Google Wifi point keeps dropping the connection

[DaveTheDad]

I see there have been various posts on this issue but no clear resolution was provided. Troubleshooting on these issues presents like some outside cause or misdiagnosing as an ISP outage, however, this issue is real and I would like to understand how I am able to get some support. I am based in Australia.

My environment 

3 x Google wifi (Gen 1) and 3 x Nest wifi

I have various Google home devices, Google home minis, google nest hubs, google nest audio. I have various other wifi devices including TVs and 5 family members with Apple phones. I work in IT and my PCs are ethernet wired.

With this configuration, it is obvious when the wifi drops and the ethernet connected devices remain connected and the internet service provider connection is uninterupted.

The issue is solely with the wifi and all wifi devices drop connection at the same time. The Google home app on my iPhone is set to notify when someone (or device) joins the wifi network, which informs me when my devices reconnect after the wifi drops.

This has been happening since around June 2021. I am not sure what happened at this time, but I suspect a firmware update was done by Google. 

I have done extensive troubleshooting and turned off all other wifi devices that could act as an access point (even though they were disabled in settings), tried isolating it to a faulty google wifi device by turning them off one by one for a day to see if the issue is no longer present. Nothing seems to have resolved this.

With various wifi drops during the day for 5 months now, I believe I have definitely isolated this issue to the Goggle wifi and nest wifi devices. I believe it is now obvious that there is a firmware issue on these devices and with no way to upgrade or downgrade to different versions of firmware, like every other router/wifi access point provider on the market, this leaves me with no options to resolve these issues.

So I am reaching out in one last attempt to get some support before I have to change to another mesh wifi provider and never go back to Google for such devices due to lack of support and poor firmware quality. 

As an IT Professional who recommends these devices to anyone needing a good wifi solution, I am embarrassed.I

1. Is there anything else that I can try to resolve this issue that I have not tried?
2. Is there a way for me to get direct support from the vendor (Google)? For example a support email address, or a phone number?

Thanks in advance.

Dave

[Ashepherdson]

You can contact nest support at the link below, with options for call or chat.

https://support.google.com/googlenest/gethelp?hl=en

I have had zero wifi drops with my nest wifi system, but you said you are using a hybrid of both nest wifi and Google wifi, have you tried removing all the Google pucks and only using the nest ones ?  Also how large is your home, as 6 points seems to be quite a lot for a standard size home(depending on construction materials used, etc ) .  

Is IPv6 enabled ? Google cloud services? 

Have you factory reset ALL points of both generations and started setup from scratch (again starting with the nest router first, then once it's setup and working, add one point, get it running, then move on) 

[DaveTheDad]

Thanks for the link, I will try to contact them when I have the time to troubleshoot with them.

There is no IPv6 enabled and no google cloud services.

One of the first things I tried back in about July was a factory reset and set up from scratch setting up the Nest wifi router first, the two additional pucks and then the older gen google wifi pucks. I am not sure if there have been any further firmware updates since. 
I will need to try this again I think, but I am sure the support team will want me to do this, so I will wait and do it with them.

[Chuck3hood]

I have the same issues.  Constantly get notifications that this or that WiFi point is disconnected.  I have 5 where 2 are nest and 3 are Google wifi.  I've had trouble ever since adding the nest devices.  I've done a complete reset on everything multiple times and reset individual points even more times..  Ive moved them around to try and get green/ good connection at each device.  The one in the garage is more difficult.  I have Ethernet around the house so it would be nice if I could connect 1 or more points that way for better performance.

[nickp001]

I'm having the exact same problem.  It started with my Google wifi setup.  Because of the problem, I upgraded to the Nest wifi, using the Nest router and access points and also using a couple of the old Google wifi points.  After completely recreating my network with the Nest setup, and I still had the same problem.  Removed all of the old Google pucks and went with just the Nest mesh setup, still had the same problem.  You may have seen my thread regarding the same issue.  I can only guess that my problem is due to having plaster walls in the house.  Aparrently, wifi signals don't play well with plaster.  I don't know what else it could be.

[Ashepherdson]

So many older plaster walls use a metallic mesh as the base , which would act similar to a Faraday cage and wreak havoc with wifi signals.  If this is the case then I am not sure what I can offer to help, any mesh system would have this issue.  The only solution would be to add an ethernet cable between each of the points, which would only be possible on the older Google wifi system as the nest wifi only has ports on the router, not the individual points. 

[Chuck3hood]

I don't think that cabling the points is supported at least it was not an option last I tried.  If that works it may be a solution for me..  but why they go from green to red after a day or 2 I can't explain.  My house has 1/2" drywall.  No metal mesh

[DaveTheDad]

Hi nickp001

If your plaster walls are post-1980s then they are unlikely to have a metal mesh in them and will not likely be the cause of these issues. If the issues are similar to mine, then it would be more likely have a great signal and all of a sudden experience a complete drop in wifi for a one to five minutes or so. This happens maybe once to four times per day. If it was caused by older plaster walls, it is likely you would experience a poor contestant signal that would drop more often.  

