Remote Restart

[twheel07]

I let ADT talk me into getting cameras to address my security concerns.  Had them installed on Monday and 3 days later, one of them is already offline.  Researching this issue, the common fix is to unplug/reset the camera.  This is not an issue if you are near the camera, but if you travel for work like I do, it’s impossible.   The whole reason I installed the cameras was to watch my place when I travel!  Not even a week of operation and I am having issues.  

Google has a bunch of smart people working for them but for the life of me, I don’t understand why they couldn’t build in a remote restart for cameras having issues.  I don’t also understand after 2-3 days of use, the camera goes offline when the other 3 cameras which are further away did not?  Wishing I would have chose another camera manufacturer / alarm company.  

[EmptyNester · Accepted solution]

So it turns out that this is an issue for all cameras out there on the market not just NEST.   If the camera is off-line then there is no way to send it a message to restart.  And even if you un-plug the power to the camera, it has an internal back up battery so it still won't force a re-start.

Your best bet it to RESTART you cable modern AND/OR Wifi router.  This might very well help the camera re-connect.

If you have one of the new MESH router systems then there is a way to re-start the WIFI remotely from the app. 

[twheel07]

Thanks for the response.   It is much appreciated and I learned something about these cameras. 

Your recommended solution on restarting the MESH system remotely worked.  Not only did it fix the camera that was offline but it also fixed the doorbell camera which literally went offline 30 minutes after my initial post.  Now I need to put some time in understanding the MESH network and how to keep it from dropping cameras.  

[EmptyNester]

That is excellent news.  I'm glad it worked.   It sounds like we have similar systems.  I have (6) Gen 1 Nest cams and (1) Gen 2 cam and they rarely go offline.  But sometimes it happens.  About a month ago my internet went out for 4 hours.  And (1) camera did not come back on line.  But restarting the Eeros fixed it (that is the only reason I knew this trick).    But I have other non-google devices that sometimes just drop off the WIFI network.  This is not a problem with Eero as I have seen this happen over the years with many different WIFI boxes.  But I have the least amount of problem with Eero.  You may want to confirm that the Eero's are set to auto-update a they do a lot of firmware updates (at least once/month).

[twheel07]

Thanks for the recommendation.  I will have a look at the firmware update settings.  In addition, I will probably play with positioning of the nodes as well as possibly adding an additional one to strengthen the mesh.