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Nest Hub Max camera won’t work

Shon
Community Member

My Nest Hub Max camera won’t work. It was working fine until about 2 and 1/2 weeks ago. I was using it for Google Duo, and also for nest camera home monitoring. Now it does not show up on my Google home or on my Google nest app. I tried resetting the router, resetting the hub max, going through all the settings, and still the camera does not work. I went through the threads listed here and it appears that many other people have had this same problem, but an earlier thread addressing the issue was closed. I could not reply to that thread and so I'm starting a new thread at this time. The problem is, I received this as a Christmas present less than 1 year ago. I do not have the receipt or proof of purchase, therefore I cannot go through the normal warranty or claim steps.

 

Edit: Here is the solution. Follow these steps carefully: 

1. Completely remove the nest hub Max from the Google home account

2. Reset the hub Max. You could also restart your phone for good measure. 

3. Open the Google Home app. DO NOT SELECT "SET UP GOOGLE MAX" ON THE HOME PAGE. Instead, use the "+" symbol in the top corner and then select "set up device". Follow the instructions and add the Google max to your account again. 

4. After the Google max is successfully added to your account, you will need to set up there camera again. Go back to the Google Home app homepage and in the middle of the page you will see the option to "setup hub Max camera" (or something similar). Follow those instructions and your camera should be working again. 

If this method doesn't work, another method that somebody reported trying was to uninstall all of the Google Home devices, including door locks, cameras, security, etc.  

 

1 Recommended Answer

M1keS
Community Member

.....I spent several hours going round round and round with this,  then eventually got it working.

Here's what I did.

1. Factory reset the hub max

2. Remove the hub max  from Google home app

(rebooted  the phone with the home app, probably not nèeded)

3. Click + to add new device in the Google home app.

When It detects the hub max , I selected that, but also noticed there was also an extra  option to 'set up as a new device', so I selected that.

Follow through the setup screens, and when it's complete  select the hub max in the Google home app. Then select the "setup nest cam" option. Follow those instructions, and then it , finally, worked!

 

So the only thing I did differently was to select the 'setup as a new device' option on the home app after it detected the hub max (despite having done a factory reset)

View Recommended Answer in original post

187 REPLIES 187

jsherlock
Community Member

Same issue and none of the fixes listed here worked

jso43
Community Member

Add me to the list of frustrated. Tried all recommendations multiple times and still cannot connect Hub camera. Will be returning this weekend. Extremely disappointed 

JohnCuser
Community Member

Mind sharing the steps you took? I finally got mind working after a very frustrating start. Maybe I can help

Tproveau
Community Member

Sorry you are having such issues. I have the Nest Hub second gen, the Nest Hub Max, four smart plugs and five smart bulbs, XBox, and Nvidia Shield all hooked up with Google Home App, Nest App and Globe bulb/plug app. Everything works as expected together quite well surprisingly.

The only issue I have had is, I have read the camera on the Nest Max is supposed to follow you during Google Duo video calls if you move around the room, and I have not seen that, it just shows the camera video window as usual regardless of my movement.

I have accessed my camera both at home and away from home frequently and can turn the camera on and off even when away, using data or wifi on my smart phone. I did start the process by installing the Nest Hub 2nd gen first, and then the Nest Max Hub a few days later. I then added bulbs/plugs and then the Nvidia Shield w/Chromecast and then the XBox and finally another smart bulb all with no glitches. I do not have a Nest door camera or any other smart door bell/camera, which has caused many to have issues from what I see here.

Anyhow hope you can sort it out and not have to return it. When it works it's quite convenient and fun to use for us. Good luck!

Rockbottom8
Community Member

So what I noticed is the hub max is the only camera that appears in the nest app as well as the home app. I'm not sure why. You have to turn on the camera via the nes that is  it's very annoying to be honest as I have to set up motion alerts via nest app and then see it in my timeline. I also only get notifications via nest app and not home app. Try turning on camera in nest app and see what happens. 

