Upgraded to Nest Gen 4

[Jeff39]

I just upgraded to a Gen 4.  The installation was very easy and not difficult to set up.  I must say that I am very disappointed with the Google Home App... the status of the Thermostat does not refresh in real time the interface is very clunky and not intuitive at all.   Nest APP on my previous gen was much better written and very easy to use and understand.   I can not understate how disappointed I am trying to use Google Home to have Nest automate my HVAC.  The issue I am having is that when I go to the APP and select the Nest device then to settings I can NOT turn on  Presense sensing under home devices.  Everytime I do I try to enable this option I get error "Request contains an invalid argument"  I have called nest support deleted the app,  reset the thermostat Turned off Home to use phone locations and turned off and on Phone locations and always get the same error when attempting to use the Nest built in home presence sensor.   The sensor is enabled during the install process but when I check the status in the presence sensing status it is off and can not be turned on my enabling without the error message.

Secondly the nest does a very poor job showing your the status in the app... I have no idea if it is really in eco mode when using the app to force an away status in the home app.  Some times the thermostat will change to eco but mostly not.  

Any suggestions on what else might be causing this issue?   Hopefully I can get it resolved before I end up returning and testing an ecobee. 

[humbertogarcia]

Hi Jeff39,

Thanks for reaching out to the community. It's truly frustrating when technology doesn't cooperate with your Google Home app turning on the presence sensing. Don't worry, we'll definitely work through this together.
To get started, please confirm if other features of your Nest device are working fine in the Google Home app. Please try these steps:

• Restart the Google Home app and try enabling Presence Sensing again.

• Restart your Nest thermostat.

• Check your thermostat's current mode. (Eco, Heating, Cooling, etc.).

• Access Presence Sensing settings:

  • Open the Google Home app.

  • Go to Settings > Presence sensing.

Let me know what you find after trying these steps!

Regards,

Humberto

[MedMark]

Having same issue with 3 Learning Gen 4s I installed 2 days ago.  I have 2 Protects and 2 Learning Gen 4s that were installed previously and all prior devices are working as expected with Home/Away phone location.   The app will not allow me to toggle the newly installed thermostats to allow presence sensing.  “invalid argument” error returned when sliding toggle to on and immediately defaults back to toggle off.

[Leviosa]

You are not alone! I also get an error with the presence sensing setting. I did all the deletion and resetting steps you tried and the sensing status for the internal sensors can not be enabled. 

[humbertogarcia]

Hi @MedMark,

Thanks for reaching out about the Home/Away phone location issues with your new thermostats; I'm here to help you get to the bottom of this.

I'm sorry to hear that you are having problems with the Home/Away phone location and presence sensing using the Google Home app for your Nest Protects and your two Nest Learning Thermostats 4th gen. No need to worry; I'm happy to assist you. Please note: If you're already sharing your phone's location using the Nest app, enabling it in the Home app will disable it in the Nest app. You can only use one app to share your phone's location at a time.
For more information, you can check this article: Change Home/Away Assist settings.

I'm ready to work with you to resolve this and get your smart home running smoothly.

Regards,

Humberto                .

[Leviosa]

Hello Humberto,

Here is the information you requested:

What type of Nest devices do you have?

• Two (2) Nest Gen 3 Thermostats in one home group. Phone presence NOT being used.
• One (1) Nest Gen 4 Thermostats in a different home group. Phone presence being used.

What is the error message you received with the Presence Sensing?

• I get "Unable to save settings" message in Google Home when attempting to enable presence sensing for the Nest Gen 4 device. 
• Presence setting does not get set and remains OFF.
• Reference the screen grab below which I have annotated to highlight the user action (#1) and the response from Google Home (#2).

What apps are you using to control your Nest devices?

• The Nest Gen 4 device is only controlled by Google Home
• The Nest Gen 3 devices are controlled by both Google Home and the Nest app.

Please note: I have already tried deleting the home from Google Home. Factory reset the Nest Gen 4 thermostat. Cleared Google Home app cache and memory. Recreated the home and added the Nest Gen 4 thermostat. After all that I still get the same "Unable to save settings." error. I have disabled phone presence sensing and still get the error trying to enable Nest Gen 4 device presence sensors.

Please also note: All other settings on the Nest Gen 4 device are working well. The ONLY issue is enabling the home device presence sensor in the Nest Gen 4.

Regards

[humbertogarcia]

Hi @Leviosa 

It's great to hear from you again, and thanks for sharing that screenshot - it really helps clarify things. I've got a much better handle on what's happening now.

Here's the key thing to keep in mind about location sharing for your phone:

If you're currently using the Nest app to share your phone's location for Home/Away Assist, allowing location sharing in the Google Home app will actually turn it off in the Nest app. Your phone's location-sharing feature is limited to just one app at a time.

Hope this makes sense. Feel free to ask if anything else comes up; I'm happy to help.

