Nest Protect does not connect to Nest App - Hint for a Solution

[LJ2500]

Hi,

I bought 8 Nest Protect's Gen 2 in 2018 and got them up and running at that time quiet easy.

However, we renovated our house, took the Nests off-line for 2 years and now that i tried to set them up...

Horror... It took me 4 whole days and it was pure luck to find a work-around! 

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Old situation (2018) = 1 Router with WIFI, OnePlus 8T with Android 11.1.2.2, Nest App from about 2022 = Flawless setup of Nest Protect

New situation (2023) = 1 Router, 1 Switch, 5AP's, OnePlus 10 with Android 13.1, New Nest App = Impossible to setup Nest Protect

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

What goes wrong in 2023...

You can connect a first device with barcode without a hassle:

- Setup is flawless, looks "green" in the app

- Upon network-monitoring, the device will only connect for about 5 seconds to the network during installation, but it will never ever connect itself later on, pushing the button will not connect the device to the network either.

- You can not test the device either (makes sense, it will not connect to the network)

I Tried to connect a second device thrue barcode-scan

- Then you get a coloufull choice of error-codes lik 006, 018, 023, 024

- But never, under no circumstances, will a second device be connected. (makes sense, since the first cannot connect to the network)

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

OK... checked all the fora

- Did everything Google says... no solution

- I even ended up by switching off my entire network and i set up "2018-Network" with a simple ISP/router with only 1 dedicated 2.4GHz, IPv4/IPv6, MultiCast network... So, living amids the fields, the battle was really all about 1 router, 1 phone and Nest, not a neighbour in sight... no solution

- Somene suggested bying a Gen1 device and use this as the master (first device coupled)... i did not tried that

- Someone suggested connecting a Nest, then remove it from the App without to reset it... do this for all devices and than attach them again... did not work

- Someone suggested to switch off Bluetooth while connecting to the first device... did not work

- Someone suggested to take out the batteries of the master device while connecting the second... did not work

- I created new Nest-houses, resetted my devices up-till the point i would think they would start complaining, turned my entire network on-and-off for 10..15 minutes so much that my collection of fine beers is now gone... quiet tasty but did not solve anything

- I ended up to make my wife and family some serious fine meals every evening for the last 4 days to prepare for the worst... how the hell can i explain them that these 8 expensive devices are ready for the trashbin... the meal was exquisite but i did not dare to bring them the message yet...

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

But then the revelation came...

I had still this old OnePlus 8T with Android 11.1.2.2, Nest App from about 2022. The camera is broke on this device.

What the heck... i tried it anyway...

Surprise, surprise... it worked flawless on the mini-network (1 router, 1 phone and the Nests) for 3 devices.

So i got back to my original network... disabled the mini-network, turned the good router, switches and AP's on

Cleaned my Nest-App, Resetted the devices...

... And started from scratch on the old phone, with the old software and the broken camera

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Everything is spotless now under this (my) circumstances:

- Works perfect = 1 dedicated 2.4GHz, IPv4/IPv6, MultiCast network for all the Nest's, amids a lot of other WIFI traffic

- Works perfect = OnePlus 8T with Android 11.1.2.2, Nest App from about 2022, Manual input (no Barcode)

- Does not work = OnePlus 10 with Android 13.1, New Nest App, using the barcode

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

... Surprise 2

Now that the Nest App has its 8 devices coupled on the old phone

... they works spotless on the new phone (did an alarm test on the new phone... adjusted the setting... all fine!

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I am not at the point of trying to find out whether the Android Version, The version of the Nest App or Barcode versus Manual input could solve the problem... but this is definitely a problem of the Nest-App.

I am however willing to accept:

- 8 sets of new batteries

- 12 bottles of fine beers

- And some relaxation-arrangement

Regards

Luc Janssens - Belgium (So the beers must be good 😉

[EmersonB]

Hello LJ2500,

Thanks for reaching out here in the Community. We appreciate you sharing your experience with us. It helps us to learn and improve the way we support our customers.

Give these steps a try:

• When setting up multiple Nest Protects they should be placed on a table near your Wifi router.
• Perform a reset to factory default.
• While pairing, the first Nest Protect should have a blue light pulsing. If there’s no light, just press it one time. 
• When pairing the remaining, the first Nest Protect should still have the blue light pulsing because the next Nest Protects would connect from it.

Let us know how it goes.

Regards,

Emerson

[LJ2500]

None of this works, 

With everything exactly the same (network, same devices, reset, lying next to each other on the table, 1m away from the router)... The result stays the same:

- The new version of the app does not pair the devices.

- The version of begin 2022 works flawless.

[Dakiara]

None of this works. I have the same problem - OnePlus 10t and OnePlus 11. They've also disappeared this month from our older iPad which we were using to view them in desperation (impossible to carry around so not really usable).

Will be trying the OP's solution later.

The latest OnePlus phones need to be sorted for your app. Luckily we have an old phone still to try.

[vivlund]

I wish I had read this before I reset my Nest Protect. I figured the problem was the app since it updated 2 days ago and now my Protects show as offline, and there was nothing I could do to make them go back online. I will go see if I have an old phone with an old version of the app around. Thanks for posing this!!

[Dakiara]

Thank-you so much OP.

We have pretty the same setup and issues with them not installing a second device on our OnePlus phones (10t and the last but one model).  We even managed in desperation through an older iPad but this has now completely lost all four devices this month somehow so has been back to unusable. My husband has even described them as an expensive scam, it's been that bad (not enough wine exists to apologise to him for this expensive mistake...).

I shall look out one of our old phones and see if I can boot it up to install the aforementioned expensive ceiling bricks.

Tried loads of stuff but will give this a shot as currently they're the most expensive "20 quid basic functionality" carbon monoxide alarms we've ever had the misfortune to buy.