Nest Not Working With Alexa

[webmaster]

Out of nowhere Alexa is giving me a message when I try to change the Nest Thermostat temperature. "Skill linked with Kitchen not enabled". This device was setup at least 4 years ago and has been working without any problems. The Nest Thermostat is connected to my WiFi network so that's not the problem. When I go on the Alexa app, it shows me a message for the thermostat "Server is unresponsive". I've tried to find the "Skill" that's not enabled but there is nothing related to the Nest Thermostat on the list.

Any help would be appreciated

[GregNest]

Do a Google search and call?

[SRJohnston80]

Mine was working fine until yesterday, then I noticed the heat was still on when it shouldn't have been.  Checked alexa and sure enough with no changes it could not connect to the two thermostats.

Now I have a temporary work around, I created a new gmail account, deleted the two thermostats, set them up using the new account and it works perfectly.  But if I try to move them back to the gmail aconut I want to use, they stop working again.  This system used to be bullet proof, but had a number of issues with it over the last few months.  

I almost want to move to hive, but then I dont want to have to run an additional heat link box.  Plus I dont like the fact the thermostats run on battery 

[Xguy]

Well I'm glad to know that this is a common problem, I thought it was only me.

[RebelFox]

MY SOLUTION.

My nest application has been working for 5 years or more with no problems with Alexa.  Today 'Server Unresponsive' on the Alexa App, Echo no longer recognizes my name for my thermostat but I can control via the original Nest App on my phone.   To solve I went into Alexa App, selected Devices and the '+' to add a device.  The device type I selected was the thermostat.  From the List I then selected 'Google Nest'.  I then had to go through many screens to migrate my nest account to Google Home.  In this process I have had to change from my Yahoo email to a Google email.  After agreeing to god knows what privacy settings the migration has worked and all control has been restored to voice commands as it was before.  Presumably I will now get Nest emails to my google email.  My original Nest application on my phone I now have to sign on with google.  So.....I have been forced to migrate to Google email for Nest to continue to work with the Alexa Application.  If you want it fixed, set up a Google email account first and then use it as the destination for migration.  

[Pete-w]

e time as the first post in this thread, my Nest thermostat mysteriously tuned off. I spend some time on the phone with support who reset it, removed all the learning etc, but the same thing has happened again. I associated it with times I asked Alexa to adjust the heat or cooling. Instead of changing the temperature, Alexa turns off the thermostat. I recently installed Home Assistant and have a connection to Nest through the Google Smart Device Management API and I found out that does exactly the same thing. Furthermore I am no longer able to turn on the HVAC fan with an Alexa command or with Home Assistant, so if Alexa also uses the Google SDMA the problem is probably in there. In addition of three Nest Thermostats that I own, one of them is working as expected. That on is a Model Display-4.8 running Software 6.2-27. The two that don't work are Model Display-2.8 running Software 5.9.4-5.

Is there some incompatibility between Google SDMA and these older Nest thermostats that got released around early October 2022?

[TsSmartHome]

FINALLY!!! FIGURED OUT HOW TO CONNECT ALEXA - NEST THERMOSTAT: (Found instructions online after trying 10 million articles). This is hte one that works ... 

Yes, I did have to set up an account through the Google Home app bc Nest is a Google device (just sign in with Goggle password.)

THEN: 

Open Google HOme App. 

At top Right, tap account profile. 

Tap Home ap Settings.  

Tap Partner Connections. Then Amazon Alexa.

Toggle on all the Permissions for your thermostat under this section... (there is a toggle button that will be in the off position, you just have to toggle it to the on position for each 'permission.'  These permissions must be on to allow Amazon Alexa access to your Google account and thermostat. 

AS SOON AS I TOGGLED THESE PERMISSIONS ON ALEXA IMMEDIATELY DISCOVERED THE THERMOSTAT AND A POP UP CAME UP TELLING ME THE THERMOSTAT WAS CONNECTED. I  did not have to ask it to discover it. It did it automatically.  After searching and reading 100s of articles on how to get Alexa to discover the termostat - i found this one BURIED and tried it. 

