When the doorbell rings, nest app will not connect to doorbell camera (spinning blue circle)

[kjstech]

My wife and I both started experiencing this problem in the last few weeks.  If someone rings the doorbell, we will get notifications (Alexa makes a ding and says "Someones at the front door") and our phones get a notification.  Neither of our phones will load the doorbell video or let us interact like it used to.  She has a Samsung Galaxy S20 Ultra and I have an iPhone 13 Pro Max.  Both Nest apps are up to date.

No one is at the door right now, but if I go into the nest app I can get current live video.  But when someone rings we cant see a darn thing.

The nest doorbell is hardwired and we've had it for maybe a year or two?  It worked fine for awhile.

I'd consider deleting the app, restarting the phone and reinstalling, but this is happening on two different phones / different platforms (Android and IOS).  I'm not sure where to go to troubleshoot now.

[MplsCustomer]

@kjstech 

Perhaps you have a Google Nest Hello Doorbell whose internal battery is failing after a year or two, causing the doorbell to go offline for a minute if the "Indoor Chime" option is turned on. The internal battery on all 3 of our Nest Hellos has failed. The workaround is to turn off the "Indoor Chime" option and rely instead on "Visitor announcements", which it seems you are already doing.

This thread on the problem has over 1,000 replies:

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

Google Nest says they "cannot" replace such doorbells if they are past the 1-year warranty.

[kjstech]

Is there still a battery inside it when it’s powered by the doorbell wiring?  I know I had to install a better doorbell transformer to get it to work reliably while ringing the inside chime.  I know one of my circuit breakers can power cycle it.  The basement one I think believe it or not (because that’s where the transformer is).

[MplsCustomer]

@kjstech 

Yes, the Nest Hello has an internal battery.  It apparently powers the chime without interrupting the camera stream.  So when it fails, the camera goes offline briefly.  Like most, we didn't know the Nest Hello even had a battery until ours failed.

[kjstech]

I purchased the wired one specifically so I didn’t have to deal with batteries.  Builders grade doorbell transformer aside, which I knew I may have to replace (and found out I did)…. It’s worked great since.

Why not use a super capacitor instead?  Why would a wired doorbell need a battery?  That’s the whole point of a wired one.  If I didn’t have wires I would expect a rechargeable lithium battery powered wireless one.

My Nest protect smoke detectors are still working great and they were installed a few months before the doorbell in 2020.

Nowhere on the wired doorbell box does it say ANYTHING about a limited lifetime battery!

[Lar]

Welcome to part 1 of the scam that is Google Nest Hello. Your options at this point are to live with a defective product with reduced features or buy a new device. Good luck trying to cancel your auto-renewing doorbell video subscription. That’s part 2 of Google’s doorbell scam. 

[kjstech]

Oh I canceled best aware before it auto renewed in mid January.  Didn’t have the money for it.  

This is a scam.  Kyocera has super caps in pretty much the same form factor as this battery. They’re primarily used in just an SSD and disk storage to flush writes to the drive. In the event of a sudden power loss. They should’ve just use something like this.  if I wanted a battery powered device, I would’ve bought the wireless one.

[MplsCustomer]

@kjstech 

If it were that easy, then I guess I wonder why the Ring and Arlo wired doorbells also have a similar internal battery for the same purpose (to ring the chime).

[Brad]

Hi there,

Thanks for your help here, MplsCustomer. I appreciate your help with your fellow community members. 

Please let me know if you need further assistance.

Best regards,

Brad

[Brad]

Hi there, 

Just checking in to see how the conversation is going. Please let us know if you have any further questions or concerns. We'll leave this thread open for a little longer for follow-up questions and concerns. 

Best regards, 

Brad

[EmersonB]

Hello everybody,

Just one quick final check in here since activity has slowed down. We'll be locking the thread in the next 24 hours, but if you still need help, we would be happy to keep it open. If there's more we can do, just let us know.

I appreciate the help, Brad.
   
Thanks,
Emerson

[kjstech]

So what is the fix then, just turn off the indoor chime?  I did that in settings but I haven't had any doorbell rings when I was home to test the theory.  I don't really need the chime because Alexa dings and says "Someones at the front door" and our phones do notifications and I think our TV does too (Sony Google TV).

I mean its that or follow the ifixit guide on ripping the thing open and putting in a new battery sourced from amazon?

I would just tell product development to make a hard-wired one NOT require any batteries because thats the whole premise of hard-wired.  If you need any additional voltage on a door bell ring then put a super capacitor in instead.  Until then you all need a product disclaimer on this somewhere stating the limited lifespan due to an internal battery that is not easily replaceable.

[kjstech · Accepted solution]

I just had a doorbell ring and I was in the bedroom and our Lenovo google home alarm clock said someone’s at the front door and showed the video.  I went on my phone and was able to see the video too.

So I guess turning off the indoor chime does work.

[janthadeus]

Hey all,

Kjstech, thanks for posting and we appreciate your time in providing the Community the steps that resolved viewing the live video of your doorbell — it's a big help! We'll ensure that we'll learn from your experience as we continually improve our products and services. Please let me know if you have any other questions or concerns as I will be locking this in 24 hours.

Thanks for the help here, everyone!

Best,

JT