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Home/Away Assist, returning home always stuck in eco mode

Dawdie
Community Member

So I have 2 nest thermostats which are controlled with Home/Away. Whenever I go out the thermostat goes into eco as expected. Whenever I return home the app shows "Home" and so does the log so it defintatly knows I have returned, but the thermostat however is still stuck in "Eco" mode till I manually turn it off.

 

I have all the "learning" stuff off (Auto Schedule/True Radiant) so I have no idea what I need to do to fix this aside from just turning home/away off and putting the old thermostats back in.

 

Potential fix (using google home not the nest app) https://www.googlenestcommunity.com/t5/Nest-Thermostats/Home-Away-Assist-returning-home-always-stuck...

1 Recommended Answer

MelbaDT
Community Specialist
Community Specialist

Hey folks,

We understand your frustration about your Nest thermostat not working as it should, and we appreciate your reports here in the Community.

 

If you're experiencing this issue, please give all the steps listed here a shot: https://bit.ly/38qgivs. These steps have worked for others experiencing similar behavior and should help get you back on track.


If the issue persists after trying the steps on the link above, we want to be able to dig into this further. In order for us to differentiate between different countries' thermostats, go ahead and reply to the following threads with the following info:

  • The type of Nest thermostat you have
  • What mobile device you have and the OS version
  • The software version of your thermostat


EU users: https://bit.ly/3LZlrg2
US/CA users: https://bit.ly/3Jxm52R

We thank you for your patience and we look forward to taking a closer look.

Thanks,
Melba 

View Recommended Answer in original post

752 REPLIES 752

DavidE
Community Member

I have the exact same issue. Sometimes I come home, the Home/Away Assist registers that I am home, but the thermostat stays in Eco mode, so the heating doesn't come on. (I have Home/Away Assist set to use phone location only, not the motion sensor, and I have the Nest app running OK and active.)

Here are screen shots showing that. Home/Away Assist registered that I got home at 16:47, but at 17:19 it is still set to "Eco", so no heat. Makes no sense. It knows I am home, and it is within the scheduled heating time, so should be on. I can manually take it out of Eco mode by pressing the controls on the thermostat or in the app, but this should be automatic.

https://imgur.com/a/OCODIb7

Patrick3
Community Member

Has yours been fixed? I have the same problem

Steve59
Community Member

No I use SST for home away

NestUser2
Community Member

Exactly the same issue here...

Treemonkey83
Community Member

Same here, strange that it use to work just fine but not any more.

For the price of the unit and the status of the brand this is really not good enough!

ColnagoJules
Community Member

Same problem for me. It used to work OK, but now doesn't. (It seems to fail when I've been out of the house for a few hours.) I really wish I hadn't bought this lousy product. My old Honeywell Lyric worked beautifully and you could also set the radius for the (very reliable) geofencing feature.

Windymiller
Community Member

Same issue here, contacted support and was told to do a factory reset. That made no difference. Did an update break something?

I have exactly the same problem. It used to work before, but suddenly it does not work any more, stuck in eco mode even if I am home, and Nest knows I am home (changed from AWAY to HOME), but ECO does not change to temperature setting. Some obscure update might have broken this link.

dmack4242
Community Member

Mine has been doing the same thing.  Phone app knows we are home, but Nest doesn't come out of ECO Mode.  This has started pretty recently, I am guessing they broke something.

NestPenguin
Community Member

Exact same issue recently. Stuck in eco mode when coming home. I manually set it, to test, it didn't respond to home/away at all.

Dawdie
Community Member

So I found out (by mistake) if I come home and  leave everything alone for like 15 - 30 minutes the heating will eventually turn itself out of eco mode. Its almost like there is an internal timer before "eco" switches off returning from home. Obviously I don't want to freeze so most time I just end up manually taking it out of eco

I just let it run, without touching it, and mine is also turning on with a few minutes delay, so it looks like it's definitely a software bug. Weirdly, it's only just been happening to me, and I noticed that there was a software update a few days ago, so maybe mine updated late, and they have screwed it up.

Badgerbuchanan
Community Member

I’ve literally got the same issue and it’s driving me crazy! Been researching everywhere for answers but found nothing and then stumbled on this thread. Glad it’s not me on one hand but still very frustrated it’s not working as it used to. Used to work perfect. Did notice on the nest unit the last software update date was from couple of weeks ago so I’m hoping it’s a software glitch which will be fixed soon. 

ColnagoJules
Community Member

It's really annoying, isn't it?

In any case the Home/Away assist function has a basic design flaw: the geofencing radius is so small that, even when it works and the heating comes on when the app says you're 'home', the house hasn't really warmed up when you walk in through the door. What's needed is a system that will switch on the heating when, say, you're within a couple of kilometres from home. Ho hum.

