Nest WiFi points go offline randomly

[PKEgcomm]

my mesh is one router and two points. 
randomly, only my points are going offline. Router stays OK and connected to Internet.

sometimes just one point offline, others bot points at the same time. 
only solution is to power cycle each offfline point.

[MrsByerly]

Same issues with my point. 

[easyvictor]

For me, the system works fine for days then randomly one of the "points" in the mesh will become unresponsive: If devices connect to it, they have no internet connection. Devices repeated connect/disconnect from the point and it fails to deliver internet. The only fix I've found is by power cycling the point.

Internet from the router unit remains fine. Very frustrating and has only been a problem in the last month or so. 

Google - please fix this bug!

[Dansegelman]

I've purchased nine of these devices to cover two different sites, each site maximum of five. Many are hardwired together, some just keep randomly stop working. I have to restart them and factory reset them to get them to go back functional. It happens randomly after 2, 3, 4, 5 6 days. So random. So frustrating. We completely redid the network infrastructure now it's a huge problem

[Sidddd]

Same problem. Guys should we do something about this? It feels like I got scammed from Google 

[nerfslinger]

Same issue. A friend purchased the router and 2 points following my recommendation which was based on consistently positive reviews at the time from multiple sites. About a year ago the disconnections began and the frequency has increased over time. He went so far as to change ISPs and the problem persisted. I very much regret having recommended Nest Wifi.

[Momo2029]

Ditto! Ours has been going offline regularly lately. Only a complete reboot works. I've removed it and reset it up, factory reset etc. Super annoying, especially when WFH. 

[Christophercarr]

Literally only Google could publish a "fix" to the problem and actually manage to botch it soooo bad that it made the problem worse than original. lol its hard to not laugh at how ridiculous that is. Biggest tech regret of mine is buying into the Google ecosystem at all.

Add me to the list that it has gotten increasingly worse after the firmware update. Mine lose connection daily over the past 2 weeks. 

[c2w7g9]

Been watching and waiting for something to change with my Google Nest WiFi router and two points. Had them for over two years now and the problems just started up in August. Resetting the router via both the power cable and Google Home app, but have to do it 1-3 times a day.

Going to upgrade to something better when the time comes. With more control over my network. Would love a fix for now.

[TreyB1]

It's daily and sometimes multiple times daily for me. So frustrating because I have Google nest cams with ADT and I want my security footage I paid for. "Works with Google" doesn't matter if Google's mesh wifi doesn't work.

I don't understand the suggestions. It should just work. If the signal strength is good, I shouldn't have to change DNS settings. It's it's own wifi independent of the ISP which is online. If the settings are wrong then the factory defaults are wrong. And the workaround is to manually restart it...why don't you create a cron job to check and reset on detection instead of paying support to tell us to mess with irrelevant settings or hit a button manually?

Look at all of the similar threads. Fix your stack or I'll never buy a Google/nest product again.  Don't tell me to hit a button, learn how to code automation and leverage the continuous deployment heuristics that you seem to be ignoring.

[Matt25]

Same issue for me. FIX THIS ISSUE GOOGLE !! We have all invested thousands of dollars in your ecosystem and the wifi backbone is more brittle than great grandmas bad hip bone. I have 1 router, 2 points, 2 doorbells, 2 cameras, 2 tvs, 4 homes a 1 display. Thousands of dollars and none of it is working because of this bug that has been reported for nearly 2 years. What the actual heck guys. Get your stuff together.

And yes I agree that whatever update you did recently has made the problem worse!

[TreyB1]

I got to the breaking point shortly after I posted, did research, ordered an Eero 6E Pro, got delivered overnight, set it up, all devices are excellent strength now.  Time will tell with reliability, but the app actually gives me details and control.  Meanwhile I'm supposed to wait 30 days of disconnected activity for Google Home to remove my removed wifi devices...they won't let admins remove their own devices manually ones offline.  This is obviously a systemic upper management issue, these design choices don't make sense...like why should the nodes be forced to communicate between each other over the air when there's a rock solid Ethernet port available?  Eero using it on all 3, because that's a senseless point of failure.

My Nest security cams all have much better video quality despite the Google home app saying my old Wifi was "blazing fast" uh huh.

