Outdoor Cam not recording events at night

[julesAI]

Installed Google Nest Outdoor Cam  last February. It worked perfectly until sometime around earlyJune. It stopped recording events between approx 9pm and 7am. 

The camera is connected to the Wasserstein Solar 2.5W (since end of April). Battery isn't an issue. We have nothing but sun where we live.

Troubleshooting applied:  

• deleted all zones
• restarted the camera
• factory reset
• turned off nearby motion lights
• personally gone out after dark in view of camera and was not recorded (did this many times)
• maximum sensitivity set
• We don't use any automated routines

Nothing has worked. Camera works at night as watching the live "stream" is fine.

I can see the night sensors come on when I walk by the camera at night. No events are recorded. 

Again, the camera WAS recording events at night and now it is not. Daytime is fine.

We have:

1. Nest Aware subscription
2. Nest WiFi Pro (2 pack)
3. Very good upload/download speeds on our cable connection.
4. A Nest Wired Doorbell 2nd gen (seems okay)
5. A 2nd Nest Outdoor Camera (seems okay)

Suggestions? Please advise. This is very frustrating.

Kind regards to all.

[MplsCustomer]

@julesAI 

We've had a battery camera plugged in with the optional power cable for 23 months. It does a very poor job of detecting any events at night. And if we unplug it during the day, so that it is running on battery power, it does not wake up from "Idle" mode to detect and record an event if we walk right to the camera. Plugged in, it does fine detecting daytime events.

You have your camera connected to the Wasserstein solar panel, so it is always running on battery power: "If you’ve connected your Nest Cam (battery) to the Wasserstein Solar Panel, the panel doesn’t directly power the camera. Instead, the battery is trickle charged by the panel, and the camera runs off the battery charge." https://support.google.com/googlenest/answer/11830989

I don't know whether our camera has gotten worse at nighttime detection, since we usually don't have notifications turned on for that camera. But when I've checked recently, I very rarely find nighttime events.

[julesAI]

Thanks. I do understand the Cam is running on battery power. And it has plenty. 🙂

Previously, night time events weren't frequent, but there were/are a few. And those events were recorded. (One in particular we were grateful to see.)

From our perspective, if the camera doesn't detect night events, there's really no point in having the camera at all. 

[Pvail]

I am having suddenly the same problem of not recording from about 9 PM until 5 AM. Did you find any reason why or solution?

[julesAI]

No, I haven’t. Reading through posts, seems like others have had this problem , too.Rather stunning.

[EmersonB]

Hello everyone,

Thanks for bringing this up here in the Community. Nest Cameras determine when something moves based on how much an image changes over a short period of time. So, your Nest Camera may not send an alert if the following is true:

• The activity is out of your camera’s field of view.
• An object is blocking the camera’s view.
• The camera is very far away from the activity.
• The lighting in the scene is dim or washed out.

Try moving your Nest Camera, change your Nest Camera’s angle or change something in the scene so that you don’t miss important activity. 

I appreciate the help, MplsCustomer.

Regards,

Emerson

[julesAI]

Yes, these are obvious reasons why something wouldn't appear.

Although what the heck does "The lighting in the scene is dim or washed out" mean? You expect light at night?

Perhaps you missed the part about how the camera WAS picking up activity without issue. No blocks were put up or the camera moved.

[julesAI]

Thank you for taking the time to reply.

[EmersonB]

Hi julesAI,

Thanks for getting back to us. Nest cams and doorbells help show you what's going on at home, but the technology itself isn't perfect. We try to make our camera events as accurate as possible, but your camera or doorbell may miss things like:

• Confuse a picture with a real event. For example, a t-shirt with a picture of a dog on it might trigger an animal detection event.
• A person crawling on the ground could be misidentified as a pet.
• Close relatives can be misidentified.

To further isolate this issue, please try to move your Nest Camera to a different position and check the difference or check if you'll still get the same issue.

Looking forward to your response.

Best,

Emerson

[grc4]

I have the same problem. I brought my cameras on 5/9/22 and the cameras worked fine for two months. After the 1st two months, the cameras are worthless at night. I had a bear last get into my garbage 9 feet away from the camera and the camera never acknowledge the event. I have every category for the camera to record any activity. If this was daytime, the camera would have recorded the activity.

To me, this sounds like a firmware issue.

Please advise!

.

[Lance_L]

Hello everyone,

Thanks for posting in our Community. I’m sorry to hear that you’re having issues with this. Let’s check it out.

@julesAI, thanks for mentioning all the troubleshooting steps you’ve tried so far. Please set the night vision setting to auto and follow the steps below:

1. Open the Google Home app.
2. Tap Favorites  or Devices.
3. Tap and hold your device's tile > More > Settings.
4. Tap Video. Under Night Vision, select Auto.

Let me know how it goes.

Everyone else, a few questions: what type of Nest cameras do you have? Are you using an iOS or Android device? What is the color of the status light on the camera? What troubleshooting steps have you tried so far? Also, are you using the Google Home or Nest app?

You can check out this handy guide to help you troubleshoot event video history.

I appreciate your help, MplsCustomer and Emerson.

Best,

Lance

[julesAI]

Hi @Lance_L , thank you so much for responding. You must have posted as I was writing my last follow-up.

That was the setting that was active (Tap Video. Under Night Vision, select Auto.)

Adding:  Using the Google Home App. We've never used the Nest App.

Some in another thread (I'm sorry I don't have the link anymore) said that it was as if a schedule had been turned on not to record from 9pm to 7am. I felt like that too and double checked the automations. (We do not use automations, btw.)

But as I said, after charging the batter from 66% to 100%, the night events are recording again for the time being.

[Lance_L]

Hi julesAI,

Thanks for getting back to me with your updates. I genuinely understand the inconvenience you have faced. I appreciate you sharing your resolution with our Community. If the issue recurs, please send feedback using the Google Home app and contact our support team for further assistance.

Best regards,

Lance

[julesAI]

Thank you, @Lance_L . I will do that next time.

[Lance_L]

Hey julesAI,

It was my pleasure. Feel free to reach out if you have any other questions in the future.

Cheers,

Lance

[julesAI · Accepted solution]

It is sad that no one can address how a camera did work fine (much empathy @grc4 ) and then ceased to do so without a change in anything to it. Did I leave something out in my original post that causes this lack?

Tentatively, it seems that my issue has resolved. What I did:  I removed the connection for the Wasserstein Solar Panel (the 2.5W sold by Google). There was 66% battery charge available. I restarted the camera and let the camera do its thing for over 48 hours. No recording of night time events.

I want to point out that at 66% the camera should be working properly. Before I got the Solar panel, relying solely on periodically recharging the battery by electrical outlet, we often let the camera get far, far below 66% in the midst of winter with snow and ice all around. It never stopped recording events at night.

I decided to do all the following in sequential order and timed these tasks late in the day;

• powered the camera back up to 100%
• reconnected the Wasserstein Solar panel
• Restarted the camera

Finally, that night we got recordings from the middle of the night. (People walking their dogs next to our house which is common here.) The camera is working again. I suspect, but can't say for certain, that is related to having added the Solar panel that's caused the problem over time; even though the battery appears robust with the trickle charging going on.

It is perplexing as I read through the forum the number of people who have had recordings work and then stop during the night, and no clear solution has been offered in any kind of follow-up. If there is one, I hope someone will share it.

Kind regards all. Best of luck to others.