Regards,

Humberto

[Leviosa]

Humberto, let me be perfectly clear on this point. 

-> I am NOT USING phone location for home/away assist!

-> I have turned off using phone location on both apps.

-> I do not want to use phone location at all. 

I ONLY want to use the built-in sensors of the Nest thermostat to detect presence.

To illustrate this point, here is a screen grab from the phone that shows the error happening.

Please note that phone location sensing is OFF. 

Google Home throws an error when I try to enable the built-in Nest Thermostat presence sensors.

Please let me know what additional information needed to help debug this issue.

Thank you

[MedMark]

Thank you for your reply.  I have replaced all 5 of my Gen 2 Learning Thermostars with Gen 4.  Only two Nest Protects remain in the Nest app.

What is perplexing is why only two of the five Gen 4 thermostats being managed by Google Home will allow presence sensing to toggle on.  The last three that I installed (a week after the first two) give the invalid argument error when attempting to toggle presence sensing.  The two Protects also allow presence sensing to toggle on in the Google Home app.  These thermostats and Protects are all in the same home.

[MedMark]

Screen shot

 

[Jeff39]

Same I have tried to enable the presence sensor using phone location and without using phone location... in all instances I can not enable the built in sensor in the google home app without getting the error.    The problem is my housekeeper is there many times per week and I am not and the thermostat will stay in eco mode until I return home.  This is not ideal for anyone who has family or people in the home when they are not there with their phone. The thermostat can not learn when others are home and adjust accordingly.

I have reset the thermostat doing a factory reset... checked for software updates... uninstalled the google home app restarted my phone installed a fresh download of google home... did a new install of the thermostat and it still fails to turn on Presence sensing in the google home app.

Gen 4

Only using Google Home

[Tlanghome]

I am having the same issue.  New Gen 4 Thermostat install (2024 model).  I want to use Presence detection to change into Eco mode, when no presence is detected after 8 hours.  This unit is installed in a condo which is rented to guests.  If no one is in the condo, we want the temperature to go into Eco mode.  

When I enable presence sensing, I receive  - Request contains an invalid argument.

Thanks

Tom

[Tlanghome]

I am hearing that the unit is working correctly, and that Google is aware of the issue, and is working on it.

Not sure what to believe.  

The challenge is that this NestG4 is installed on our vacation Condo, in Roatan Honduras.  Swapping it out, or even upgrading is going to be a challenge, as I do not have support available when we are not at the condo.

I need to have a thermostat  that will set an away temperature (80F) when no one is in the condo.  This is the main reason we upgraded from a dumb wall thermostat

Is GoogleHome working on a solution to enable presence detect, and Auto-Eco mode?

Thanks

Tom

[Jeff39]

Humberto sent me a message saying that the error in presense sensing is because the Gen4 is always on and the error is related to older generations being able to turn off or on.  I find that to be complete nonsense... there are people in this thread that have Gen 4 and the setting switched to on.  Secondly there are many youtube videos showing this option turned on, yet many of us cant get this to work.   I have decided to return the Gen 4 to google as their own return policy is 15 days and it appears this issue is not going to be resolved within that window.  I have called customer support and emailed them only to receive notice they are working on the issue.  For $300 Nest needs to do a better job... I have upgraded from Nest 2nd gen and 3 gen but this 4th gen has to be the biggest disappointment for me.   Since installing my Nest will NOT go into or out of ECO mode automatically regardless of phone location being on or off.... I am not saving any money with this smart thermostat.  Hello Ecobee  

[MedMark]

Google Nest is definitely a different experience than Nest Nest.  I did purchase my Gen 4 at different times - 2 weeks apart.  Purchased 3 from utility provider.  One developed  short in the base unit.  Warranty swapped it at local Google store and purchased 2 more.  None of those I received from Google store allow presence sensing toggle.  Original 2 from utility provider presence sense, as did the third before it developed electrical problem.

My heat zones are 3-wire so no common.  Makes Nest Learning the easiest install.  I purchased 4 Gen 3 long ago figuring the remote sensors would be beneficial, but never installed them.  Still didn’t support matter or other integration.  When Google announced death of Gen 2 and matter for Gen 4 it was time to swap things out.  Matter tips the scales.  Google is not as customer centric as Nest or other integration providers.  Google just doesn’t seem to know where they want to go … or do and purchased too many disparate pieces that make putting it all together a poor experience for legacy customers they drag along.

Good luck with Ecobee - I have now experience.  My backbone for home automation is Ubiquiti.

[Leviosa]

It appears this was a widespread issue. Thanks to community members who raised this issue here as well as through contacting support, Google has fixed the issue. It appears to be a Google Nest server-side issue (in the cloud) and nothing wrong with our thermostats or how they have been installed or configured.  Magically overnight I am now able to toggle the presence sensing. With the parameter being saved without error. 

The problem is resolved for me at and others reporting the issue also fixed for them. See thread: Re: Presence sensing error message "Request contai... - Google Nest Community