Will Factory Reset using same network name and password allow existing devices to reconnect?

[davidwterry]

I have the Nest Wifi hub and two points. I'm at wits end. It's been working a couple of years and now suddenly, two days ago, my points disconnected and I cannot reconnect. (power cycle hub, power cycle points, even factory reset points gets to last step of Home App setup and then fails trying to join the network).

I'm at the point where I think I'll need to do a factory reset on the hub itself.  My concern is that I have a couple dozen different home automation devices on my network.  So here's my question:

If I do a factory reset on the hub, and during setup I pick the same network name and password, will all of my existing home devices (not talking about Nest Wifi) reconnect? Or will they all have to be set up all over again?

The pain of setting up all of the devices is huge! So many and it takes so much time! If resetting the hub will force me to have to reconnect all the devices, for the same pain I may just dump Google and find something more reliable.  But if you think the devices will auto reconnect given the network name and password are the same, then I'm willing to try it.

Who knows the answer FOR SURE?

[RXShorty · Accepted solution]

Hi @davidwterry 

If you factory reset everything and use the identical SSID and Password you are safe.
I have replaced my WiFi hardware multiple times with the same SSID and Password, and it works just fine.

Every device within range will connect its known WiFi SSID.
Conclusion: Yes this will work. 😁

[davidwterry]

Thank you.  Unsurprisingly, my points all had to be reset (I expected as much). And most of my non-Google devices reconnected automatically. Three out of four of my Nest Hubs had to be factory reset to reconnect, but the 4th worked fine, same with a couple of nest speakers working fine. One computer had to be manually reconnected, the other computers reconnected fine.  Overall ... it was a lot of work, but not the disaster I had feared.  So thank you!

[AbigailF]

Hey folks, 

Thanks for lending a hand, @RXShorty.
@davidwterry, 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 concerns or questions from here, as I would be happy to take a closer look and assist you further.

Thanks,
Abi

[davidwterry]

The factory reset on the router fixed my problem. I do have to wonder why, after several years of working, my points all of the sudden decided to disconnect and refuse to reconnect (tried many times, rebooting the router, rebooting the points, etc, the factory reset was a "last resort" before deciding to dump Nest in the garbage).  It does make me wonder if an "update" was sent down that caused the problem because otherwise having the hardware change its behavior (and stay the same even after rebooting) sure seems like firmware must have been different - especially when a factory reset got it back to normal.  

[AbigailF]

Hi davidwterry,

Thanks for the update. It’s unlikely that a recent firmware update caused the issue as it doesn’t really interfere with the network when it’s downloaded over-the-air by your Nest Wifi devices. However, it’s normal to experience hiccups with your network every once in a while, that’s why we suggest doing basic troubleshooting steps first. I’ll keep this open for a few more days to give you time to monitor any changes. Feel free to reply to this thread so we can continue helping you out.

Best,
Abi

[davidwterry]

I confess, I gave up.  Between last Saturday (when I factory reset my Nest wifi router and points) and today (just one week later), I have had to restart my Nest router several times. And this morning it simply was not coming back up. I restarted the router several times. Plugged my laptop directly into the modem to see if there was anything wrong with the connection there and the modem was functioning fine. Tried the router a couple more times and then gave up.  As of this afternoon I am now on an Eero network.  Funny thing is - whereas when I did the factory reset on my Nest router and points and had to factory reset 3 out of 4 of my Nest Displays in order to get them to reconnect, in this case, bringing up my new Eero router with the same name and password all of my devices simply reconnected. It took me a lot less time to bring up an Eero network than it did to bring up a Nest network after a factory reset.  

[AbigailF]

Hello again davidwterry,

We’re sorry to hear you decided not to continue troubleshooting anymore. If ever you change your mind, we're here for you. I'll close this thread in 24 hours. If you have a new concern, feel free to create a new thread and we'll be happy to help out.

Regards,

Abi