Nest app keeps switching to away when I'm home

[abellaj]

Disclaimer: This thread was migrated from our previous version of the Google Nest Community.  You can continue to receive updates on your thread issue here or simply ask, browse or more in the new Google Nest Community. 

Original Poster: Jeff Rich

I have 2 nest cameras and two nest E thermostats. I have verified that home/away assist is turned off for all 4 devices yet two or three times a day I feel hot air blowing, check the app, and find it set to away and using eco temperatures, which is also turned off for both thermostats.

Am I missing a setting somewhere? I don't want to use home/away or eco temps, but Nest seems to think it knows better and does what it wants.

[ShirleyRose]

well when the one thing it does wrong is turns the temperature up in the middle of the night because it doesn’t know you’re home and you wake up sweating in your bed that is a big deal.

[phatcajun]

Help, please!

"Home/Away Assist"  shows that it is ON when I am home, but I turned off the options for it. The thermostats are not supposed to be looking for my phone or physical activity. Yet it continues to show ON.

How can I turn off any other "smart" features? How can I make this just a regular thermostat that I can control, but doesn't control ME?

I am unable to use Google Home, because my thermostats can not be integrated into Google Home. And I do not see an option in the Next app on my phone or PC to change anything else.

This is a VERY big deal to me as my thermostat will suddenly change the AC from 71 degrees to 77. I am not sleeping at night and having to constantly mess with this thing. I have never set it  to 77. It's so random. The reverse happens in the winter and I wake up freezing. Sometimes it even changes to Eco mode, even though I supposedly have it disabled. And like others here, it randomly changes from Home to Away.

[rekeith12]

I was having the same issue, but I think I was able to fix it with some help from customer support.  I got my nest from the previous owners so I'm not sure about the initial setup or if precise location wasn't previously needed, but when I looked at where my home was located it only had a zip code for my address which was putting my house about a 1/2 mile from my house's true location.  When I provided in my full address, the current status in my "What decides if you're home" was switched from "Not here" to "Here". 

Here are the steps to change the home location:

In the Nest app, go to Settings and then Home Info and then Address.
Edit the address if needed. Then select Next.
If the pin location is off on the next screen, move the pin to the correct location.

I'm not sure why the app needs such a precise location because I don't want my home to go to Eco if I'm within walking distance, but that's a different issue

[phatcajun]

I believe my situation is resolved. I had already turned off location settings, Home/Away Assist, Auto Scheduling..... any "smart" feature I could find.

What I did not discover until later, is that the Nest had me on a schedule. When I clicked on the schedule button on the app, I saw that there were so many random changes in temperature settings all day, every day. I deleted all of them and have not had an issue since. Fingers crossed!

As a side note, I have had an AC guy come out for a different reason, and he said that if the thermostat software is updated, I will have to change all my settings again.

[Btt1725]

Try this open nest app and click on gear for settings and click on home/away assist click on Home at top and below that (When you are Home) the room or name your using is set to On and then click on (What decides if your home) then click on (This Home) use Home location Yes and then click on (People) and it should say You with your device your using(mine was actually still showing an old phone I had so I changed to my new phone by clicking on the People bar and then Your phone and you can change it there) then I clicked (Products) and turned toggle to Off where it asks if you want the nest sensors to decide if your at home or away and since doing this I haven't had the switching to Away problem Hope this helps

[Btt1725]

Also make sure you click on Home Info and make sure your address is correct and that the blue home indicator is showing directly over your home address

[oJoJo]

Found it!  Turning your phone app to Manual keeps Nest in Auto Detect mode because the thermostat itself has an Auto Detect setting that must be turned off, else it overrides the Manual setting you’re sure is already set. Keep digging in the app, it’s two different settings in different places. Terrible design. 

[oJoJo]

Shoot, I’m sorry. You already tried that. Maybe there’s a third setting hidden somewhere. Absurd. 

[gypsyldy]

Ditto.  I have set the Home/Away to off on all thermostats, and it still switches automatically!!!  

[Agmilmoe]

It would be great if I could indicate to the Nest App that I work from home.

I suspect it’s trying to save energy by shutting the heat/cold off when most people are at work. Well, I’m not most people, and I’d expect a mature, expensive “smart” thermostat from a global brand to know better. 

[pandorfs]

This may help. I had the same issue as many of you and now I got it fixed (crossing fingers). My setup is that my wife's phone has the google home app installed that is linked to her own google account (gmail). I have removed the nest app off her phone because I have read that it may interfere with the Google home app. My phone is the main account and  I have both the Nest and Google home app on the phone (I never had the issue of the Nest not knowing that I was home it was just my wife). I invited her google account to become part of my household. She is now linked and has control of the thermostat the same as me.

Now here is the biggest thing. When you migrate over to the the Google Home app from the Nest app you may believe that everything is done and the "presence sensing/Eco Mode/Home Away" is functioning. What I found is that there is a button on the home screen of the Google home app that says something like Setup home away". When you click this button you go into a brand new agreement and setup. This is what I was missing.   

[pandorfs]

To follow up on this. For some reason my wife's phone lost connectivity and for some reason the app request that we agree to the Google agreement again. This situation is buggy.  

[EDobby11]

We were having the same issue with the Nest switching to “away” even when one of us was home. We tried turning off all the presence sensing settings in the Google Home app. The problem persisted. What seems to have finally worked for us is to go to your PHONE settings, select Google Home, and set Location to “never”. Be sure to do it on all phones you have connected to the app. Unfortunately it leaves the Eco setting useless but at least the home stays at your preferred temps when you are there. Hope this helps!

[Nickp23]

Just so everybody knows I got a fix for this issue from Google support. He said to turn off phone tracking to keep track of whether you're home, and to only use the thermostat tracking. Also make sure the address for the location of your thermostat is set as your primary Google address via the Nest app or else it'll never work right.

Also, shame on the pieces of **bleep** that are just **bleep**ting on people instead of going them, took me just as long to type the solution as it took you buffoons to make idiots of yourselves in public.

[Jake]

Hey all,

I wanted to check in and see if anyone is still having any trouble. Thank you so much for the helpful reply, and providing what worked for you, Nickp23. Please let me know if you have any questions from here, as I would be happy to review.

Best regards,

Jake

[pandorfs]

So if you are in a room for a long time the thermostat will think you are not their and go into away mode? I would say that this is a poor work around for a Geo fencing issue that has not been resolved.

[Ryan_G]

Hey there,

Thanks for being here in the Google Nest Community. 

I'd like to bump in here and make sure that you’ve seen our response.
Please let us know if you have any other questions or concerns as I will be locking this thread in 24 hours.

Have a great day.

Best regards,
Ryan
 

[ShirleyRose]

• We deleted the schedule it learned and now it is just keeping the temp I set. 

[Ryan_G]

Hey ShirleyRose,

Thanks for the reply and we're sorry for the delay.

Since you've just deleted the temperature schedule, we'll need to give it a couple of days for it to learn and remember your settings.

Let us know how it goes by replying to this thread.

Regards,

Ryan

[Jake]

Hey B_Hurd,

I am glad to hear you got it figured out. Please let us know if you have any trouble from here with the Home/Away, as I would be happy to review further. 

Best regards,

Jake

[Jake]

Hey all,

I wanted to check in and see if you are still in need of any help with your device. Please let me know, as I would be happy to assist, and answer any questions you may have.

Best regards,
Jake

[EdwardT]

Hi folks,

I'm just checking in to make sure that you've seen our response. Please let us know if you have any other questions or concerns as I will be locking this in 24 hours.

Thanks,

Edward