They couldn't solve the problem, so Google hung up on me.

[gnusman]

Like so many others I've run into a  brick wall trying to simply replace a Nest Hello doorbell with another of the same model.   The new one will install fine if I assign it to a new "home," but will NOT install in my existing home which includes all of my existing cameras.  They are in multiple physical locations and on several different wi-fi networks, but all in the same "home."    Putting the new doorbell into a separate home is not only inconvenient, it's expensive, because, as we've all learned, the Nest Aware subscription covers only one Home, so I would have to pay for a second one for anything assigned outside my existing home.  I called tech support  where after leading me through their menu of useless resets and reinstall steps we came to the same point where trying to install the replacement camera in my existing Home kicked up an NC030 error.   the google tech person put me on hold to "confer with her team."  Then came back to tell me she was informed by the team that you cannot have multiple devices on different networks within one Home.   I told her I was looking a three cameras on two different networks even as we spoke, so that information she was giving me could not possibly be correct.   She repeated it as if she hadn't heard me, and told me there's no way to install a doorbell in a Home if there are devices on multiple networks in that Home.   When I persisted and explained that I was looking at the evidence that her information was faulty, she hung up on me.   Now I'm left with a doorbell that doesn't work in my standard Home, and one that doesn't come under my Nest Aware subscription in a second Home.   Any suggestions for resolving this catch 22 would be most appreciated. 

[michealjohnben1]

It seems like a complex issue with Nest Hello installation. Have you tried reaching out to Google again or exploring community forums for possible solutions.

[MplsCustomer]

@gnusman 

We've been Google Nest doorbell, camera, and Nest Hub customers since 2019.

Years ago, under Nest, I think the Nest app may have originally allowed multiple Wi-Fi networks in one Nest "home/structure" but that is certainly NOT true anymore (and probably hasn't been true since about 2020). All devices in a Google Nest "home/structure" need to be on the same Wi-Fi network.

Some customers in this forum have commented that that is the reason why, if you already have Google Nest devices in your Google Nest "home/structure", the install process tries to obtain the Wi-Fi credentials from an already-installed device, and will NOT let you enter your own Wi-Fi credentials.

There are MANY, MANY posts in this forum indicating that a Nest Aware subscription applies to only one Google Nest "home/structure" AND that all devices in that Google Nest "home/structure" need to be on the SAME Wi-Fi network. I can't tell you how many posts I've seen from customers who have discovered that they need two (or more) Nest Aware subscriptions if they have two (or more) physical homes. Even customers who have two Wi-Fi networks because their property or building is large report that they need to have separate Google Nest "homes/structures" and separate Nest Aware subscriptions.

My guess (and it's just my amateur guess) is that while you may actually have multiple Wi-Fi networks in multiple physical locations all in the same Google Nest "home/structure" because it was set up years ago, you're not going to be able to add new devices to it going forward.  If you're installing in an existing Google Nest "home/structure", the install process will try to obtain the Wi-Fi credentials from another device in that "home", which will be problematic in your case since you have multiple Wi-Fi networks.

That's just my guess, based on over two years of observing posts on this issue.

In this thread from 2021, a Google Nest Community Specialist said:

"One Nest Aware subscription will cover all of your cameras in a single home/structure. If you have multiple homes, you will need to have multiple home/structure with a separate Nest Aware subscription for each home."

https://www.googlenestcommunity.com/t5/Nest-Aware/Nest-Aware-Plus-and-multiple-homes/m-p/5819

And in this thread also from 2021, a Google Nest Community Specialist said:

"Sorry to hear about the confusion when adding different cameras and different properties. To complete this, you'll have to add different "Homes" within the app which you can then add different Wifi networks and the camera devices to each one of those."

https://www.googlenestcommunity.com/t5/Cameras-and-Doorbells/Nest-Cams-in-Home-App-to-Different-WiFi...

[gnusman]

I appreciate your feedback.  You are most likely exactly right. It simply doesn't make sense that Google's tech support is telling me "all devices in one home need to be on the same network, when I'm looking at three cameras in the same home that are on differerent networks.  Yes, they were set up years ago, but basically, what google is telling us is that if one of our products dies and you have to replace it, you will have to foot the. cost of a new device AND have to shell out for a new Nest Aware subscription to cover it.  Adding insult to injury.  This doorbell is only 3 years old.   I expect more for my money.

[MplsCustomer]

@gnusman 

I understand your frustration.

I suspect the ability to have devices on multiple Wi-Fi networks in the same Google Nest "home/structure" was an unstated capability that Google Nest never advertised and quietly did away with several years ago. (I don't know if it was an inadvertent capability, or a capability deliberately created by Nest before the Google acquisition.) I remember someone telling me years ago that they thought they could add a doorbell at their mother-in-law's house to their Google Nest "home/structure" and Nest Aware subscription, and wondering how they could do that, since I couldn't find any documentation on it. I think they never managed to do it.

I can't explain why Google Nest's tech support people didn't know about it. Maybe Google Nest simply buried knowledge of this arcane capability even within the company because they make more money by requiring a separate Google Nest "home/structure" for each Wi-Fi network, and therefore a separate Nest Aware subscription.

Speaking of older Google Nest Hello Doorbells, the internal battery on all three of ours has died, so we have the "Indoor chime" option turned off so that the doorbell doesn't go offline for a minute whenever the doorbell is pressed (1,000 reply thread: https://www.googlenestcommunity.com/t5/Cameras-and-Doorbells/Nest-Hello-Doorbell-cuts-out-when-butto...), relying instead on "Visitor announcements" on our Nest Hubs. And two of them are peeling, so we have silicone "skins" from Amazon covering the peeling shards. But otherwise they still work.

[gnusman]

So, after all that ...I called back today, got a different tech person, and had a completely different experience.  He concluded that the reason I could not install the new camera in the existing Home was because the old camera was still listed there.  He had me delete the old one, and add the new one, and voila!   Everything worked.  Everybody is living happily in the same Home, even though there are now 4 separate devices on two different networks.   A different person on the other end of the phone made all the difference in the world.  He was able to do, in just a few minutes, what the other person told me flat out, COULD NOT BE DONE.   Amazing.

So for now everthing is good..except my Nest Hub is not making the announcement when the doorbell is pushed...and I can't for the life of me remember how to set that up manually...That's why the good Lord invented Google, I guess!

Thanks again for your input...

[MplsCustomer]

@gnusman 

That's great! Maybe if you're already set up with multiple Wi-Fi's, you're grandfathered in.

By "making announcement" do you mean the "Visitor announcements" option (https://support.google.com/googlenest/answer/7672451)?