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

[Dawdie]

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...

[steve99uk]

I have been using SST with NLT successfully for a week with 2 iPhones. Today I noticed that it didn't detect that both phones were away from home and switch to ECO/no notification. It did detect that one phone returned home with notification.

Nothing has changed other than I just saw an SST app update has been installed (1.6.78). 

[steve99uk]

Ok maybe there isn't a problem with SST. Just looked at my wife's iPhone as she came home and SST didn't detect. For some reason she had been signed out of her Samsung account. Signed her back in again and will test again later.

No idea why signed out of the Samsung account  - she says she did not do it.    

[Midjet76]

There may be something else going on. Was glitchy yesterday for me 2 Android phones. Today my wife went out leaving me home but it went to Eco, which while not an issue, not what we were expecting. After i checked and SST  autostart wasn't enabled even though I've not turned it off.  It eventually kicked back into heat mode and had switched correctly the rest of the times we've been home or away.. I've also disabled both of the apps from auto updating too,

[steve99uk]

Good news - the app update hasn't affected anything. Signed back in to Samsung on my wife's phone and now the SST routines work fine - when both phones away NLT into ECO and when one of the two phones comes home NLT switches to HEAT.

So the two 101 checks are - is SST location set to 'Always' on all phones and are all phones signed in the Samsung account(s)? 

[Ugly_Bloke]

During my many attempts to fix this issue, I've noticed a pattern:

Factory reset:  Eco/Home on the thermostat works perfectly for 2 days but then returns to taking 2+ hours to change.

Clear auto-learn  history: Eco/Home on the thermostat works perfectly for 2 days but then returns to taking 2+ hours to change.

Delete/Re-add thermostat to Google account: Eco/Home on the thermostat works perfectly for 2 days but then returns to taking 2+ hours to change.

and so on.....

So, it seems changing/updating some settings results in the fault going away and false hope for a couple of days only for the faulty Eco/Home switching fault to return.   What's going on?!

[sboden2315]

My email to the Alphabet CEO did get a reaction.   I have a call with someone from the executive team on Thursday.   And yes this bit about it working sometimes is maddening! 

[Steve59]

Perhaps we should all send him a message, hopefully you expressed strongly in your call the issues

[sboden2315]

I did and told them to look at this thread.  

[Ugly_Bloke]

Sounds encouraging.  Hopefully they will acknowledge this problem exists and put some resources into fixing it.  I’m sure there’s dozens of people on this thread that will be happy to assist with debugging and testing if it helps get this frustrating issue finally fixed.  

[sboden2315]

LOL we've already put in hours doing that, whats a bit more time! 

[Ugly_Bloke]

Yes!  You wouldn’t believe the hours I’ve wasted trying to fix this.

[Hughk]

well done @sboden2315   Let us know how you get on. 

For reference it’s playing games again today. I continually think ‘what’s the point!’

[sboden2315]

The point is that we all deserve to have a product that does what 8t commits to do!  I will report back to the group tomorrow after my conversation.   

[Midjet76]

I just hope it won't be a re run of every other phone call we've all experienced.

[LifeonMars]

🤣The Nest app worked this morning but has failed to night, knows I am away but is keeping heat on ! Not switching to eco as I am away.  Not good if in UK due to excessive fuel increases. Shame the Nest just presently does not work. Google Nest just will not inform us what they are doing to correct. The problem. System worked fine until  around November 2021  when eco failed to kick in . 

[Steve59]

Did they call ?

[sboden2315]

Yes I did send an update to the thread but maybe it wasn't obvious.   The guy they have working with me is great.  He was one of the original Nest guys and was there before the acquisition.   He spent an hour and a half with me and guided me to an on site diagnostic group called OnTech.  They are coming to my house tomorrow.   Our belief is that something is happening with the circuit relay to my furnace but we shall see.  I will let the group know what happens.  

[Nontechmike]

So even the "great original Nest guy" is blaming the problem on your furnace despite there being dozens of people reporting the same issues - maybe we all have the same faulty furnace??

