Nest Wifi routers creating multiple Thread networks

[nevi]

HI eveyone

I have a problem with my Nest wifi routers creating their own Thread networks. I have 4 routers, 1 point, and a few other Nest devices.

The 4 routers each create their own Thread network (I can see this from Home Assistant), while the point and other Nest devices join the common network that other non-Google devices have joined.

I've tried factory resetting twice, and each time I reinstate the network, the routers create new random networks. So I have 5 NEST-PAN Thread networks. Ideally, I'd like to have 1 network.

Does anyone know a reliable way to migrate the routers into the 1 common network?

Thanks

[GabrielaG]

Hi @nevi,

Thanks for reaching out to the Google Nest community. I'm sorry to hear that your four Nest WiFi routers and one point are having problems creating their own Thread networks. I'd be happy to provide some guidance.

I appreciate your effort in performing troubleshooting steps. To help provide you with the correct information, I'd like to ask you a few questions: 

• When did the issue start?
•  Are the devices connected to the same network? 
• Do the devices indicate any error messages? 
• Do all devices show up in the Google Home app?
•  In the WiFi settings, does the network name appear multiple times?

Any additional details you can provide will be helpful.

Best regards,

Gabriela

[nevi]

Hi @GabrielaG 

• The issue started when I created a new home on Google Home, so about a month ago. Although I reset all my devices including routers, my old Thread network from my previous home seems to have persisted.
• Yes, all devices are connected to the same Wifi network
• Devices don't indicate error messages, but my Matter Thread devices often appear offline on Google Home
• Yes, all routers show up on Google Home, their connection is all strong.
• Thread networks don't appear in WiFi settings, so no, only the WiFi network name appears, and once.

Home Assistant has a Thread configuration that lists all the Thread networks that are available, that's how I see the 4 routers' individual networks. See below. The expected process is for Google Home to join all the Nest routers into the same Thread network as border routers. Right now my network is just fragmented.

[GabrielaG]

Hi @nevi,

Thank you for your reply. I appreciate the information you provided me about your Thread networks. I'm happy to continue assisting you.

I need to clarify some information to help you with the correct troubleshooting steps:

• Are your Matter devices having problems connecting to the network, or are they just showing offline in the Google Home app?
• Do you have another Home created in the Google Home app? If so, can you please delete the extra Home?

I'll look forward to your response.

Regards,

Gabriela 

[Rapier]

I have the same problem this is repeated many places but no solution is provided so far. Look this is my google services detail. Every router creates its own thread network but wifi points joins automatically to the used thread network. Normally all nest wifi devices (router and points) should be on the same thread network

[nevi]

I don't know how to reach out to someone who has an influence over this issue. A new problem I've started experiencing is that one of those unreachable networks sometimes becomes the preferred Thread network (for just its router), and then when I try to pair Matter over Thread devices, it tries to save that router's Thread credentials.

It (un)fortunately fails, so the device never gets added to an incorrect or ephemeral network as the network eventually gets destroyoed.

[Xyzxyz]

I have the exact same problem. I have 4 Threads-capable Nest Wifi-routers, one Threads-capable Nest Hub (2nd gen) and a few older Google Wifi-points. All of them (except the Nest Hub) are hardwired via Ethernet to the same Nest Wifi Router acting as the main router, with the others running in bridged mode. 

Each Nest Router has created their own separate Threads network, and the Hub has joined one of them. I think my 3 Threads Onvis S4 have joined the network with the two devices, but I'm not sure, as one of them keeps going offline intermittently for 10–20 hours at a time, and it is placed only about 3 meters away from one of the Nest Wifi Routers that have set up their own separate Threads networks. 

All 3 Threads plugs suffer from going offline now and then, but that one is the worst. 

[Rapier]

I have the exact same problem. I have 2 nest wifi routers 2 wifi access points and ikea drigera connected to the main router

Ikea drigera is the controller that I use for matter over thread. Drigera and 2 google nest wifi points are automatically on the same thread network but 2 routers each creating their own seperate networks. there is no setting to manipulate this behaviour 

[Rapier]

I have exactly same problem. My my drigera joined to my wifi point thread network and I have 2 nest wifi points and 2 nest wifi routers. 

Currently my wifi points and drigera are one thread network and each router has its own thread network with no devices on them.

[PoweredByFei]

Similar scenario here. All my thread devices are configured and pair to my Apple Thread network with an Apple TV as the Matter controller and a HomePod mini, SmartThings Station, and even a Google Chromecast Streamer as Thread Boarder Routers and they all work together perfectly in a Thread network.

They all work together because of the credential sharing from the iPhone and it was seamlessly working.

I then install a Nest WiFi Pro mesh network and at first, credential sharing and the Nest WiFi Pro creates a mesh network with the same Thread network name as my Apple Thread network, but here’s the kicker.

Instead of joining the existing Thread network, it just create its own Nest Thread network but with the same name and credentials as the Apple Thread network. This is mainly because a Google mesh network creates its own subnet that’s different than my main subnet. And so I would ask myself, why don’t I use Bridge mode instead of NAT, but bridge mode won’t let you create a Google mesh, only indistinct Nest WiFi APs.

The real kicker here is that Google’s Thread using its the shared creds and Thread network name as my main Apple Thread network has essentially broke my Thread network because of the split subnets.

I have IPv6 configured in my main network and IPv6 is turned on in the Google Home app for my Nest/Google mesh network.

Has anyone figured this out?

[danielwilliamed]

I think it's kind of unacceptable for Google to roll this out onto older gen nest WiFi routers and break everyone's thread networks and not offer any way at all to roll back or disable thread on those routers. As I understand it, they were never intended to be border routers even though they had the radio, but then they decided to make them border routers with an automatic firmware update but they don't work properly and each router/point sets up it's own separate thread network. There is no fix for this and Google has seemingly abandoned it and left it in this state. It means that anyone using a thread border router (I have a sonoff dongle) is suddenly unable to use thread reliably because the nest routers refuse to join together into one network under the main border router. To make matters worse, my pixel phone has decided to make one of these useless NEST-PAN networks it's preferred thread network. It was previously the sonoff dongle and for no reason I can ascertain, the phone has just switched to prefer one of the nest networks with no way to revert to the dongle. I have to use my wife's iPhone to add Matter devices to Home Assistant. I cannot understand why Google would roll this out and ruin Matter over Thread for anyone with the older nest WiFi routers and offer absolutely no way to rectify it.

By the way, I already spent a weekend unplugging all the routers, connecting my Home Assistant server to a different network, deleting Google Play Services and Google Home (having to then re-login to Google on my phone, factory reset my pixel watch and re-add all my credit cards to Google wallet - a massive pain), establishing the sonoff as the only thread border router, adding a load of Matter devices before bringing the nest routers back online. The sonoff stayed the preferred border router for a week or two before I suddenly couldn't add Matter devices anymore because my phone had - without involving me in any way - gone back to preferring one of the separate NEST -PAN networks. If only there was any way to completely disable Thread on these older routers - they were never intended to support it in the first place!

[chalupapi]

@GabrielaG is there going to be a fix for this? It seems to be well documented at this point that Nest Wifi routers are breaking Thread networks since the update. I see the devices are still on Thread 1.3, which means they aren't sharing Thread network credentials correctly.