NearlyThere
Community Member

FWIW I've spent several hours with Nest support, have had it escalated 2 levels, have a case ID and waiting to see what happens. It is incredible how fantastic the core product is (detection accuracy) and how terrible their app and ecosystem is.

LazyTripod
Community Member

I'm having the same issue as well with a Nest Hub Max I purchased on Black Friday.  I've tried all the solutions in this thread.  The only thing I don't want to do is delete my home as I have lots of devices and things set up. 

 

I'm hoping Google can issue a bug fix ASAP.

Mcph
Community Member

I ended up doing what others have suggested in this thread of creating a new home within the Google home app. The hub then shows in my original home as a local device. The camera works with this method but it’s annoying that I have to have two homes setup.

Also the nest subscription then seems to not cover both devices…

NearlyThere
Community Member

@Mcph I have 5 nest wifi spots, a doorbell, 4 nest cameras (most mounted high on exterior surfaces ), 1 mini, 2 max hubs, 3 t-stats, (not to mention 55 wifi recess lights...). It would be such a pain moving all of them. I actually tried removing my doorbell to see if it was a conflict with the doorbell - but no dice even factory resetting the Max after that.

However, you seem to have _only_ moved your Max to a new home. If you do that, I assume you'd not get doorbell notifications if you hav a doorbell on the old house? And you won't be able to control other appliances in your old home via your max?

NestUser4
Community Member

I am having the same issue. Bought the Google Nest Hub Max today and got it up and running in now time. But the Camera shows offline and unable to live stream or turn ON “Home Monitoring Features”.  I have rebooted and factory reset the Hub Max multiple times and rebooted the Nest Wifi multiple times but can’t get Hub Max to Live Stream or turn ON “Home Monitoring Features”.  I can make/receive Video call using Google Duo and that works fine without any issue but Live stream does not work.  I have other Nest Outdoor/Indoor cameras and they all work fine.  I have called Google support and after more than 3 hours on the phone they were unable to help me and have told me that they will call back within 24 hours.  So let’s see what happens tomorrow.  I should have checked out this blog before spending $200+ on this device.  

Mcph
Community Member

Mine is now working!! I had to remove my other camera device and then install hub and then reinstall my other camera. It seems the hub doesn’t like being added to google home when there’s already a camera in the home. Now works great and have both my home camera and hub camera working. Maybe try that.

NestUser4
Community Member

Thanks I will try that but seems like lot of work as I have 6 cameras and a doorbell already installed and working. Will wait for Google support's call today and if they cannot help then will try your suggestion and if that does not work then will return the Hub Max.  I guess Google should say that the cost of Hub Max is $200 + couple of days of trial and error to make it work. :).  

Krisnepola
Community Member

Thank you.  I have multiple camera. I would have to do that to all of them??  Ugh

NearlyThere
Community Member

Okay I finally gave up on waiting for Google to fix this ridiculous bug. 


What you need to do, like others have said is to remove all other nest cams and configure the max devices first. You do not have to create a new home. My home has 4 nest cams, 1 doorbell, 2 max devices, 1 mini, 5 nest wifi points and a bazillion wiz recess lights. Fortunately I only had to remove 7 devices (4 cams, 1 doorbell, 2 max)  and reset 2 max devices. 

