had to remove the cameras from the system and reset/re-ad them a few times now when they became unresponsive, even after hard re-starts. That fixed the issues for a while and then randomly one of them would become unreachable again. Usually, I only realize it after I know something should have set off an alert and it doesn't, which makes me check the app only to realize that it's gone down. It does, however, record some video and that does show up in the app...a few seconds of activity here or there, but no live streaming. So frustrating. I haven't had any of these problems with the older products like the outdoor Nest IQ cams which have been pretty reliable. I feel like the newer products are buggy. Like others, I'm sick of having to use two different apps to see all my products, but I can live with that short-term while Nest drags its feet on getting that finished. What I can't live with is having just spent well over 1K on two new floodlight cams and 6 new battery-powered cameras, wondering if they will be so unreliable that I eventually end up recycling them. I am so invested in Nest products now that it would be beyond ridiculously expensive to duplicate my system with other products that serve the same functions in two different properties. Although I'm an Apple person, I chose Google/Nest because I felt its smart home products were better, and until the last year things have generally run pretty smoothly and reliably. Lately not so at all between the app(s) experience and the hardware behaving so unreliable. Anyone else experiencing this?

[iammillerman]

I most definitely am. My issue I have been having with the Spotlight Camera is within the last few weeks, I'll get a notification and then go to view the clip, and it says it can't reach it. The only way I was able to get the history to start recording again was to pull out the ladder, climb up and restart the camera by pressing the button on the back for 5 seconds. Presto, instantly started working again without issue. However, last night, after about a week of working, one of the video clips of an animal outside stopped recording part way through the event. Every event since then is back to not being viewable. 

I, like you, am hevily invested in the nest ecosystem (Nest Hello, 2x Protects, Hub Max, 3x Hubs, Nest Router, Nest Guard, and 3 Nest Cams (Spotlight, battery and 2 indoor).) Besides the issue I have been having with the Spotlight cam, I have also noticed the assistant has been extremely buggy the last 2 months (after over a year of it being perfect). I'll ask to turn something on in my office, and now the garage hub downstairs will respond when I am sitting right next to the office hub. That, or (while I am in my own house with my phone down and away from me and screen off) my phone will try to respond instead of the hubs. OR my favorite, 3 of the hubs and my phone will all try to reply together at the same time! They need to address these issues, and advise a post-mortem as to why they are causing so many bugs. 

[Brad]

Hi there, 

I apologize for my late response and thank you for all of your patience while waiting for a reply. I understand how frustrating your situation must be, and I would love to help however I can. Do you still need assistance?

Best Regards, 

Brad.

[aatienza]

Hey folks,

I wanted to follow up and see if you are still in need of any help? Please let me know if you are still having any trouble from here, as I would be happy to take a closer look and assist you further.

Thanks,

Archie

[jgself]

My issues seem to have cleared up. Cameras all seem to be okay now for several weeks. Not sure why but I'm able to to see the feeds and they seem to be online when I need them. Thanks for checking in.

[iammillerman]

Mine are still touch and go. Sometimes they will show the history, other times it will take a few hours to catch up. Additionally, the Google assistant is still acting wonky.

[aatienza]

Hey folks,

Thanks for letting us know, jgself.

Sorry to hear that, iammillerman. A few questions: how far is your camera from your Wi-Fi router? Did you make any changes to your Wi-Fi network? Also, are there devices or appliances (such as baby monitors, microwaves, cordless phones, etc.) near the camera?

Thanks,

Archie

[aatienza]

Hey folks,

I wanted to follow up and see if you are still in need of any help? Please let me know if you are still having any trouble from here, as I would be happy to take a closer look and assist you further.

Thanks,

Archie

[aatienza]

Hey folks,

Just checking in to make sure that you've seen our responses. Please let me know if you have other questions or concerns as I will be locking this in 24 hours if I won't hear back from you again. Feel free to start a new thread and we'll be happy to help.

Thanks,

Archie