Nest Learning Thermostats Not Sensing Activity in House

[njtj]

Setting the scene:

1. Two nest learning thermostats (1st and 2nd gen) on two different floors in the house
2. Latest Nest mobile app on my iPhone
3. Latest versions of firmware/software on thermostats (according to my thermostats, they do not need updates)
4. Home/Away assist turned on for both thermostats via the app
5. "What decides if I'm home" is set to use my phone location, me (under people) and both thermostat activity sensors are set to "Yes"

It appears that the thermostat activity sensors do not work. I was away all day today but there were other people in the house. The Activity History in the Nest app shows two events:

1. Away at 8:09 AM due to "No activity in the house" (even though I left the house at 8:30 AM)
2. Home at 7:56 PM due to "Set by Home/Away Assist because a phone came home" (even though I entered the house a half hour earlier). It change in setting actually occurred only after I opened the Nest app and viewed the activity history.

Here's the kicker... there were other people in the house ALL DAY today that not only walked by the thermostats multiple times, they even manually adjusted the temperature on the device... They physically touched the thermostats!!! How was that missed????

My "smart" thermostats seem to be getting dumber over time. What gives? Anyone else experience this? Any suggested solutions?

From a troubleshooting perspective... I've reset my thermostats to factory settings. I've created a new google login to only associate with my freshly reset thermostats. I've tried not using my phone for home/away assist (the thermostats NEVER change home/away mode in that case). I can't think of any other steps to take to rule out that the nest thermostat presence detection just doesn't work any more.

Any suggestions?

Thanks,
T.J.

[Markjosephp]

Hello njtj,

I'm sorry for the trouble this may have caused you, and I appreciate the steps you've taken. Let's see what's going on.

To isolate:

• Did you manually switch the status to "Away" when you went out?
• Are there other Nest devices being used for occupancy sensing?
• Check if there are multiple devices signed into the same account.
  • Being signed into multiple devices at once can cause issues with Home/Away Assist behavior.
• Were there any instances where you were talking on your phone when you went out?
  • This may be expected behavior because many phone carriers won't allow phone calls and data transfers at the same time.
• Did your home members adjust the thermostat when you were away?
  • This may switch back to home status as the thermostat triggers that someone is at home controlling it.

I'll look forward to your response.

Regards,

Mark

[Markjosephp]

Hey there,

I'm checking back in. Were you able to do the steps above? I'd be glad to hear from you; I'd like to make sure everything is working.

Thanks,

Mark

[Markjosephp]

Hi njtj,

I'm checking in to make sure that you've seen our response. Please let us know if you have any additional questions or concerns before I lock this thread in 24 hours. 

Thanks,

Mark

[njtj]

Thanks for your reply. My responses are inline below:

• Did you manually switch the status to "Away" when you went out?
  • No. As noted in my original post, the Nest "Home" went into away mode shortly after I left the residence.
• Are there other Nest devices being used for occupancy sensing?
  • Other Nest devices? I have two Nest Learning Thermostats. Both are set to "Yes" under "What decides if you're home". Those are the only two Nest devices I own.
• Check if there are multiple devices signed into the same account.
  • I am the only person with the Nest App. I only have one device. So, there is only one device signed into the account. As a matter of fact, I reset my thermostats to factory settings, created a new google/nest account and linked the thermostats to that account. The problem still occurs. I think we can safely rule out an "account issue".
• Were there any instances where you were talking on your phone when you went out?
  • I'm not sure how this applies as the problem is, I left the house with my phone, my home went into away mode while other people were in the house. Regardless, I was not talking on my phone and this problem happens every day.
• Did your home members adjust the thermostat when you were away?
  • This may switch back to home status as the thermostat triggers that someone is at home controlling it.
    • This is just the opposite of my problem! There were other people in the home. They did adjust the thermostat. The thermostats (and setting in the Nest app), did not switch out of Away mode!

I look forward to your reply.

[Markjosephp]

Hello there,

Thanks for the details, @njtj. We'd like to take a look into this for you.

Could you please fill out this form with the information asked and let me know once you're done? A member of our support team will be in touch over email to help.

Regards,

Mark

[njtj]

Form has been submitted.

I look forward to your reply.

[Markjosephp]

Hello njtj,

Thanks for completing the form; we have received it. Soon, a member of our upper team will contact you via email. Also, please continue the conversation there, as this thread will be locked within 24 hours.

Regards,

Mark

[njtj]

Thanks for the update. For additional insight into what I am experiencing and to maybe help others who stumble upon this thread. Before we went away this past Friday, I changed my the home/away setting via the Nest app to away. When we returned home on Monday evening, the thermostats (and app) were still away. I subsequently changed the temperature setting via my thermostat to turn on the heat. The presence detection did not work and the home remained “away”. After two days of living in the house and periodically adjusting the temperature, the home is still “away”. The activity history in the nest app shows no events since I manually set the home to away.

[njtj]

Any update? I still haven’t heard from your upper team. 

I should also add that my thermostats and nest account are still stuck in “Away” mode. Even though we’ve been home for the past two weeks and have been actively adjusting the thermostats. 

[Dazzer]

Have 1st and 3rd gen thermostats in the house. 1st gen has worked fine for years but 3rd gen activity sensor has never worked. 

Wasted countless hours of my life messaging Google trying to resolve the issue. Even had the Thermostat exchanged but nothing worked. 

They tried to blame my WiFi and other settings.  But they have finally admitted there is an issue with presence sensing from the thermostat sensor and advised me to use phone location only.

[Markjosephp]

Hello there,

I know it has been a while, but I wanted to ensure that everything is covered here.

@njtj, as per checking with your previous interaction, our upper team sent you an email update about the next step if the same issue occurs, and our team is waiting for the result of the last troubleshooting steps that were given to you. Please check your inbox for the email.

@Dazzer, I'm sorry for the experience. I understand that this can be frustrating, and we'll take this as feedback. If there’s anything else I can help you with, please let me know. Otherwise, this thread will be locked within 24 hours.

Thanks,
Mark

[njtj]

Please do not lock this thread as my problem still exists. As a matter of fact, I have two case numbers opened for this issue and I’m the last response on both of them. So, I’m confused as to why you’re saying your support team is waiting on a response. 

Can you please follow up with the support team for me? Maybe even cc me on the email?