"Can't connect to assisting device"?? Nest battery doorbell

[Island]

"Can't connect to assisting device" is what I see when trying to set up my new battery doorbell.  What am I doing wrong??

Thanks!

[Bodgehome · Accepted solution]

Hii. I found a solution that worked. I had to create a new home, add the doorbell first, then add my camera. It worked immediately on a new home. after both worked i moved all my other devices to the new home. It was some work because i have hue bulbs in the entire house, but all routines were still saved, and it has worked problem free since. Worth the hour or so of fiddling

[Ataturk · Accepted solution]

Solution found / I can answer this - not because I came up with the solution but there's a separate thread on the same topic. I think the community member who solved it was Hancfo or something like that. Can't speak to the doorbell but I can to the cameras (and, BTW, Brad the Community Specialist admitted to the core issue, which is that Google is forcing us as end users into a single, integrated application that is the Google Home App - to dominate our houses like they do the search world. And it does not work): 

1) Go to the Home App and within the app, delete the first camera you connected to successfully. (For the doorbell if you successfully connected to it first, maybe you delete it and then follow the next steps I'll go through). To do that you click on the device, go to the upper right-hand corner to Settings, scroll down and I think it says "Remove Device" in red.

2) So you should not see the device that you removed in the app - make sure it's gone which is critical because I tried something similar but it continued to be discoverable. Now, connect a device that failed with the error message "cannot connect to assisting device". That will be your first instance of a Google device. 

3) Once that previously failing device is successfully set up, go through and add your other devices - including the device that originally connected successfully.

Worked for me and others in the separate thread on this topic. Again, thanks to Hancfo (or whatever the member's name was) for this solution. Do not thank Google, because obviously they don't know what's going on. This is so fundamental. If you want to have people install multiple Google devices one after the other, perhaps they should have tested it because it doesn't work. (I just bought my cams at Costco a few days ago. I'm sure deluged with returns by now.)

[Brad]

Hi there, 

Sorry for my late response. Thank you for all of your patience while waiting for a reply. I just wanted to make sure that your issue is addressed. I can definitely understand how frustrating your situation must be. I would love to help you find a solution to this issue. 

• Do you still need help with this issue?
• What troubleshooting steps have you done thus far?

Please let me know if you need further assistance. 

Best Regards, 

Kalla.

[Island]

Thanks for the reply.

What I did was set up a second home in the Google Home app, and I was able to set up my new Nest wireless doorbell.  However, this is not a great set-up since I have 3 cameras previously set up in the Nest app and also in the Google Home app. I am also setting up one additional outdoor wireless (battery) Nest cam I'm going to be setting up soon. I'd like all my cameras to be visible in the Nest app rather than teh Google Home app since I find the Nest app much more user-friendly than teh Google Home app.

If you have a way for me to set up these two additional cameras in the Nest app, I'd greatly appreciate it!

Island

[Brad]

@Island

Thank you for your feedback on this issue, I fully understand the frustrations of not having your new Nest Cams in the Nest App. I can imagine having to use two different apps at the moment is quite daunting, and could lead to frustration. 

However, the new Nest cameras and doorbell are exclusive to the Home app because we wanted to create an integrated experience with your speakers and displays. A Nest Aware subscription applies to all of your cameras, speakers, and displays in the same home structure. Thank you for your continued patience, and support. I am more than happy to assist you further with this inquiry if you wish. Please let me know.

Best Regards,

Kalla.

[BillWay]

Brad,

I have recently migrated my Nest to Google Home to add the newest generation of Nest Cam.  As mentioned in this thread I can not add a new camera as it hangs on the searching for “assisting device”.  I did set it up on newly setup “test” home.  I have two dozen devices on my migrated home account and can not port them over to the “test” account. How can I skip this silly routine of looking for “assisting device” and add my new camera?  Otherwise going to return and choose a new ecosystem for my camera management. 

[bshorn1959]

I have the exact same problem as BillWay.  I added three Nest Cam's and the only way I could make it work was to set each of them up in a different 'home', otherwise nothing would work because it always got caught up in the 'searching for assisting device'.  This is utter nonsense that Google would put an app together that is so not working!  So now I have three different cameras in three different 'homes'.  And I can't figure out how to migrate them to one.  Very very frustrating.  I thought setup of these devices was supposed to be simple.