[Steve59]

Utter rubbish, obviously been Googled

[Steve59]

That has nothing to do with Home/Away assist stuck in eco mode

[sboden2315]

you are correct and I have said that from the start.  I came on this thread as the closest issue to mine but my issue has nothing to do with the home/away switch.  My issue is that the thermostat never heats to the target temperature.  The tech isn't fobbing this off, we are trying to look at all possible reasons for this.  He is staying in the loop and Google paid for the service to come to my house.  They have been very supportive but truly only because and after I reached out to the CEO.  I do get that.  

[Hughk]

Well done @sboden2315  

Whilst we all look forward to hearing your updates , perhaps you can share the email address you got a response from? That way every individual has a chance to try and get a resolution plus it absolutely informs Google/Alphabet that they have a huge problem. 

The CEO has a duty to get the issue resolved through their immediate team. 

thanking you in advance. 

[Steve59]

So you needed to create a new thread for your issue as your support help is not helping sort the reason for this thread, i to have emailed the ceo with zero response 

[Steve59]

Absolutely agree

[Iany1954]

Along with the Nest not switching heat/eco correctly I’ve noticed another problem. Our set up uses two Apple phones (wife’s and mine) for location based activities. On both phones location is set to always for Nest and NEVER changed. Despite this the Nest app regularly (monthly) reports that it has not seen one or the other phone for several days and so stops using its location (little yellow triangle next to ‘what decides if you’re home’ in the app on the phone in question). This is only seen as a problem when Nest home/away stops working (heat/eco doesn’t work anyway). It is difficult to correct and I often have to resort to reinstalling the app on the ‘lost’ phone. Thankfully as I now use SST I don’t have to worry about this further problem…..

[Ugly_Bloke]

Not counting my chickens but.... I'm into my third day of almost perfect ECO/Home operation.   My thermostat was already in ECO by the time I got to work and boiler already firing up as I open my front door.

I expect it to stop working again tomorrow but it's been quite mild here in the UK so I wonder if that has resulted in less transaction going through the Nest servers and less bottlenecks? 

Fingers crossed this is not a false dawn - this would be most welcome on a day when a 54% rise in the energy price cap has been announced in the UK!

[LifeonMars]

• Not for me, worked this morning but again tonight, was strange. Had to log out of Nest app, restart iPhone, for the eco to eventually show eco even though app had shown away mode but temp still showed . 

[bs3rob]

I followed the tips here to use Samsung Smart Things and it actually worked for 5 days but today it's all stopped again - Nest shows I'm home, heating remains in Eco. I've responded to the prior questions from Nest support but same as everyone else - no response. Have also emailed and tweeted Ronan Harris (UK MD). Main concern is my 80 year old mother lives on her own also with a Nest thermostat I installed and over last few weeks has woken up to a freezing house because of this issue. This is no longer an irritation it's a potentially life of death mater. I've emailed this to Ronan Harris and the support team but there is absolutely no urgency or seriousness at all from Google.

[sboden2315]

I was told the fix if you are on ios is to upgrade to version 15 and it will work again with Nest.  

[LifeonMars]

I am on iOS 15.3 and no it does not work ,

[bs3rob]

Thank you kindly but usual nonsense from Google. Both my mother and I are on 15.3 - have followed every single diagnosis. They have no idea. I assume they are going to dump the Nest brand soon as there is no way they are trying to protect this shambles now.

[Steve59]

Told by who  Father Christmas, sorry for the sarcasm but if it’s Nest Support they are clueless, just think about it if the app knows you are home then surely it can talk to the thermostat over the same wifi  to tell it as well

[bs3rob]

My next move is local press and MP

[sboden2315]

Reach out to Sundar Pichai.   It go me access to senior product people.  

[Steve59]

Any update? Doubt it

[LifeonMars]

Good luck with that one, probably too  busy regarding partygate. 

[Steve59]

Best of luck with that one, they will

block you from the community and all their social media

[BrianDarby]

Chiming in to say I get this as well - when I come Home (and nest recognises me as such) it’s stuck in Eco mode until I manually jiggle the temperature.

It’s winter and my home takes a long time to warm up. Why is Nest giving me a freezing cold house?

[LifeonMars]

Because Google Nest don’t care and refuse to acknowledge they have a problem! 

[Steve59]

When Nest were Nest they took issues very seriously and sorted them quickly, as soon as they sold out to Google it’s gone to pot, worst customer support, no escalation system for raised issues, they just fob you off. They don’t care about the very small percentage of people having a problem. Nothing will change. Buy another product