It was sooo simple ONCE I FOUND IT - just a matter of giving Amazon permissions to access your Google information. 

WHY MAKE IT SO HARD GOOGLE AND AMAZON??  Even Alexa reps had no clue, and tried all kind of irelevent 'do this do that' for hours. WHY NOT JUST INCLUDE THESE PERMISSIONS INSTRUCTIONS WITH THE NEST THERMOSTAT GOOGLE? Instead of having tens of thousands frustrated customers unable to connect Nest thermostats to smart home devices resulting in enormous frustration and people hating on Google? 

C'mon Google DO BETTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Thanks and GOOD LUCK ALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[TheRedBaron]

Been there and done all that ages ago. I’m connected. The problem that most users (probably all) are having is that when you give Alexa an instruction to change the temperature then the NEST thermostat turns off. Same happens when you try to do the same pushing buttons in the Alexa app. Personally I think the Google NEST skill is to blame as it was updated 3 months ago and that’s when everyone’s troubles began. 

Very poor as NEST has always been advertised as “Works with Alexa”. Feel like we’re being screwed over. 

[Abhadra]

No wonder Amazon is cutting back on Alexa. The app/skill ecosystem is simply terrible and the UX of Alexa app is a nightmare. Super finicky and simply stops working regularly. 

does not inspire confidence in any way. Is a cool research project but not a product. 

[japrichard]

Any update on this? Im still having this issue

[TheRedBaron]

Nothing. The eyes and ears of Google are blind and deaf. It’s the Google skill that’s faulty and so I point the blame squarely at Google. I’m considering raising this with BBC Watchdog. 

[Pmd723]

I gave up and bought a new thermostat that works with Alexa.  I got an ecobee.  

[Pete-w]

I see you're also in this other conversation here.

The issue is common to Alexa and Home Assistant and so is in the Google code somewhere. I have found newer Nest devices with Hardware Display-4 seem to work, its the Display-2 hardware that has the problem.

[TheRedBaron]

Cheers. Even though that might be the case, I would urge Google to look at the previous skill and make it available to affected users. Good idea?

[Anniekbrooks]

I had the same issue and enabling the Alexa Skill for Nest Thermostat connected my Nest to my Google account and then it worked.

[TheRedBaron]

Glad it’s worked for you. Me and many users have all done what you stated by asking Alexa to change the temperature just turns the heating OFF. 

[Ahr69123]

Simply put, delete the Nest skill by disabling the Alexa app on the cell. Open the Alexa app, look at the top tabs from thermostats, and tap and remove all thermostats. Then add them back in to the alexa app. First, enable the Nest app in Your Skills, it will then walk you through the setup procedure. It works 02/11/23

[Pete-w]

Done all that but glad it’s working for you. It’s not an Alexa skill problem, it’s in the Google smart device API. Same thing happens for me with Alexa, HomeAssistant and direct API calls using Postman. Display-4 models of nest thermostat work ok, Display-2 are broken.

Google/Nest released a change around last October and broke it. I and others have sent logs to show what’s going on, so far no fix.

[TheRedBaron]

As Pete-w says, already been down this road and many others. Skill is broken, period. 
GOOGLE - PLEASE allow me access to the old skill so that I can prove a point!!!!!

[DiyDave]

Got mine is working again after being broken since the October update! All my Alexa can do is tell me the temp and turn off my heating. Telling it to set the temp just turns the nest off. I have tried all the settings, disabling the skill, checking the permission in the google home app etc...nothing worked.

Last night my thermostat showed an error, it lost connection to the heatlink, error 71. It has happened before so I usually restart the heatlink, which normally fixes it. But nothing I did worked. Held the button down on the heatlink for 10s (soft reset), didn't work. Then I tried a factory reset and held the button down for 30s, but that didn't work. 