[Brad]

Hi there,

Just checking in to see if you still need assistance with this issue. I am sorry that I do not have a better fix. We are looking into this issue right now. I am afraid I do not have an ETA.  

Please let me know and I would love to look into this further for you!

Best Regards,

Kalla.

[ngineered4u]

my nest wireless doorbell won't show the blue light or connect to my nest wifi router..this is the only google product that does not seem to want to connect. I have done the factory reset a few times now. The home app just does not want to connect to the doorbell

[Timmae]

I had the same issue when using an iPhone to setup a new doorbell. Support provided the answer I needed...

Check if the "Local Network Access" is enabled for the Google Home App.
1) On the iOS device's home screen, tap "Settings."

2) Tap "Privacy" and "Local Network."

3) Under the list of app, turn on "Local Network Access" for Google Home App.

After resolving the setting on my iPhone the setup for my doorbell went smoothly.

[Artemis]

Tried that sadly nothing is working

[scottbryant99]

I had to turn it OFF and then back ON. It was not working with it ON until I turned it OFF then ON.

[bryanwagner96]

happening to me now with the nest cam battery... tried turning  on and off local network access for the google home app. not working... can someone please help. I've already exchanged the unit so its not that. 

[Ardovini21]

It's insane, I bought the dual pack nest cameras, I can only install one, when I try and install the second one, I get the "Can't connect to assisting device" error message. 

[Bodgehome]

I’m having the same issue. Absolute spastics working at google who can’t fix this issue or address it 

[Artemis]

Any luck? If so any pointers?

[Bodgehome · Accepted solution]

Hii. I found a solution that worked. I had to create a new home, add the doorbell first, then add my camera. It worked immediately on a new home. after both worked i moved all my other devices to the new home. It was some work because i have hue bulbs in the entire house, but all routines were still saved, and it has worked problem free since. Worth the hour or so of fiddling

[Brad]

Hey folks,

Sorry to hear that some of you are still having this issue! I would suggest in the meantime, if you follow what @Bodgehome did with their Home and devices, then you may have the same luck. Still looking into this issue, I am afraid I do not have a direct fix but try those steps, and see if it does the trick. Please let me know if there is anything else I can assist you with.

Best Regards,

Kalla.

[MarkL1 · Accepted solution]

This worked for me. Although I did not have to create a new home, just remove the camera. 

Thanks!

[Mike95]

Hi, how did you migrate a camera from one home to another? Thank you!

[bryanwagner96]

Yep this is insane. 

[bryanwagner96]

Yep, still experiencing the same problem a week after buying the doorbell and camera. Doorbell is working great on the plus side. But to spend $200 on a camera and it simply not connect to the internet is insane to me and there’s still no fix. 

[Robo]

I'm having the same can't connect my doorbell using my phone /android any one had any luck

[bryanwagner96]

Still no luck for me. Blows my mind this hasn’t been fixed by google yet. Smh 🤦🏼‍♂️ 

[Artemis]

Having the exact same problem and very frustrated: have reset the router, have restarted the wireless mesh google net work, have restarted both my Apple phones and the doorbell multiple times with no success

[JayMcB]

Also had this issue today with my two brand new nest battery cameras.  They would not add to my current home in the app.  Got the “Can’t connect to assisting device” when trying to setup.  I eventually had to follow the steps that Bodgehome provided and had to setup a whole new Home and then move all my existing devices to that new home.  This is clearly an issue within the software or network of Google.  

[Ataturk · Accepted solution]

Solution found / I can answer this - not because I came up with the solution but there's a separate thread on the same topic. I think the community member who solved it was Hancfo or something like that. Can't speak to the doorbell but I can to the cameras (and, BTW, Brad the Community Specialist admitted to the core issue, which is that Google is forcing us as end users into a single, integrated application that is the Google Home App - to dominate our houses like they do the search world. And it does not work): 

1) Go to the Home App and within the app, delete the first camera you connected to successfully. (For the doorbell if you successfully connected to it first, maybe you delete it and then follow the next steps I'll go through). To do that you click on the device, go to the upper right-hand corner to Settings, scroll down and I think it says "Remove Device" in red.

