Nest Hub Max Camera Not Streaming to Apps

[Kira]

I have 4 Hub Maxes in my home and for 3 of them the camera is not working so I can see what is being viewed in the Google Home or Nest apps. The green camera light is on, showing that they are currently active/filming, but nothing is streaming through to the apps. The other Hub Max is working properly, as well as my Nest Doorbell and exterior Google camera. In the apps, the view of what they are seeing is just black and they can't connect. All 4 Hub Maxes are running Fuchsia Version 9.20221010.3.176

For troubleshooting, I have already done the following:

1. Unplugged the Hubs and left them for a few minutes before plugging them back in and letting them reboot. The camera then works in the apps, but after a bit they go back off.
2. Unplugged the Google Fiber Wifi router from everything, let it reboot and reconnect. Once the Hubs are active again, the camera then works in the apps, but after a bit they go back off.
3. Deleted the Google Home app from my iPhone and re-downloaded the app. Deleted the Hubs from the Google Home app, reset each Hub to factory settings, and set them up as New Devices in the Google Home app. Again, the camera then works in the apps, but after a bit they go back off.
4. Updated the DNS of my Google Fiber Wifi router to Primary Server 8.8.8.8 and Secondary Server to 8.8.4.4

I have now spent about 5 hours troubleshooting and communicating directly with Google Help. They have not been able to provide me with any ideas of what to try besides what I have already done on my own, so I have just been doing the same things with them and nothing is working to get these cameras back working.

Has anyone else had this issue and gotten your cameras working again???

[Amcglinc]

Hi Muddi,

In the past couple months there have been numerous ongoing reports of this still happening, including my own. Any updates on progress? I have been forced to cancel my Best Aware subscriptions as they have proved useless to me since April. Can this thread please be changed back to unanswered since this is a debilitating and ongoing software problem?

Andrew

[tinytim84]

I spoke with Google Support today. According to them the fix has been made and is currently being pushed out to devices. They told me they were so far 50% through the US. The rollout is region dependant so it will depend where you are located. 

[BenGunn]

Hi tinytim84, did you get the update? If so, is the problem solved now? I'm based in Europe and my Hub Max is still on Fuchsia 10.20221207.2.109, Software Version 51.0.24.513642888 and Chromecast firmware 1.68.353511

[RainerHerbert]

Same here too.
Nest Hub Max
System firmware version: 10.20221207.2.109
Cast firmware: 1.68.353511
Google Home App version 3.1.1.15

[Rich2]

Let’s get google to fix it with a update 

[User13]

Same problem I am experiencing and I have submitted my feedback.

[Epicauction]

I am having a similar issues. All other nest cameras/ door bell working. I can view google max steam in nest, and even though I pay for aware, it is not recoding beyond the last 15 minutes at any point I view. Very strange. 

[Adam2fl]

My camera doesn't work and even worse, I spent thousands of dollars on my Google home security system and cameras and now you're taking that away and it will no longer be able to be used. Shame on you guys, you are no better than a common Thief

[PetroUA]

The same issue.

Cam on my hub max always offline. When I tried to enable it nothing happened. Also the home monitoring feature can't be enabled, it always returns to disable state.

I sent feedback with GHT3 Nest Hub Max camera offline.

Jfyi: My Doorbell works well in same home, no nest subscription. 

Technical information

System firmware version: 11.20230306.3.135

Cast firmware: 1.69.362882

Google home app 3.4.1.5

[parrid]

I give up. It was fixed for a while and now Google have ballsed it up again. Hub max is now a doorstop. No more Google/Next devices for me.

[HeyneHideaway]

I am so disheartened that I must agree.  Horrible support and my hub max is quickly becoming a doorstop as well.  All the reviews I watched and read before I decided to purchase, the must have all been paid as I find no success in resolving the issue and no support.  The numbers of people with the same exact issue, should lead to a class action suit for a full refund.  

[bananamedic]

@Muddi is there any update? People have literally been waiting for months on end for this fix. People are now, understandably, leaving google and selling their equipment (at a loss) and moving to competitors. I have 20+ devices and I have to admit, I'm thinking of doing the same. Aside from a short update from yourself 6 months ago, there has been radio silence from Google. I'm not getting at you personally, rather at Google, as a large company, with such a large problem, the response has been completely unacceptable. 