Yes, I must admit I thought when I bought the product that it did something like that!

But I can see reasons why that would be difficult ... if you went out to the shops or park about 1km from home, and were moving around, it might not be obvious whether you were moving away from or towards  home, and you wouldn't want the heating constantly switching on and off!

Instead what I've done after being out on a winter evening is to remotely set the unit to "Home" before catching the train home, so the house was warm when I got home. That worked pretty well, but less well now if it just puts the unit into "Eco" mode and doesn't actually bring on the heating. 

Noggie
Community Member

Same issue for me too, grrrrrr

Badgerbuchanan
Community Member

Surely google / best must be aware of the issue and must be trying to fix it? It would be nice if they could acknowledge the issue and say they are working on a fix as opposed to no communication and the helpline being no help and suggesting it’s my phone that’s the problem 

This tends to be the worst thing about these products. Google randomly breaks so many things, and there is no way of knowing if it is my fault or their fault. They give generic troubleshooting tips, but you may end up trying to fix something that you were never able to fix because it is their issue.

 

It's like when there were issues with the WiFi connectivity on 5 GHz bands, and they would only work on my BT router if I forced 2.5 GHz only. They gave everyone troubleshooting tips, etc., but I went on the live chat, and the guy told me that the development team are aware of the issue, which they eventually fixed months later. Well, it would be nice if they had a list of every single issue they are aware of, instead of giving us the run around, and gave us some kind of indication that it is currently being fixed or has been fixed.

 

95% of the time Google's programming is the issue. It's hardly ever the user, lol.

ArchStanton
Community Member

This is my third year of using nest Thermostat and worked well until heating season started 2 months ago. Same problem as everyone else here. Now not coming out of eco mode when I return home despite Thermostat recognising that I am home from phone location. Very occasionally it might switch out of eco mode after a few minutes but mostly doesn't. I assume this must be a result of a bad software upgrade as all was well  until recently.

DavidE
Community Member

As others have said my system does eventually switch out of Eco mode. Monitored the other day and it took around 35 minutes. Monitored again today, and it took an hour and 40 minutes; got home and the system switched immediately to "Home" at 15:40, but did not switch out of "Eco" mode and bring the heating on until 17:20. I don't think that delay should be there, or used to be there - so it just seems like a software fault.

Does anyone from Google / Nest monitor these forums?

Sometimes it does come on after a while but there is no set time for time for this and it is very rare. A few days ago I came home and the nest switched to home as expected. I then sat in the cold for 3 hours before I gave up and finally switched it out of eco mode so it can't always be trusted to come on itself. I have contacted support on twitter and sent them screen shots of my nest app stuck in eco mode and the setting. I am awaiting a reply. It is frustrating as I paid a bit for the nest as it has this ability that its cheaper competitors do not have. If this is a permanent issue then I see no point in paying more for the nest.

heshie75v
Community Member

I have three Nest thermostats, and I have the same problem and more! My thermostats just won't go into away mode anymore, and when they do, One of the three thermostats get stuck in eco mode. 

I have done everything asked of me by Nest, I have deleted the app, reinstalled, reset the software etc etc. Nothing works, 

I really wonder if this is just broken on  their end and they don't monitor or care ?

Lingers91
Community Member

Yep I've been having the exact same problem and complained to two different agents nd did a full reset and uninstall the app. Neither were willing to escalate the issue further, or maybe they couldn't? Not sure how to make Google aware that their software is broken. No heating for more than an hour after returning and geofencing is defo broken. Wish there was a way of feeding back that there's a problem. 

Shumart
Community Member

Exactly the same happening here. The activity history shows ones of us are home but the thermostat remains in eco mode until manually turned on. Only started happening recently.

 

bjleend
Community Member

I have exactly the same problem. It used to work before, but suddenly it does not work anymore, stuck in eco mode even if I (my phone) am home, and Nest knows I am home (changed from AWAY to HOME), but ECO does not change to temperature setting. It finally changes from ECO to temperature setting when Nest detects my movement. Some obscure update might have broken this link.

ArchStanton
Community Member

Have been engaging with support for past week trying different things to no avail. Eventually realised that for the past year I have had the Google Home App installed on my phone whereas in the two years prior when the NLT was working fine I didn't have it. You can control the NLT from either the NLT App or Google Home App. There seems to be an issue between these to Apps in that in the Home Away Assist settings on the NLT App if you choose your phone to decide when you are at home, and therefore switch out of eco mode, on the Google Home App, in the same setting, it will switch to not using the same phone, and vice versa. It doesn't seem to allow you to use the same phones on both APPs for some reason. So I completely uninstalled the Google Home App form my phone and the next time I returned home the NLT switched to HOME and within a couple of minutes it switched out of eco mode. I though I had at least partially solved the issue but since then I have had mixed results and have still occasionally had to manually switch it out of eco mode. I will have to test it for a few more days to see how it behaves and take it from there. Only issue is with not using the Google Home App the NLT cannot utilise family members as you can no longer add family from the NLT App. Maybe if a few other of you on here try uninstalling the Google Home APP and post your results we can take things form there and try and get this matter resolved.

