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No alert when someone rings the nest door bell, not on my phone or Google home

janemtthw
Community Member

My alert isn’t working when someone rings the bell, no notification comes up at all

19 REPLIES 19

MplsCustomer
Bronze
Bronze

@janemtthw 

Were notifications working previously and did notifications suddenly quit?

Do you have "Push notifications" enabled for your battery doorbell? Do you have events AND notifications enabled for your doorbell under Settings | Events | Seen events?

Are your Google Home and doorbell in the same Google Nest "home/structure"? Is "Do not disturb" turned off on your Google Home? Do you have "Visitor announcements" enabled on your doorbell?

Can you view your doorbell on your Google Home and in the Google Home app on your phone?  Can you view your doorbell on the "preview" home.google.com website?

Wee
Community Member

something happened recently with their firmware on a lot of the legacy products.

 

The chime in my house no longer dings when the doorbell is rang and also my phone won't let off an audible notification from the doorbell either. It's quite annoying and I know of about 10-15 other people I work with having the same issue.

@Wee 

We have 3 Google Nest Hello Doorbells. Over time, the internal battery (which many customers don't even know exists) on all three has failed, one at a time. As a result, the doorbells can no longer ring the indoor chime and the doorbell goes offline when the doorbell button is pressed. The workaround we've used is to turn of the "Indoor chime" option (the doorbell no longer goes off-line) and turn on the "Visitor announcements" option to send announcements to our Nest Hubs and Nest Mini. Some customers have used a procedure posted on iFixit to pry open the doorbell and replace the battery.

This is a VERY long (1,000+ replies) thread on the issue: https://www.googlenestcommunity.com/t5/Cameras-and-Doorbells/Nest-Hello-Doorbell-cuts-out-when-butto...

I hadn't heard about push notifications sent to phones failing for Google Nest Hello Doorbells. Ours are still sending push notifications.

The same thing just happened to my Gen1 Wired Nest Hello after 1.5 years. Chime sometimes works but clearly the internal battery is failing as the doorbell shuts down and restarts after the button is pushed and the chime does not work. Sometimes on the first or second button push. What a piece of junk and shame on google for not making this battery replaceable. It was not disclosed at the time of purchase and the unit lifetime was not explained. This from one of the US's most highly valued tech companies. Their mission must be to fill landfills. At first customer service denied that a battery even existed and hung up on me when I insisted it did. The second rep admitted it but refused to honor a warranty despite this being purchased in November of 2021 and failing in March of 2023 (basically 2 mild winters). My guess is this thing sat in inventory for some time and the battery was old to begin with as the Gen2 model came out shortly thereafter. Most reputable companies would do something for the customer (maybe even a discount) particularly knowing I have purchased many Nest products. This is what happens when they lose sight of the customer and they have a search monopoly. Frustrating to say the least. 

Do you have any statement from Google that says the internal battery on the Nest Hello Gen1 wired is not replaceable that your can share? Not looking for a work around but a statement from the Company that says this battery is not meant to be replaced. Thanks.

Awm
Community Member

No, because Google (and others, e.g. Ring) will not admit that the battery even exists. We all found out through our own teardowns, teardown videos, and scouring the web for answers.  People have replaced the battery, but it’s a process and risky, as you can easily cause damage to the device. The fact that Google (and others) will not admit it’s existence, do not sell replacement batteries, tools or instructions on replacement, nor disclose it any known customer-facing documentation is a pretty good indicator that they do not intend for this battery to be replaced. 

@Whtmtn 

And there's no documentation about the internal battery in the 2nd Gen Google Nest Doorbell either.  (I'm assuming there is is one.)  As with the Google Nest Hello Doorbell, the battery isn't even listed in the specs.

GandhiFlipFlop
Community Member

I don't know why but Google close a long thread from 2021 of about 1027 replies in favor of this new one...

Here is the older thread link:

https://www.googlenestcommunity.com/t5/Cameras-and-Doorbells/Nest-Hello-Doorbell-cuts-out-when-butto...

Awm
Community Member

Amazing that "Brad" (The Google 'Community Specialist') pointed people to this thread when there was an existing thread (https://www.googlenestcommunity.com/t5/Cameras-and-Doorbells/Nest-Hello-Doorbell-cuts-out-when-butto...that had over 1,000 replies, thoroughly explaining the problem in detail. Adding insult to injury, he closed the thread, marking his own response as the "Recommended Answer", when there were real solutions (workarounds) posted by hundreds of users. Just further shows Google and their mods are completely missing the point of people's frustration about their unwillingness to acknowledge the problem at hand.... anyways here is my post from the previous thread outlining the details. 

