Adding a Google Wifi point to a Nest Mesh Network fails setup

[tomn68]

I've been having some issues that I've read others are running into with a Nest mesh networks internet connection coming to a crawl where direct ethernet to the modem's connection/speed is fine.  After a long time with Google Support I was eventually told to do a factory reset on my mixed Nest/Google wifi network. 

After the reset, I was able to add back my Nest points and had solid speed (so far so good) but I'm unable to add the Google Wifi points back.  Most of the time the issue is when I get to the step where the home app asks to connect to the google nest points wifi. (might be an ios dialog pop up).  After I do this it and it goes through the "Connecting to Wi-Fi" it fails connection with a message about the network not being connected to the internet with a Try Again.  So I tap that and it fails and then asks if I want to use cellular data.  It's as if the Home app is expecting the Google Wifi point to be hardwired to the internet which wouldn't be the case unless I was setting up as a router.

I have three of these Google wifi points and none of them are able to be connected.  Any ideas?

[tomn68]

OK so here's my solution.  I noticed that whenever it fails connecting to wi-fi, I would eventually get a message about not being able to connect to the internet and would I like to use cellular.  

So what worked was this.  Use an ethernet cable connected to your Nest router (maybe google wifi router as well if that's what you have) and connect the cable to your Google Wifi unit that you are going to use as a point. Plug that into the Internet ethernet port (the one that has a image of a globe under it).  Then unplug and replug the point back in and wait for it to flash slow white (not fast flashing) so you know it's completely started and waiting to be connected.

Next go through the setup but I would quit out of the home app, make sure your phone is connected to the Nest wifi (not still connected to the point your setting up - that's annoying).  Then I see it get past the Connecting to Wi-fi step.  It'll ask you to connect to the points setup wifi twice during setup so be sure to click to connect to it.  Then it worked.  Then I disconnect the ethernet cable, unplug, place it where you want it, re-plug it in and wait for it to fully start.  Then run a mesh test.

This has been extremely frustrating and I haven't seen any work arounds that worked or ones that suggest connecting the Google Wifi point to ethernet to the Nest router. I don't know if this is an ios/nest/google wifi issue or what but this is what worked.

[Jeff]

Hey, tomn68.

Thanks for sharing your solution to the community! I'm sorry you've had to do so much workaround to get your mesh network working at the expected speeds and consistency. You sharing what worked for you should be helpful for other members of the community searching for answers for themselves. If there's anything I can do for you, let me know.

Thanks again!

[Jeff]

Hi, tomn68.

Unless you have more to add to this (which is already great!), I'm going to go ahead and mark this one as resolved. Thankfully it will come up in search for anyone looking for a fix to a similar issue. If there's more you wanted to add or anything else you needed, just let me know.

Thanks.

[Jeff]

Hi, everyone.
As we haven't had any activity here recently I'm going to go ahead and close the thread. If you have more to add, feel free to start a new discussion.
Thanks