After a few hours of looking online, someone mentioned letting the battery go completely flat on the thermostat, so I left it unplugged overnight. This morning the thermostat was dead. Did another factory reset on the heatlink, then powered up the thermostat, and it connected right away! I had to set up the thermostat from scratch.

On the Nest App the thermostat had disappeared, so I added it back in. All my settings had gone, so it was basically like a new setup.  Checked the thermostat was available in the Google home app, all good there. Then added the thermostat to Alexa, and checked partnership permission in Google home app. 

Voila, Alexa is working again! 

[SRJohnston80]

For me it was working fine up until yesterday, then I noticed the heat was on when it shouldn't be.  I use alexa to voice control my two thermostats and have routines setup to turn the heating on and off. 

So I factory reset both my thermostats.  I am able to control the downstairs and upstairs independently with 2 thermostats and set them back up on the nest app.  That all went fine.  I was then able to see them both in google home and control temperature etc.  

But when I went into alexa I was getting the unresponsive message on both thermostats.  I deleted all the alexa permissions, created a new home in google, re-added the thermostats back into the nest app, then set it up from scratch in alexa.  Making sure all the permissions were set in google home for alexa.  Same thing, both were unresponsive.  

I then created a new google email address, set it up in the nest app and google home, then added my two thermostats, I could see they were working in google home.  Then I tried setting them up in alexa with the new gmail address.  Boom they both work.  I am able to control them both via routines and say alexa set downstairs to 20 degrees and it works as expected.

So I then moved them back onto the gmail account I want to use and both are broken again.  Both come back saying unresponsive in the alexa app.

So my fix is to have a new gmail account setup and have both the thermostats on it as it works.  But I consider this a temporary fix.  I want them back on the account I normally use.  But every time I move them back, they become unresponsive, even though alexa has correct permissions. 

[TheRedBaron]

To anyone reading this. My account was already migrated to Google. I decided to create a brand new Gmail account to use with NEST.  Was a bit of a faff…..

Disconnected all Thermostats from NEST, Google Home and Alexa apps. 
Disabled NEST skill. 
Signed into NEST and Google Home with new Gmail account. 
Factory reset my Thermostats. 
Added thermostats to NEST app. 
Checked to see thermostats we’re visible in Google Home. 
Used Alexa to find the thermostats which had me enable and link skill to my new Gmail account. 
Alexa found devices. 
Alexa voice commands are now working once more. 
Why this happened in the first place is beyond me, nor do I know why this method has worked. I’m hoping it continues to work. 

[SRJohnston80]

Just a note, you dont actually need to factory reset the devices.  I was just messing around yesterday trying to get them to work and rule everything out.  Just deleting them from the app, then moving to a new gmail account will work in most cases.  

But I now have it working again on my old one, so looks like google fixed their issue.

[Pete-w]

Mine all working too through both Alexa and HomeAssistant. Google made some sort of change yesterday that seems to have fixed the problems that cropped up in October

[SRJohnston80]

I can confirm it is working properly.  I set it all up from scratch this afternoon on my old email address I preferred to use and alexa is working again! 

I decided this evening to change my setup a bit.  I was using alexa for everything.  I had routines setup to control the heating.  Now that google has finally introduced wait commands in a routine, I moved the heating routines over to google, but still use alexa to voice control them.  Hopefully it will be a bit more stable that way.

[Kmarshallaz]

I was just able to fix this. Seems silly I never tried it before after months. The second toggle button can be access after selecting the first toggle. It appears to be selected already so I kept trying to only select the second. Try the first and it allows you to then enable the second toggle button which kicks of the enabling of Alexa 

hope this helps someone out there 

[1michellewarren]

What does this mean?  Second toggle button where?  In the Alexa app?  In the thermostat app?  If you can provide them, detailed instructions would be helpful for those of us who are technically challenged!