Can you ask Google to provide an update to everyone on this forum to reassure us that this fix is coming, sooner, rather than later. 

[Kinyl]

7 months and no solution... Nest subscription increasing by 20% for no service and a faulty product...

What a joke!

[JohnLondon]

Hi Muddi (and others),

I have the same issue. I have left the feedback as you suggested in the GH app. 

I have a Pixel 6, running version 3.6.1.5 of the GH app and Android 13.

Has you support team been able to do anything about this issue? Can you please send me the link to the support form?

Thanks,

John

[JohnLondon]

@Muddi, @Princesss,  @Dan_A , @Juni , and @LovelyM (Google Nest Community Specialists who have commented on this issue):

Let me add some more details to see if anyone has any ideas or if this triggers any attention from Google's Nest team.

I bought the Nest Hub Max in Sep 2019. Using the app I installed it in the existing Home that also contained  3 Google minis, 1 Nest Hub, 1 original Google Home, 2 Chromecasts, 1 Nest doorbell, and 1 Nest Thermostat, as well as 3 Google Wifi pods. It was working fine for years, until we left on holiday in August 2022 and had guests staying with us. When we returned the Nest Hub Max was no longer in our Home and wasn't connecting. I have no idea what happened, our guest told us they had just switched the electricity to the Nest Hub Max off. Everything else was still working fine.

I therefore factory reset the Nest Hub Max and tried to add it to our Home. It all worked fine, except that the Camera (as a Nest Camera) doesn't work. So the device shows as off-line, both in the Google Home app and in the Nest app, even though the device is otherwise working fine (showing a correct photo library, answering questions, etc). It also lets us make Google Meet video calls. But it does not let us monitor the Camera.

So I decided to try setting up a new Google Home, removing the Nest Hub Max from the old Home, and adding it to the new Home. Then the Nest Hub Max works fine, including the Camera monitoring feature. The Nest app then also shows the camera of the Nest Hub Max (but in a different Home). 

However, I don't want to have two separate Homes, because it means the Nest Hub Max cannot hear our Nest doorbell, it doesn't work as a speaker in a group, etc. As I said, we have many devices in the old Home (including a Nest thermostat and a Nest doorbell) and I don't want to port them all to the new Home.

So after several months, I have now removed the Nest Hub Max from the new Home again to see if it now works in the old Home. But I ran into exactly the same issue.

I have read all the forums and tried most of the suggestions without any success to date.
We have a Nest Aware subscription, which still works with our doorbell camera, but now has not benefited from the Nest Hub Max camera for over a year. It is rather frustrating.

The Nest Hub Max currently runs system firmware 12.200230611.1.67 and cast firmware 1.70.377722.

Can you please let me (and all the other people in this forum suffering from this issue) know what to do to get the Camera function on the Nest Hub Max to work in the old Google Home?

Many thanks,

John

[MplsCustomer]

@JohnLondon 

This almost seems like yet another instance where it seems that Google Nest's servers have corrupted something in a customer's Google Nest "home/structure", and Google Nest is either unwilling or unable to correct that error on their servers.

[JohnLondon]

My problem seems to have been resolved now. For the past week, the camera has been working as normal and the Nest Hub Max no longer shows as offline, after having experienced this issue for almost 18 months.

This may be helpful to some of you, although I am not hopeful as it isn’t entirely clear to me what exactly is the cause of the remedy. However, I do believe that the people in this thread focusing on Wi-Fi issues are misguided. My Hub Max was working fine - all along I could have Duo/Meet video calls and it performed all other functions EXCEPT live streaming of the camera. And both the Home and Nest app showed the device as off-line, while it clearly wasn’t.

Also, having multiple Homes on my phone wasn’t a part of the problem, it actually helped to solve the problem. I have three Homes in the app, two at my home and one at my father-in-law’s. It doesn’t affect this issue in my case.