[Gizmocorn]

I have the same problem. It evidently started when Google pushed a firmware update in June, 2021. 

My first successful workaround until Google fixes it was to factory reset everything and revert my entire network to use only the old Wi-Fi pucks.

It stayed stable for a whole week so I tried another step that hasn't failed yet. That was  to install the marshmallow nest router and only use old pucks for the other nodes. 

The nest points, or the smart speaker element of them, are the problem. I won't use mine until I see news that Google has fixed the instability problem. Then I'll add a point back in and see if I can stay on the internet for more than a half day.

[DaveTheDad]

Update: I have turned off the two nest wifi pucks. I now have the older google wifi pucks and the newer nest wifi router in service and now waiting to see if it stays operational. 

Thanks for all your replies and input so far. 

I am hopeful we can get to the cause at some point soon. 

[Teru]

I am having the same issues! Never going with Google WiFi products again. I have a 2 bedroom house with 4 Google WiFi point, 2 connected via Lan (no problems with wired connections) but any wireless devices are having constant issues. I don't organise meetings at 3:00 pm anymore because I will always loose connection at that time, to ALL devices on wireless.

[Ashepherdson]

For anyone experiencing connection issues, have you :

1 - factory reset and resetup the network?

2- contacted support about this issue?

[Teru]

Yes, both these things

[TimDo]

FWIW, I used to work for Google but I am very frustrated about this particular wifi product. I have a google wifi router + 3 wifi point. I've been experiencing connectivity issues for the last 5 week or so. Suddenly all my wifi points drop dead - for no reasons - during meetings etc. I've done manual reset, factory reset, resetting my entire network with no help. The drop happens 10+ times a day as far as I can notice. 

Going to return this nest wifi product and looking into other option, such as Netgear Orbi. 

[Chuck3hood]

Multiple times I have reset all devices and very recently have reset 2 that became disconnected and would not reconnect after power cycle 

[Jhonleanmel]

Hi Chuck3hood

Thanks for the added details. Could you try to update the DNS on your Home app as suggested above?

Keep us posted.

Cheers,

Mel

[Chuck3hood]

sorry I don't see a post about DNS above.  I see 3 options, automatic, use ISP, or custom.  I had it on automatic but just changed to isp.  I suppose I could enter google DNS server address under custom.

[Chuck3hood]

Is there a way to use a wired connection for some of the points?  and still have them use the same SSID with smooth handoff between APs?  I have ethernet wiring around the house and really only went to the mesh for simplicity of setting up a multi AP network.  There are 1 or 2 locations where may benefit from the mesh functionality but if I could have a mixed topology that would be ideal.  I moved the second Nest device to the same room with the master router device and now it is showing yellow (weak) signal.  Previously when I first moved it to the same room, all but the garage puck were showing green.  It doesn't seem to be meshing in a smart way.

[Jhonleanmel]

Hi everyone,

@mike6680, @Beelzebuddy, I'm sorry that you're still having issues with your Google Wifi device. Could you make sure that your modem from your ISP is in bridge mode to avoid double NAT issues. You can check this link to know more about double NAT issues: Fix Double NAT when two routers run at the same time

@Chuck3hood, thanks for getting back to us. Could you power cycle your entire network when moving points in different locations. Just unplug your Google Wifi devices from the power for 2 minutes.

Keep us posted.

Best,

Mel

[Chuck3hood]

so far since joining this forum I have power cycled a few times, and have set DNS from automatic to the 'custom' google dns servers and have disabled ipv6 and nest cloud services.  I moved one device closer to the home router.  (so close that its dumb to even have it)  sometimes it still reports weak connection but other times its green..

[Jhonleanmel]

Hi Chuck3hood,

Thanks for getting back to us and thanks for the effort of doing the troubleshooting steps.

To confirm, are your devices experiencing slow Internet speed when shown as having weak connections on your Home app?

Regards,

Mel

[Jhonleanmel]

Hey Chuck3hood,

I wanted to follow up and see if you are still in need of any help. Please let me know if you are still having any trouble from here, as I would be happy to take a closer look and assist you further.

Thanks,
Mel

[Chuck3hood]

I relocated all of the points to the same room and still on a daily basis they vary from green to yellow to red.  Looks like I'll have to switch to a different brand.  I never got a clear answer as to whether it's possible to use them as access points and just hardwire them to ethernet.  If there's a configuration option to enable that I might try it

[Chuck3hood]

I would feel a bit more like Google was doing with something about it if somebody downloaded some log files and talked about versions of firmware and such details of that I really don't see any progress here beyond power cyclingthe system and doing factory resets.  Fortunately my wired Network functions even when these points are disconnected locked up

[Ashepherdson]

If you have the nest routers , yes they have Ethernet and you can wire them together.  If you have one nest router and two points then no , as the points do not have Ethernet ports.  

