Wired Nest Cam Battery Does Not Provide 24/7 Recording - False Advertising

[nja]

The documentation (link) claims that the Nest Battery will provide 24/7 recording on a Nest Aware Plus subscription, as long as it is wired:

> The Nest Cam (battery) must be connected to a power source to have 24/7 video history. If your camera is battery powered, it will only have event video history, even if you have a Nest Aware Plus subscription. 24/7 video history is not available for the Nest Doorbell (battery), even with optional wired installation.

This is again reiterated in the table further down the page, for Nest Aware Plus @ Nest Cam (battery):

> Up to 10 days of 24/7 video history (wired installation only)

However, I have two new Nest Camera Battery cameras that I just set up with a Nest Aware Plus 60-day subscription.  Both are hard-wired, and both have good wifi signal.  I can monitor the cameras live, but they are not providing 24/7 recording (only events).

I contacted support, and they claimed that as of now, Nest Camera Battery cameras do not support 24/7 recording, even when they are wired:

>But, as of now you will only get events based history even though it's hard wired.

This is completely misleading documentation and false advertising.  These cameras are very expensive for them to not provide the functionality that Google claims they provide.

I bought these cameras with the intent to use them as wired cameras, with the option to use them as battery cameras in the future.  If I had known this page was lying, I would have just bought the cheaper wired camera in the first place!  I am sure others have followed the same path.  I have two older pre-Google Nest cameras (one is a pre-Nest Dropcam!) so I've been a Nest customer for ages, and I've _never_ had an issue with the 24/7 recording on those, so this was a big surprise for me.

Please update the documentation to reduce these misleading claims so others don't get suckered into believing that Google would tell the truth here.  If this is some functionality that may be introduced in the future, please clearly note as much.

Again the page with these unacceptable incorrect claims is here: https://support.google.com/googlenest/answer/9681538?hl=en

[GarettYEG]

I was taken in by the same advertising, unfortunately.  Like you I was unpleasantly surprised when I discovered the reality.  Now today my battery operated cameras are showing "camera unavailable" constantly so are recording nothing.  I hope that doesn't happen to you.

[MplsCustomer]

@nja 

You must have faulty cameras then. And it seems Google Nest Support provided you with false information. We have had a Google Nest Camera (Battery) since Sept. 2021 and have it plugged in at all times with the optional 10-meter power cable. It is always "Live" (even in cold weather) and--with our Nest Aware Plus subscription--provides 24/7 recorded video history for the last 10 days, and event history prior to that.

Retrieving that history, however, is a challenge, because the timeline in the Google Home app is lousy compared to the timeline in the Google Nest app. And because the camera works only in the Google Home app and not the Google Nest app or on the home.nest.com website, we cannot manually edit a clip.

[MplsCustomer]

@nja 

What the Google Nest Support person told you is clearly false.  On our Google Nest Camera (Battery)--plugged in with the optional power cable--I can scroll back through 10 days of 24/7 recording; I just checked again.  The scrolling experience, however, is absurdly primitive; you have to swipe your finger rapidly across your phone well over 100 times in the Google Home app to go that far back (versus 10 vertical swipes on your phone in the Google Nest app on older cameras).  And of course, there's no ability at all to go to the home.nest.com website and simply pick the date whose history you want to see (as we can on our older cameras).

[SteveT1]

Hi everyone,

I'm sorry to hear about your support experience, @nja. Yes, Nest Cam (battery) can accommodate up to 10 days of continuous video recording (CVR) and 24/7 video history if hardwired to power and subscribed to Nest Aware Plus ($12 a month for all of your cameras, speakers, and displays on the same home structure). 

We'd like to further look into this for you — could you share the Case ID of your interaction with our team so we can check?

Regards,

Steve

[nja]

@SteveT1 

8-1662000032407

[SteveT1]

Hi folks,

Sorry for the delay. @nja, I found your case and we'll contact you via email so we can continue this conversation via that channel. @DebrinaF, I would recommend to create a new thread so we can work on your concern better.

Let me know if I can assist you with anything else, otherwise I’ll be locking the thread in 24 hrs. 

Regards,

Steve

[Brad]

Hey Folks.

At this time, I'll go ahead and lock this thread. If you're still experiencing problems, feel free to start a new thread and we'll be happy to help.

Best Regards,

Brad.

[DebrinaF]

I have gaps in my footage n hard to go back n look, when I try to look at say 10 am n its 11 am, if I try n look at 10 am, it shoots back up to 11 am, the current time. I have 3 on 2 separate places n so many missing gaps. I pay every yr for each camera 60 bucks. I'm not getting anything but what looks like the present n skips so much. Please help. These things are not cheap I paid 319 for 2 with long cords easy set up. I have the nest cam for exterior.

I have them over each exterior entrance both covered under a protective carport n porch. 

[DebrinaF]

I feel like there must be an fix for this? But how do I find out, I keep reading n looking on websites after websites but seems like others has same issues.

I really want it to work n fee more l secure about my surveillance set ups. I rely on these things for safety, along with my pistols. But still I need security footage to work.