I believe the problem lies in Google’s (lack of) integration of the old Nest infrastructure into their Home infrastructure, something MplsCustomer already hinted at earlier. Somewhere there is a clash which prevents these Hubs to fully use the live streaming function. It would be interesting to see if this happens with their new Pixel Tablets.

I followed the advice from bananamedic (and others?), factory reset my hub (for the umpteenth time), and then left it unplugged for about 60 hours. However, when I went through the process of setting it up again and adding it back to my Home, the exact same thing happened again: everything worked except live streaming from the camera. So I then decided to go back to a solution that had worked in the past: add the Nest Hub Max to a new Home. When I did this a few months ago, my Nest Hub Max just worked perfectly. But it was in a different Home to all my other Nest devices, which has its drawbacks. This time round, Google wouldn’t let me set up the Max, even though I had removed it from my old Home and yet again factory reset it. It asked whether I had any other Nest devices with a camera in this or any other Home to which I answered yes. I then got this message:

“Thanks for letting us know that you have one or more Nest devices already set up in your home. Those devices were set up on another person’s account. To use those devices with the device or feature that you’re currently setting up, the owner of those devices needs to migrate their Nest account to Google.” And the only option was to exit the setup. Please note that the “other person” is also me with the same gmail address and I have migrated my Nest account to Google a long time ago.

So I went back and changed the answer to the previous question to "no" and finished the set-up of the Nest Hub Max, which now worked fine, but again was in a different Home. I then removed the Nest Hub Max from that new Home, went back to my old Home, where I could see this Nest Hub Max at the bottom of the list of Devices as a “Local device”. I added it to my old Home and ever since it has been working fine.

I don’t know if the 60 hours of leaving it unplugged has broken some link that was preventing it from working in the Nest infrastructure, or whether this moving the Nest Hub Max as a local device to my old Home would have worked anyway (I didn’t think of this before).

I am a great fan of Google, I use a Pixel 8, we have a house full of smart devices from Google, including Nest doorbell and thermostat, we use Nest Wi-Fi, and I use Google Workspace both privately and at work. However, they do mess up regularly. But I don’t think they are any worse than Microsoft or any of the other hardware providers. So whenever they do, I try to use these forums to solve my problem. And I am thankful to everyone who posts here. I hope my resolution can help someone else.

[MplsCustomer]

@Muddi, @Princesss,  @Dan_A , @Juni , and @LovelyM (Google Nest Community Specialists who have commented on this issue):

Why doesn't Google Nest Support contact some of the customers who have this issue in order to do some in-depth troubleshooting and identify a solution? This particular thread goes back 8 months, and for at least 6 months Google Nest has been saying "Our team has identified the issue and is currently working on a fix."

I can only guess at how I would feel if our Nest Hub Max had been malfunctioning for 8 months.

[bananamedic]

Couldn't agree more. Even someone from Google come on here to explain what they have found, what they are trying to do about it and what kind of time line we can expect a fix. Really poor from Google! 

[Web-Wench]

Is there a solution yet? I'm having this issue. I've reported it in feedback through the home app.

[HeyneHideaway]

I am getting no support.   I have invested in the Google ecosystem for our new home and thus issue with the camera is not just happening with the Google home app, but also with the Google Nest app for the hub.  And now, I noticed that the hub drops off line even though the router is up and other devices are working and connected.   It really is failing. 

[Captain565]

Sadly google couldn’t care less. They have never been good at support. I have said it so many times. Sell your google stuff, and get into Amazon’s system. The deals this Christmas season will be amazing, and I have zero grief with Alexa. This first start showing up over a yr ago…**bleep** pathetic!

[MMMinteresting]

Sad to say I think you are right.

[MMMinteresting]

Ditto, so many devices and one by one they are developing issues. Shame - the price we pay for loyalty.

[HeyneHideaway]

So update.  My wife and I are escalate to the State attorney and also disputing the chages for the Hub and the three smoke alarms we purchased but have not installed yet.  I posted an article, the only recent article I have found regarding Google's failure to fix an issue and have the product work as advertised.   It would be great if we could get a listing of everyone that has had the same issue.  If someone could compile a list of emails with every that has been dealing with this issues, that would be great and I will forward to the State.