As for the disconnect issue, have you tried to factory reset, then make a new network with only the router.  Once that network is running, try adding one point and again check to ensure stability.  If it remains stable, add the final point and check again.  This is what I did to solve connection issues and seemed to work well. 

[Chuck3hood]

It's been a while since I did a factory reset what's puzzling is it when I power cycle everything it usually comes up with all the points green and over time some of them disconnect.  I have a nest router a nest point and three older Google Wi-Fi points.  The Google Wi-Fi points have ethernet ports on them and I have in the past tried connecting them but it seemed that they were still just functioning as a mesh so there must be a setting to change it to an access point with coordinated channels controlled by the main router

[Jhonleanmel]

Hey folks,

@Ashepherdson, thanks for the helpful response.

@Chuck3hood, I'm sorry that you're still having issues with your Google Nest Wifi network. Also, we don't have any news to share about when the software update will be rolled out. Your Google Nest Wifi and Google Wifi will automatically receive over-the-air updates about any software and hardware-related fix or firmware updates as long as it's constantly powered on and connected to the Wi-Fi network. To isolate the issue, could you try factory resetting your network?

Let us know how it goes. 

Thanks,

Mel

[Chuck3hood]

remind me do I need to first one by one remove all of the points before initiating factory reset on the main router?

[Beelzebuddy]

Sorry to step into your post Step3hood, but I have had this problem for quite some time, as many others have. I reset my network twice. I added two points and most recently replaced my router marshmallow. None of these things have worked. We work from home and have to re-power the points almost daily. This hasn't alwabeen the case and my Nest WiFi system used to be very stable and reliable. There have been no other changes to my network. Just trying to help you avoid unnecessary work as we wait for Google to acknowledge and correct this problem. 

[keenumm]

Same here.  Upgraded to all new Nest WiFi.  Have 4 installed in 4000sf house.  It works great for a while and then devices start loosing network connections.  I can unplug tv and power back on it works for while.  Even swapping to other network i created will start it back up.  My Galaxy phone will even do same thing as well as Dell laptop.  Never happened until I upgraded from old Gen 1 mesh system.

[Ashepherdson]

Can you try disabling IPv6 in the wifi settings?  Also are Google cloud services enabled? 

Teru, what did support say when you spoke with them?

[DaveTheDad]

UPDATE: It has happened again today. All devices dropped and reconnected and now happened a second time straight after recovering.

I have checked IPv6 was enabled (must have been after the last factory reset). Also the privacy settings (cloud services). I have now disabled these and see what happens now.

I had to physically restart the router to be able to change the settings in the google home app. It would time out trying to change these settings.

[Jeff]

Thanks for sharing your updates, Teru. As we all look at this and try things, it's really helpful for everyone to see what impacts others.

[TimDo]

Internal Nest team better get to the bottom of this. This is a serious problem and should be treated as P0 or code blue. This issue has been so frustrating and I saw lots of complains here and in reddit. FWIW, I am returning this product and looking into other options. I would never try any nest wifi product again. Just a waste of time and money. 

[Teru]

Support didn't help, just said to restart everything and factory reset. Will contact again tomorrow.

Latest development is that disconnecting the two wireless points improved my connection to my PC. Before it was Wired Router --> Wireless Point --> PC via Ethernet. Now it's just Wired Router --> PC via WiFi. Before 45, now 80. Connection to Router is 100. 

[DaveTheDad]

UPDATE: The wifi dropouts have been reduced. I have noticed only one in the last two days. However, by turning off the Google cloud services, our google home devices are acting up severely. Routines are not working which is the most obvious and sometimes the google devices listen to commands but do not respond for some time and state something went wrong and to try again in a few seconds.

I plan to run over the weekend for further observation and if it continues, I will then enable Google services and note any further differences. 

[Jeff]

Hi, TimDo.

I am sorry that you're frustrated. A lot of us are frustrated with the issue, but I can assure that it's definitely being worked on internally and everyone is aware of the problem. I don't have a time frame as of yet, but I do know that a fix is being developed. I'll share more when I know anything new.

Thanks.

[Teru]

Update: I am now down to a single Google WiFi point, as suggested by Google Support. I have done some testing with WiFiman (WiFi analyser) and set up a continuous speed test every 5 minutes on TestMy.net.

Currently, I have a good connection, shown on WiFiman, but download is approximately 10Mbps on my phone, my computer (right next to me) is 80Mbps. 5 minutes ago, the computer showed 33Mbs. An hour ago it was 5Mbs.

It's like Google WiFi is trying to optimise connection but is failing. I only have 5 devices connected... I keep thinking it's interference but I get good speeds (sometimes).

That being said, another 5 minutes has past and the result... 16.5Mbs. fml.

As a result, I have an electrician booked in for a quote for a new access point in the office. I will compare that to a top of the line WiFi router. Either way, I will be getting rid of my Google WiFi points.

[Teru]

One extra note, my case has now been  escalated on Google support. Still waiting for a callback.

[Teru]

Final update: Google support never contacted me back. I will be selling my units and using the money to purchase a WiFi 6 router.