[evanramirez88]

I have 2 routers and 4 access points that all will just drop or disconnect randomly throughout the day. Rendering them useless.

This means that my 4 Nest security cams, are basically useless at random intervals. Even though im paying additional for the recorded footage.

This also means that the Google Homes that i have stationed in the house, and rely on, are also completely useless at random intervals. I literally only get responses telling me the WiFi is down and to try later.

This also knocks out my Chromecasts, again at random intervals. When it happens twice during one 30 minute episode, its infuriating.

All this without including hue bulbs, TP Link switches, and an Orbit irrigation system that is all rendered uselss because Google is not competent enough to make, or fix, an actual WiFi network.

I have this stuff with the expectation its going to be at least somewhat reliable. Ive been using the Google ecosystem for years, im even trained through their training programs!

Instead, nothing ever works. My phone is constantly vibrating due to alerts of the WiFi going down or because some item cant be reached due to it still trying to reconnect to the mesh network that only works sometimes. Then im left without lights, alarms, or Internet because the wifi is spotty or its in the process of reconnecting to wifi. Ive lost a good amount of hours worth of work due to the network just randomly going down. Ive also spent more in data on mine, and my SOs, phone plans as we have to rely on that more often than the Google WiFi as its out so frequently.

Thousands of dollars in Google Devices, all rendered useless. Hundreds in other devices specifically because theyre supposed to work with Google Devices. Subscriptions for services that im not getting. Preventing me from doing work at home, or enjoying and internet in my down time.

I dont have the time, energy, or desire to sit and fight with support as they try to "troubleshoot" the issue again, on the off chance that i actually do manage to get to speak to anyone. This has cost me enough already.

If you arent going to make a reliable network, why would you have a mesh network with points that cant be hardwired?

I have already begun removing everything Google that I can and started replacing it with literally anything else, because nothing else really matters if it works only 30% of the time. 

There is no support. There is no remediation on their end. There isnt even acknowledgement. They do not care.

This question is almost a year old, and no updates or fixes? Nothing addressing it at all? Your product is majorly faulty and nothing is being done. 

Well, im glad that they at least answered my question as to if I should continue with the Google ecosystem or look elsewhere. 

Because unless i see any sort of action on this issue, im done. This was the straw for me, after over a decade. Ill be slowly junking all of the Google equipment and advising all of my networking clients to do the same. I refuse to use, or install, a product or device that can not consistently provide the sole purpose of its existence. Especially when it then renders everything around it useless and jeopardizes my home security.

Ill be looking forward to the class-action

[Chook71]

I am in the process of lodging a complaint with The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) as Google is knowingly selling faulty products. These include: 

• Nest Wifi (Gen1)
• Nest Outdoor Camera (Gen1)
• Chromecast with Google TV

All these products have long-standing issues, All issues have been caused by Google, either by building a faulty product in the first place or via software updates that have rendered most of these devices useless. The issues with the Camera and Wi-Fi go back years and have NEVER been addressed. You can log a support case with Google, and they will simply close in as resolved but never actually provide a resolution. 

I would recommend everyone do the same with their local authority. 

[evanramirez88]

Good idea. Im in the states, so ill do the same with the appropriate authorities here as well. 

Its insane that ive been immersed in the Google ecosystem as much as possible in every avenue possible, and for as long as possible because i always jumped in as soon as i could and i can't get any legitimate support or remediation on this issue. 

Like, ALL Google devices and services need or use WiFi. So losing WiFi is a big deal. I can still operate the ecosystem if a Home goes out, or a Chromecast. But EVERYTHING is useless when the wifi is faulty.

When youre dealing with home security (nest cameras, locks, doorbells, etc) the faulty wifi becomes a legitimate safety issue. People are relying on the reliability of that network for their own, their loved ones, and their belongings safety.

This is not a minor issue.

I COMPLETELY FORGOT ABOUT THE THERMOSTATS AND DETECTORS TOO. 

I live in New England, so in the northeast US. Last winter this same wifi issue caused my house to lose heating overnight on one of the coldest days of the year. I woke up to freezing temperatures INSIDE my house. I could have had a pipe burst, a pet or older family member freeze, or who knows what else! Luckily, i only lost a few plants that werent too important to me. My woodstove was a lifesaver.