2) So you should not see the device that you removed in the app - make sure it's gone which is critical because I tried something similar but it continued to be discoverable. Now, connect a device that failed with the error message "cannot connect to assisting device". That will be your first instance of a Google device. 

3) Once that previously failing device is successfully set up, go through and add your other devices - including the device that originally connected successfully.

Worked for me and others in the separate thread on this topic. Again, thanks to Hancfo (or whatever the member's name was) for this solution. Do not thank Google, because obviously they don't know what's going on. This is so fundamental. If you want to have people install multiple Google devices one after the other, perhaps they should have tested it because it doesn't work. (I just bought my cams at Costco a few days ago. I'm sure deluged with returns by now.)

[Morenazo]

Absolute legend!! i was just about to throw these stupid camera's out. Why would Google do this??? So infuriating.

 BTW Kalla, before you....

Hey folks,

Sorry to hear that some of you are still having this issue! I would suggest in the meantime, if you follow what @Bodgehome did with their Home and devices, then you may have the same luck. Still looking into this issue, I am afraid I do not have a direct fix but try those steps, and see if it does the trick. Please let me know if there is anything else I can assist you with.

Best Regards,

Kalla.

Its been resolved!!!

[vmpisvm]

I can confirm that this works. Same error as others in this thread - first camera connected but could not connect any more cameras with "looking for assisting nest devices issue". Removed the first camera and then reconnected three cameras starting with the one that failed. All three connected.

[darrylamos]

Thanks Ataturk - worked perfectly after a frustrating 2 weeks of trying various options yours finally solved it!

[Robo]

The doorbell has never been connected that's the problem it don't connect at all so can't get to work 

[Vincentoliviers]

None of those solutions seem to work for me. 
From one dev to another and prob more qualified dev team; might it be an option to simply include an option at the start of setup to not use assisting devices and just act like its the first (cam/nest) device in the home? 

[BrianHorn]

This is so unbelievably annoying... Hopefully they fix this soon 

[Nobes3292]

What ataturk above said works perfectly. It’s way easier than creating a new home and adding everything else to the new home. 

As they said, I removed the camera from my home, then added the two cameras I had issues with, then re-added the original 1st camera I added with no problems. Of course, it’s a problem that I had to do this at all, but I had no issues once I removed the 1st camera I added. Hope this helps people in the future! 

[Nbates89]

I followed @Bodgehome’s advice and got the Nest Doorbell (battery) to connect, but now my Google Home Hub Max cannot seem to operate as a Nest Camera. If I add it to another home it works just fine, but if I try to add it to the new home that I created for the doorbell it just tells me that the camera is offline and it will not connect. It seems like the doorbell is creating issues for the nest home structure, messing up other nest cameras, and preventing them from communicating properly. This really needs to be fixed by Google, as it makes having a suite of Nest products useless because they can’t work together.

[Brad]

Hey folks, 

I am glad to hear that some folks found a workaround/fix to this issue. Thank you all so much for helping your fellow Community members out and providing fixes that have worked for you. We are still investigating issue, and appreciate all the feedback that has been given. Please continue to provide that here, or through the app. In the meantime, take a look at your fellow community members fixes, and please let us know if you need further assistance.

Best Regards,

Kalla.

[Artemis]

I’m still struggling with this issue and have spoken w support via telephone with no work around/no answers.  Very frustrating.

I have 2 thermostats and 5 cameras connected to same account… and the yearly subscription— so resetting all of them are totally out of the question (twins and dogs in home… chaos)

[DCManager]

The issue that I have found is Google's own internal information is messed up or out of date. The replies I get from tech support do not match up with the app or device itself. I have sent them corrections each time I get a reply. It is apparent that Google (Alphabet) has too much going on to be good at any of it. Adequate is not enough. I have been patient with the support team as much as is practically possible. I even set up a new "home", to which the device still would not connect. Now, I can't even delete that home. All I get is "cannot connect to Google". What gives?