4th gen thermostat LESS functional than the 1st gen

[Jbh1usa]

I’ve had two 1st gen nest thermostats for over 10 years. I received the email that support was ending for the first gen and bought 2 of the 4th gen. 
Upon installing the 4th gen I find that I cannot setup separate schedules for cool mode and heat mode. There is one combined schedule. 
With the first gen I had a cool schedule that only following cooling temps and then a heat schedule that only followed heating temps. 
With this combined schedule I can no longer have this. 
I contacted support and was told first that was just the way it is. Then when I asked to speak to a supervisor I was told that when you set your schedule in cool mode it will only follow that and then when the schedule is set in heat mode that it would only follow that.  However that is not true. All of the points that I have put in when I was in cool mode are still there in heat mode and will not allow me to get within 3 degrees between each mode at a particular time. 
I do not understand how a more expensive, newer gen 4 thermostat has LESS functionality than my more than 10 year old gen 1 thermostat. 
I want the scheduling to be separate for cool and heat modes. I only want to be able to set cool temps for the cool mode schedule and I only want to be able to set heat temps for the heat mode schedule. 
When my thermostat is set in cool mode I am not concerned about the heat other than the eco heat or safety heat and that is already setup in another place. I should t need to choose a heat temp when I am setting up a cooling schedule. 
Leave the combined schedule with choices for heat and cool only on the “heat/cool” mode.

If this is not corrected soon I will put my old gen 1 thermostats back, return the gen 4 and look for a new brand of thermostat that does what my over 10 year old Nest gen 1 do. 

[Jbh1usa]

Correction … I shouldn’t ** need to choose a heat temp when I am setting up my cooling schedule. 

[Ggilpuja]

I got the same issues /concerns with scheduling on the 4th gen.  I got a brand new never installed 3rd gen and I plan to install it instead of the th gen if this issue isn't solved soon.  Please Google allow separate schedules for cooling and heating. 

[Jbh1usa]

I see from this blog post that there is support now for the old format of scheduling within the google home app that allows a separate heat and cool schedule for the thermostats that are gen 1 through gen 3. 

https://www.googlenestcommunity.com/t5/Blog/Full-temperature-schedules-for-older-Nest-Thermostats-no...

Please apply this programming to the gen 4 thermostat that allows this type of scheduling that was available in the nest app for the gen1-3 thermostat that had separate heat and cool schedules! 
I have seen multiple requests and discussions on this issue throughout this community yet this remains an issue with the thermostat only using a combined schedule and not allowing conflicting points in your heat and cool modes. 

Again, I will say that most of your loyal customers LOVED the functionality and specificity we could set with ALL of the prior generation nest thermostats and WANT it to remain in the gen 4. 

If I don’t soon see it announced that there are plans to correct this then I will be returning my gen 4 thermostats and finding a new smart thermostat that hasn’t forgotten how to do the things that nest's gen1-3 predecessors could. 

[Jbh1usa]

I spoke with support again regarding this issue. I asked to speak to a supervisor again. He was rather rude. He told me that there were “many “ people on the community feedback blog that had requested the changes that they made to the scheduling and that it why it was changed for the generation 4 thermostats. 

I reminded him that they didn’t actually “change” anything and that it was the same type of scheduling that was available for the “cool/heat” mode on the older generation thermostats. Yet they did REMOVE the abilities that were available on the prior ones of being able to have a separate cool schedule with only cooling temps and a separate heat schedule with only hearing temps. 

They in fact did not “improve “ the thermostat they just took away functionality that the prior generations had. 

He told me there were no plans to change it back because “that is what the customers wanted”. 

I advised him that he could go ahead and process my return and refund and that I was sure that many prior customers would be doing the same when they discover that the generation 4 thermostats that we are being forced to upgrade to are LESS functional than the over 10 year old generation ones that I have. 

Google has ruined a product that was the first smart thermostat that I owned and have dumbed it down to a glorified thermostat with app control. The schedules do not work as it won’t let you to set cool and heat temperatures within 3 degrees of each other nor will it allow you to set schedule points within an hour of each other (for heating or cooling)  

[Ggilpuja]

I am going to replace mine with Honeywell, which is what friends of mine have done and they are very happy.

How long can the 4th Gen be returned?  I got mine in early July and I am away now.  Any idea anyone?

[Jbh1usa]

 I purchased mine 8/14/25 through the google store and was told that they were still available for return and refund.  There was an issue when I was talking to support and they misunderstood the serial # that I had given them and had it wrong. They thought one of them had not been purchased through the google store and had told me that one was not available for return until I sent them a copy of the receipt from the google store. 

I'm looking into getting Gen 3 as they still will work with the nest home app AND allow separate scheduled for heating and cooling.  But then I expect that I will likely get an email soon saying they are ending support for this one also. 

[Ggilpuja]

I am afraid I won't be able to return it.  I purchased it on 6/10/25 and unfortunately took me a while to install it and realize how bad the scheduling issue is.  I guess it will go on E-Bay.  Now that where I live weather changes from day to day, I often change from cooling to heating and then the scheduling issue is even worse.