FWIW, I don't have the Google Home app installed, but I do have the problem.

I am also having the same problem and have also been in touch with Google Support about this.

I have never used Google Home or had it installed.  Only ever the Nest app.

However, when I first contacted support they told me that I had to have both of these apps installed for the home/away feature to work.  I explained that home/away always worked fine, it was only recently it didn't.  They didn't really acknowledge that and just told me to try with both apps installed and home/away assist setup in each.

This made no difference and still had the same problem after testing for a few days.

Having read this message though, I think I will try uninstalling the Google Home app, just to see if that helps.

I have reinstalled Home App as I found without it NLT was rarely switching into eco mode when I left the house with the status to AWAY. Exactly the opposite problem.

Interesting, thanks for the info.

I might just have a play around with uninstalling/reinstalling the Google Home app, etc and see if it helps.

I have also (finally) be escalated up the support chain.  I have just asked on my support ticket whether we are supposed to have both apps installed or not.  It'll be interesting to see what they say.

bjleend
Community Member

I think I found what is the problem, but no solution. It is not which app, Nest or Google Home, is used. Their app is broken in the last update. When I come home to my garage, NLT switches from Away to Home by detecting my phone location, but Eco is stuck. When I come inside my home and move past NLT on the wall, it detects my motion, and now switches from Eco to set-temperature. Eco mode only responds to motion sensor, not your phone location. So, if your NLT is located somewhere not easily detect your motion, NLT is stuck even if you are home. It was not like this before the current update. It responded either phone location or motion sensor, but the recent update has broken this link. Google has to fix this problem.

DavidE
Community Member

That could make sense for me, since I have Home/Away set to not use the motion sensor (because of other problems!), only the phone location. But then, I wonder why it does eventually switch out of Eco (after an hour / two hours ...).

I get how this works however if I use the motion sensors then the NLT doesn't switch to eco mode when my phone leaves the house as it used to and keeps the heating on in an empty house. I can't recall the time period of no movement before it switches to eco mode but it is a while and not very energy efficient and defeats the purpose if having a NLT.

joeka
Community Member

When I first had home/away assist setup, I too had 'motion detection' enabled (as well as phone location).  However, I discovered that it took time to either switch to 'away mode' or back to 'home mode', similar to as you describe.

A quick chat to support at the time, they told me 'motion detection' can do that and they recommended turning this off and only using phone location. 

Since doing that it then worked absolutely fine and actually very well and I was happy.  However, so far this winter (with same settings) I now get this new problem where the thermostat does not turn off eco mode when returning home.

Tommy_Thompson
Community Member

I bought the Nest thermostat a few weeks ago and first the home and away detection worked like a charm. But since that update (I received it a week ago in Belgium) I have the same annoying issue. When I leave, the Home app and Nest app both change to Away after a few minutes. But the thermostat keeps running at the set temperature for over 45 minutes! With the high energy prices these days thats really not acceptable for a "smart device". And the other way around when I come home the apps both change to Home. But the thermostat stays in eco mode for ever. Another issue with the eco mode is that I have to turn it off manually on the thermostat or app. I can't raise the heat setting with voice commands via the Nest speaker. It always answers that I have to turn Eco mode af before it can change the temperature. Again really annoying. I hope that there will be a fix soon because it's driving me crazy.

Edit: I turned the thermostat motion detection off from day one because I have a dog that walks in front of the thermostat all day. So turning that on will make it worse. 

dmack4242
Community Member

Still same problem here as well.  Has Google acknowledged they have an issue?  Does anyone know? 

Dawdie
Community Member

Haven't heard a peep from them with how much this thread is growing you would assume someone would address it

 

Lingers91
Community Member

I've spoken to a support agent 3 times and even shown them this thread on Google. They've been really bad at helping and each time have made me explain and troubleshoot the issue again and takes over 1 hour. Honestly I'm so tired of it and it's been such a waste of time. I even asked to raise a complaint about the software but again they made me explain the issue for another hour..... and didn't lodge a complaint or acknowledge their issue. 

So far after experimenting using the NLT without Google Home App I am experiencing the opposite problem of the NLT not switching to eco mode when my phone leaves the house. Previously it was 100% reliable with this function so this doesn't appear to be a fix. Very frustrating.