[Jiminic]

Good work! Tell me where to sign up!

[Foose212]

Adding myself to the list of unhappy customers. I upgraded to pro a few months back, and have had significantly worse wifi speeds. Now my access points randomly go offline.  

[Serious]

I have a 3 piece Google Wifi setup, one router and two access points and it's pretty solid. I needed to extend the network so I bought a Nest Wifi point for the mic, speaker and additional range. It's gone offline 3 times in the last 6 days since I start logging these incidents. I factory reset after the previous time but obviously made no difference. The speaker was still happily playing Spotify the last time it was "offline". Have to power cycle it every time. Doesn't even respond to touch controls so it's not just wifi - it's crashed. But still happily streaming music... go figure. Meanwhile the Google Wifi points are happy as with never an issue.

[Max8]

I have a brand new nest Wifi point that is just completely useless. Went offline regularly so I finally moved it to a location closer to the router. Now it won't stay online even for a minute! Yes I reset over and over again. Beyond frustrating. 

[Constantissues]

Adding myself to this lengthy chain of complaints. After months of flaky behavior, I finally bit the bullet and factory reset the entire network. Even changed the SSID and password to rule out special characters etc as a culprit. Over a week I slowly started adding devices to the new network and stopped as soon as I had an outage. I thought initially it was a rogue DHCP server regularly rendering various devices without internet access, but no, it turns out the Nest point is to blame. 

I've tried factory resetting the point again, but of course that didn't work. Power cycling fixes it for 24 hours but then it goes back to losing connection with the router. 

Would changing the firmware to disconnect all devices from the point when connection is lost with the router really be that hard? Then initiate a reboot. It's a band-aid, but would vastly improve this long-running issue for all of us.

[PleaseFixPoints]

"Even changed the SSID and password to rule out special characters etc as a culprit"

I've done the same as you, but my Points are still unable to give me a reliable connection.  I even tried doing a factory reset on my Nest cameras and Nest thermostat thinking those devices could be one more reason the Points could fail.

I'm now doing research on which access points to set up across the house.  I'm currently looking into Cisco's 9105 or 240AC.  Are you still using the same Nest hardware?

[cavemangeorge]

I've switched over to Asus hardware and it's been rock solid since install. 

[Ashmud]

Adding my name to the extensive list. Helpful to know this bug is pervasive, and for most of us, started in the last month or two. It'd be even more helpful if Google fixes the bug. Let's see...

[Rob_Collins]

Well apparently I'm not the only one who has been experiencing this problem lately. Same complaint as the last hundred or so.

I have an 'older' pod system (new 5 years ago) that was originally called Google WiFi. Came as a 3-pack, plus I added an additional 4th WiFi point. The first point is hardwired from my router, the other 3 pods are wireless. 

For 5 years, there was rarely ever any issue at all... I was always pleased with my setup. Suddenly in the last month or so, one or 2 of the WiFi points randomly drops signal. Sometimes I have to reboot the pod, other times it eventually goes away on it's own. Very annoying. Diagnosis always says my internet is "blazing fast" even when it's clearly not. It never seems to be one of the first 2 pods in the series, it's always the 3rd or 4th that goes offline. 

Please listen to your people Google! We need a fix! Over 100 complaints of the same thing, and zero response from them?? What's the point of this forum?? 

[PleaseFixPoints]

I'm having the same issue with my two points.  They continue to go offline, but the main router will still stay online where we can connect to Wi-Fi.  I've tried factory resetting multiple times, but nothing has fixed it yet.

[OddlyLemming]

There won't be a fix anytime soon because I doubt very much if there is ANYONE at Google who knows how to fix it or, indeed, cares enough to make an effort to determine what's causing the issue in the first place. I've been following this issue (and been victim to it) since the the 2nd of October, 2022. The issue itself has been a long-running, omni-shambolic, systemic and endemic CHARLIE-FOXTROT since the 10th of September, 2021 (if not earlier).

Googlke has our money now, they don't give a tinker's **bleep** about anytrhing else.