[Web-Wench]

I just got it working this morning. I saw a suggestion about removing any other homes registered to your home app, and thought I would give it a try. I deleted all the other homes except my current one then did a factory reset on the hub max. The device now shows online and I can stream the camera to both the home app and the nest app!

[HeyneHideaway]

Please let me know if this fix works long term, I will try it as I do have two homes on the app and would not hesitate to take our current home out of the app so that at least what I have will work with the new home.  And thank you for sharing your success!  Fingers crossed that it stays up for a few weeks!

[Web-Wench]

Still working! Might be worth trying. 

[HeyneHideaway]

So is Mine.  thank you thank you thank you!  You solved the issue and given them an idea of how to fix their software so we can go back to doing multiple home setups.  

The power of community.  You rocked My world and for that, thank you!

[Captain565]

Delete extra homes from both google home and nest app…?

that would suck as my other home is the other side of the country 

[Yuki88]

I already submitted my feedback app version is 3.7.1.4

Camera firmware  12.20230611.1.67

[Captain565]

Our team?

a cat and 2 dogs!

pathetic!

[1969anais]

I just submitted feedback.  Please let us know the status of this camera issue. Very frustrating!

[Farojasp]

It has been too long, and Google still has not provided a fix, which is hard to believe.  I have 2 units at home and had been experiencing the same issue as  everyone here for months and months.  Recently I discovered a  simple workaround that seems to have temporarily solved the problem for both units.  Remove power for about a minute.  Turn camera and mic off from the back of the unit.  Plug the power back on, let it restart, turn camera and mic back on from the back of the unit.   Worked for both devices, cameras have been online for some weeks now, hope it does for everyone else's units while Google perhaps pays some attention to this issue.

[pwk]

Thanks Farojasp good find this actually worked for me, tried it all resets, WiFi hostspot created new home etc but just always offline.

As was mentioned I just had to use physical switch to turn off camara/mic then pulled power and waited 5 mins. Let both boot then flicked switch to turn on cam/mic again.

Both have been solid now for 4h which is the first time in a long time.

Was usually reboot worked for 30mins and then offline again. Finger cross.it sticks!

[KeithOwen]

That didn't work at all for me

My Hub Max shows as completely offline in the Home app, despite the fact that everything is working apart from the Nest security camera function. Even the camera itself is working, because it recognises me when I approach and correctly gives personalised results.

So the issue is primarily with the Nest functionality 

[pwk]

I am experiencing the same issue as others have detailed. This problem persisted on my original Nest Hub Max and also the recently purchased one to monitor my pet in hope things will be OK and the other hub was an isolated issue with that hub.

Despite the length of this post, it's crucial for Google to acknowledge and take ownership of this issue through substantial updates. I've diligently performed the following troubleshooting steps on both Nest Hub Max devices:

Conducted factory resets on both devices.
Deleted the old home and established a new one, re-pairing all devices.
Verified and adjusted settings as mentioned in previous posts.
Submitted feedback with the reference "GHT3 Nest Hub Max camera offline."

It's worth noting as other have that my other Nest outdoor cameras operate seamlessly 24/7, and all other Wi-Fi devices are functioning properly.

It is imperative for Google to elevate this matter internally beyond the routine "have you tried turning it off and on again" responses from representatives.

A more thorough and comprehensive resolution is urgently needed to address this what appears to be an increasingly widespread issue.

[KeithOwen]

"

It is imperative for Google to elevate this matter internally beyond the routine "have you tried turning it off and on again" responses from representatives.

A more thorough and comprehensive resolution is urgently needed to address this what appears to be an increasingly widespread issue."

Good luck with that. The first post in this thread was back at the beginning of February. The only response from Google has been "submit feedback"...and that took 6 weeks

[Anti]

Is there any answer to this yet or is it just that the camera doesn’t work?

[Web-Wench]

It works, just more as easily as it should. Mine was phone for ages. I got it working after I removed an additional home I had set up in my Google Home, then reset the camera and redid the set up process in Google/Nest