Nest Thermo WiFi connectivity problem

[brianlawlor]

Two days ago my always reliable Nest Thermostats fell offline and I have since not been able to get them to connect to my wifi and therefore not connect to my Home app on my phone, (I have numerous other Google devices in my house and all are working fine and working with my wifi, including a Nest Home Max, two Chromecast dongles and multiple mini-speakers. Everything else in my home is working just fine with my wifi.   I tried removing my Nest Thermo devices from my Home app and then adding them back in, and all goes well until it prompts me to make the wifi connection. All I get is a message that it does not recognize any network and prompts me to put my phone closer or closer to other Nest devices. No luck! I have done the routine things of unplugging and replugging my router and cable modem (connected to Wave/Astounding). I also tried a full-on factory reset of the thermos but no luck there. I just hit the wall once I reach the step for making the wifi connection, described above.

Any suggestions about how to resolve this problem?

[Patrick_Caezza]

How do you have the thermostat wired? Is there a C wire installed?

[brianlawlor]

Yes, the C wire is installed.  Wiring is C-W-R-G-Y. Both thermos were installed quite a while back by OnTech, and worked fine with Google Home app until just a few days ago. Inexplicably, they went offline and I have had no luck getting the Home app to recognize these two devices, much less connect to my wifi., 

[EdwardT]

Hi folks,

@Patrick, thanks for the help!

@brianlawlor, I'm sorry to hear that you're having an issue with connecting your Nest Thermostat to your Wifi. I'd love to know more about this and I have a few questions:

• Are you getting any messages or codes when your Nest Thermostat fails to connect?
• Aside from your Nest Thermostat are there any other Nest devices installed?

Looking forward to your response.

Thanks,

Edward

[brianlawlor]

1. When I try to use the Home app to set up the wifi connection, initially the Home app reports that is "connected" -- of course, it is because I have several other Google devices that are connected (see below) -- BUT when I try to add either of my Nest Thermos as a new device, well, the Home app does not recognize any new devices and does not recognize any network? WTF? I am not getting any error messages, as such. I have never otherwise had any trouble getting a Google device to be recognized or connected to my wifi. 

2. Yes, I have a 10" Nest Hub Max. I also have two Google TV Chromecosts, 4 Google Mini speakers. and a pair of  awesome Google Max speakers. ALL are working just fine and connected to my wifi.

FWIW, I am using my Home app on a Pixel 4a 5G.

Brian

[brianlawlor]

And as I reported earlier in this thread, both Nest Thermos were working fine, and have for two years or so, when these inexplicable they fell offline last week. I think it bears noting that mine is not the only report of sudden connection problems, My concern is that Google is not owning this problem.

[EdwardT]

Hi brianlawlor,

Thanks for the response. I have  some additional questions so we could investigate further:

• What type of Nest Thermostat do you have?
• What do you see on the display of the Nest Thermostat?

Thanks,

Edward

[brianlawlor]

(2) Nest Thermostat (Snow)
Serials:
11301J3DB08W13,
11301J3DB069PH

Purchased from Google Store on March 10, 2021 and installed by OnTech, Google’s purchased install service.

Both are working fine, manually. Both displays show a wifi icon crossed out and ”Set up WiFi”. Below that, both display the target temp in large numbers and below that in smaller numbers the current indoor actual temp.

[EdwardT]

Hi brianlawlor,

Thanks for the response. Is your Nest Thermostat still appearing offline on the Google Home app? Also, what device are you using to set it up? Have you tried setting it up using a different phone?

Thanks,

Edward

[brianlawlor]

When this problem started, I removed my Nest Thermo devices from the Home app in an attempt to reinstall everything. (At that time, I also did a factory reset of the Thermos,) When I try to add the Thermos to my Home app, it does not recognize either Nest Thermo, It prompts me to place my phone -- a Pixel 4a 5G -- close ot one of my other Nest devices, so I did so by placing the phone near my Nest Max Hub. No luck. I do not have a second phone, so that it is not an option for me, Seriously, this should work with my Pixel phone, of all phones. Again, every other, several other Google devices, listed above, are well connected my wifi network.  

[EdwardT]

Hi brianlawlor,

Thanks for the reply. Is there an option to enter the Wifi name and password manually? Also, could you try moving the Nest Hub near the Nest Thermostat during setup?

Let us know how it goes.

Thanks,

Edward

[brianlawlor]

There is no way to enter my wifi name and password manually. When I go to Network on the devices, it just passes the buck and tells me to use the Home app to set up the network, which of course I cannot since I cannot get the Home app to recognize my device. I did try putting my connected Nest Hub close to the Thermo while trying to get the Home app to recognize my device, but no luck with that, either.

[EdwardT]

Hi brianlawlor,

Thanks for trying. We'd like to know more about this. Please fill out this form so we could investigate further.

Thanks,

Edward

[brianlawlor]

I filled out the form but it would not submit. I double-checked everything and tried submitting it using both Chrome and Edge, but I just keep getting a message to refresh.

the page and resubmit, which does not work. This is really getting to be too much, Google. 

[brianlawlor]

Edward, thanks for all your help with this, but I am moving on. I have contacted OnTech and they sending someone out tomorrow to diagnose and (hopefully) fix the connection problem first-hand.

[EdwardT]

Hi brianlawlor,

Thanks for the update. Let us know what the OnTech technician's findings are, and I also hope that they will resolve the connection issue.

Thanks,

Edward

[brianlawlor · Accepted solution]

Props to OnTech! The OnTech guy was extremely knowledgeable about Google stuff. After we spent about 10minutes going over my connectivity issues, he went through the exercise of trying to set up the Nest Thermo to see what I was encountering, to no avail. And then he observed, “I have seen this before. I bet this problem was caused by a recent Google software update conflicting with your router [TP-Link Archer AX3000].” He went to his truck to grab a Nest Wifi router, hooked everything up and within a few minutes the problem was solved. It was not a hardware problem. My existing router just wouldn’t work with the Home app. The only downside was that I had to factory reset all my Google devices to work with the new network settings.  

[Jeff]

Hey, brianlawlor.

Thanks for letting us know what worked out for you. Sorry it was such a process! Before we mark this as resolved, I wanted to check in and see if you were all set. If you need anything else, just let us know.

Thanks.

[brianlawlor]

I'm good!

[Jeff]

Great, thanks for the update, brianlawlor. I'm happy to see things working out well.

Thanks again,

- Jeff

[brianlawlor]

I filled out the form but it would not submit. I double-checked everything and tried submitting it using both Chrome and Edge, but I just keep getting a message to refresh

the page and resubmit, which does not work. This is really getting to be too much, Google.