[OddlyLemming]

Strange. I use the 4-letter word for DELTA ALPHA MICHAEL NOVEMBER, and that flies in the face of Google's "Community Standards", yet serving up year after year of manifestly inadequate slop by way of "tech support", "product reliabillity", and "customer service" seems to be A-OK in their playbook. Good to know...

Thinking back to that time 25 years ago when "Don't be evil" actually pretended to mean something.

[Staven79]

I, too, have had increased problems with the Google Wifi point going down frequently. A power cycle will get things running again but it doesn't last even 24 hours anymore. The disconnects started over a year ago and over time it's become more and more frequent. 

[praveen2k4]

I have the same issue with my router and 3 points and the issue frequency has increased in the last month. Pathetic nest Wi-Fi system and terrible support from google, the worst and most time consuming router to ever maintain. Please don’t buy nest Wifi, for the fact any google device, either they don’t work or they randomly stop supporting the devices

[Bibnib]

Ditto - same issue. Router remains connected, but wifi point keeps disconnecting randomly. To reconnect we have to unplug and then plug in cable again. Very frustrating. The wifi point and router are about 8 feet apart with no obstructions. We positioned them so close in an effort to prevent the random disconnections but it hasn't helped. 

[PleaseFixPoints]

I know we are all struggling with the same issue on and off, but I believe they recommend having the points further apart than 8ft.

[mrsucram]

That would be an issue, but my points are all hardwired via Ethernet and are more than 8ft apart. The issue is that Google once known for innovation does not care about user after they purchase. Try getting a live person to help on this? 

[cavemangeorge]

They'll ask you to run through all of the "fixes" that don't work then blame your ISP

[gman3]

Yep.  They'll give you a laundry list that l looks like the list below:  

Please follow the helpful steps below that will help us to fix your issue. 

Step 1: Perform a 2-minute power cycle

1. Disconnect the power from the modem.
2. Disconnect the Ethernet cable and power cord from the parent point.
3. Disconnect the power cord from the child point.
4. 1. Start a 2-minute timer to track.
   2. Check for the make and model of the modem and make sure there isn't any backup battery. If there’s a backup battery, ask the customer to remove the battery, otherwise it won't perform a power cycle.
   Leave everything unplugged for 2 minutes.
5. 1. All light indicators should be solid colors.
   2. Connect the Ethernet cable, then the power cable to the parent point. Wait until the parent point is fully back online.
   3. Connect the power cord to the child point.
   Connect the power to the modem and wait up to a minute until the modem fully powers on.

Step 2: Connect to the point via Ethernet to check for internet access

1. You may connect a device (laptop or desktop) to the Wifi point via Ethernet to check for an internet connection.

Step 4: Check for an upstream router or switch

A third-party router's firewall is more likely to block Nest Wifi Cloud Services, which can cause the app to indicate the Wifi point is offline.

Step 5: Check how far away the troubled child point is from the parent point

The child point should be within 20 to 25 feet from the parent point. 

Step 6: Check for congestion and interference near each Wifi point

Physical barriers, such as the construction materials inside a building, are the most likely reason a Wi-Fi signal doesn't penetrate as far as it should. The following is a list of physical barriers that might be in a building and their effects on the signal.

Ex. Wood,Plaster, Synthetic material, Glass with Low interference level. Double paned glass, Water, Bricks,Marble with medium interference level.  Concrete and Bulletproof glass with a high level of inteference. Then, Metal and Mirror  has very high interference level.

Frequency interference

If the Wi-Fi signal seems strong but then suddenly drops, that could be a symptom of frequency interference. Frequency interference is when another wireless signal passes through the customer's home on a similar bandwidth to their Wi-Fi network, and overpowers or corrupts the Wi-Fi signal. The following table lists common sources for signal interference the customer might find in their home.

Step 8: Gather a diagnostic report, then manually factory reset the troubled Wifi point

A factory reset doesn't remove the configuration from the Google Home app. To delete the configuration, ask the customer to do the following:

1. Open the Wifi device on the Google Home app, then remove the child points from the configurations.
2. Remove the parent point.

Essentially, it's like 'let's have the customer jump through an exhaustive series of hoops in hopes that they'll get frustrated and just go away.'