"Welcome to the club…an unfortunate one. Yes, there is a tiny battery inside the Nest Hello (Wired, Gen 1), that apparently wears out after 2-3 years. This battery was not disclosed in any known, customer-facing documentation. The battery is also not serviceable by the “average” person, though it can be replaced by someone with a willingness to tear the device apart. The battery can be purchased on Amazon for $12-$20. It seems that the doorbell camera uses this battery power to keep the device alive when it initiates a chime. Doorbells work by essentially short circuiting the transformer, which briefly cuts all power to the doorbell. The battery bridges the gap when the power is cut for a brief moment, keeping the doorbell powered. That is why the doorbell seemingly functions fine outside of pressing the button and triggering the chime. So far it seems there are 3 options.

1. Replace the internal battery yourself

2. Disable the "Indoor Chime" (In Settings) in the app so it doesn’t actually trigger a mechanical chime and instead enable "Visitor Announcements" (In settings) to use Google Home speakers as notifying devices. It’s unclear how long this solution will last. 

3. Purchase a new device.

While this is frustrating and I think it’s completely ridiculous to not disclose this or make it serviceable, my research indicates this same problem exists in other Video Doorbell cameras, such as Ring. It is clearly a way engineers for video/smart doorbells have worked around the challenge of power loss during chimes. Again, not a bad idea...the bad idea is making it non-serviceable and not disclosing your device's lifespan is directly tied to an internal battery. 

Nest Hello Doorbell Teardown steps: https://www.ifixit.com/Guide/Nest+Hello+Battery+Replacement/131729

Nest Hello Doorbell (Wired, Gen 1) Replacement Battery: Battery Replacement for Nest Hello Vido Doorbell Wired NC5100US C1241290 1ICP7/17/26 (280mAh/3.7V) https://a.co/d/0uQbtTA
"

Vladxp
Community Member

Incredible! I've purchased mine in April, 2022. Just now - May 24th, 2023 - started having the disconnect issues as described in this and the original (now-locked) thread.   Checked the warranty status using the Google Warranty Checker. Guess what? The doorbell came out of warranty on 5/12/2023 - exactly 12 days before I realized the doorbell is having issues.  Perhaps it's time for all of us affected to give a class action lawsuit a serious thought.

BryanB
Community Member

My device has been broken for months too. I disconnected the Chime like others said, and that allows them camera function to at least work. Why did I pay for a WIRED doorbell that relies on an irreplaceable battery that dies after two years?! Customers need to be given either the option of a free replacement device, a battery replacement kit, or an option to switch to battery powered so this doesn't happen again. I couldn't agree more with Vladxp - could not be a clearer case of planned obsolescence to have it die weeks after the warranty expired. I just saw a deal for wired Ring doorbells for $35. Seems like replacing them every 2 years is the only option, considering the lack of customer support from Google. I've spent over $2k on devices between mine and my parents home and now stuck with broken device. Unacceptable business practices.

AdamE
Community Member

I am having exactly the same issue.  Installed my boxed unopened Nest Hello wired last week, and all was fine.  Today I noticed when someone presses the bell the notifications all happen correctly, but the Hubs (I Have 3 Max and a 7") all show a grey screen with the 'Someone is at the front door' message, but all say 'camera feed is not available'....  All the time that alert is on screen you cannot ask the Hub to display the Hello's camera.  Dismiss the alert and you can then ask, and the video works fine.

I've been on chat support for hours, between doorbell and hub support, and no resolution.  With a case being raised and they;ll come back to me a within 48 hours.... I guess with no solution!

Either the Nest API is broken OR the bell hardware itself is not fit for purpose, in which case UK consumer law states issues with manufacture (which this is) are covered for up to SIX YEARS.... so Google.... HOW DO WE GET OUR BELLS SORTED AS THIS IS SHAMEFUL!

Wee
Community Member

They've been trying to merge the Nest app and Google Home app for 3+ years now. It was supposed to be done years ago but for whatever reason they can't get things in line. Now that Google has legacy Nest products that must be set up on the Nest app and the new products that only work on Google Home app, there continues to be a broken software issue they can't quite fix nor get to work smoothly.

Until they reach full integration and shut down the Nest app altogether, expect things to be 50/50 chance of reliability

@Weeand @AdamE 

We have 3 Google Nest Hello Doorbells, with "Visitor announcements" enabled, and when they are pressed, we consistently get a live feed on our Nest Hubs, NOT a "camera feed is not available" message. I don't know why it works for some customers and not others; perhaps when it fails it is due to Wi-Fi issues.

AdamE
Community Member

I disconnected my Hello and plugged a power adapter into the usb port for hours to see if the internal battery that everyone talks about might charge.  It seemed to warm up.  Then reconnected everything normally and it's still the same.

I don't understand why it worked at the start then just stopped for no reason.

Google REALLY need to sort this out!

Nived
Community Member

Have the same issue described here has been working fine since 2018

zenyatta80
Community Member

Have the exact same issue now since last week. Is it correct that the notification and video in the Nest App works fine and the issue is with the video on Nest Hubs? That seems to be the case for me.

Petta
Community Member

Same issue started here today.

Nest Hello camera feed not available on Hub 😡

Come on Google, fix it!!!

Whtmtn
Community Member

I have been very disappointed with both Google products and their service. They are good at search, the rest is garbage.