  1. Remove all other devices that have a nest cam (doorbell, nestcams). You don’t need to factory reset them at all. Just remove from the home app. You DO NOT need to physically power off or physically disconnect/remove any device you are removing from the app. You DO NOT need to remove non camera devices like a Google mini or Google nest wifi points. 
  2. Make sure all remaining Google devices work and are connected. This is important because when you configure the max it will go look for “assistant nest devices”. In my case I had 3 disabled thermostats (in my home app but not plugged in) so it would get stuck at the  finding assistant nest devices stage. Sigh. 
  3. Factory reset your max (by simultaneously pressing both volume up and down buttons on rear right together for 10s) and then use Google app to add it. It will find it, add it as normal. No need to set up as new device etc. Standard install. Check that you are able to turn on the camera. 
  4.  Repeat step 3 for all additional max devices. 
  5. Now just scan the QR codes for each additional device. You don’t have to take out your devices - the QRs are in the box. Or if you saved a picture of each  QR you can load up in your computer too and point your app to it. 
  6. If certain devices don’t connect don’t worry. If you have more proceed to the next and come back to it. I have one nest cam in my backyard that wouldn’t reconnect with an assistant device. So I configured my front and garage cams and went back to it and it connected. 
  7. For each cam you add back go back and make sure max cams work. 

Repeat steps 5-7 for each removed device. One interesting side note, as user Delta points out below was when I redid this process, both my battery cameras and my max devices downloaded new firmware. Did Google sneak in a fix? Who knows - I suppose I'll know first hand when I buy some more hubs in the near future and if I need to re-do this shenanigan again, I'll come in kicking and screaming to my co-empathetic users and a company that doesn't quite seem to care (yet). 

Once you feel awesome everything works turn off your max cameras because if you don’t those darn green lights seem to  keep on all the time even if you don’t  have video recording enabled nor watching live  potentially freaking out your guests. 


Enjoy the immaturity of the Google smart home ecosystem while marveling at its super accurate face recognition and general object recognition accuracy.  For those who are relying on a Google support call to fix this for you, best of luck. You'll spend several hours on the phone with well meaning support walking you through steps you already did many times before, be escalated thrice - I was told I am now in top priority support, which finally landed in my sending a log report on my device to Google via its usual UI interface. When I asked how that will help, I was told it was being handled in top priority but obviously never heard back.

WOW ! That is a lot to do for something I just received today Dec 21 and for the cost/price we pay for this it should work right out of the box …. Not today,sending back on Wednesday Dec 22 …. 

Thanks for the detailed description NearlyThere. It does seem like a lot of effort in order to get such a simple thing working. I only have two other Nest Cams connected but am still trying to find the energy (and time) to go through this process! Will let you know if it works for me.

Well, I finally got around to attempting the above process. I removed my other two camera devices from my Nest Home and then, it took me two attempts in factory resetting the Nest Max display before finally getting the camera to work! 

Once the display and camera were finally working, I started adding back in the other cameras.

One extra step I took in between each of these processes was quitting my mobile app between each install, as I found that I had excessive ‘hang time’ during the connecting process. What can I say, the App is ‘really buggy’! 

I also found that I had to physically plug each of my cameras into the wall charger, in order for it to connect properly, as well as having to scan my QR codes.

Anyway, it’s taken many attempts and plenty of help from the Community here,  to finally get the Nest setup and working as i would have expected it to, so thanks for the support Community!

If only Google themselves were as helpful!

 

Good luck guys!

Most people here have been able to setup the displays fine, it is ‘enabling home monitoring features’ that seems to be the main problem ( myself included). It just won’t stay on after selecting. So the nest camera can’t be used as a security device ( even though it can be used for video chat etc). This seems to be widespread and is possibly in need an update by google. 

The link I pointed to is to solve the same problem you are referring to. 

  • Yes, I realise that, but I and many others have tried this as well as many other solutions posted here with no success. It seems that it might just be that some displays actually work properly, but obviously some are glitchy. 

    I did come across a buried piece of info that could also be part of the issue. In the docs somewhere I found that the nest cam requires 5mbps upload bandwidth…if this is really the case then less bandwidth might prevent home monitoring to be enabled. 
    …something else to ponder…

Tproveau
Community Member

That could be a possibility I suppose? I have 10mbps and have never had an issue with my Nest Camera working however it does take some time to display the video when I am away from home over data on my phone. Video streams are fairly large in size I suspect? Not sure if a low upload speed would completely keep your camera from working though? 

I found this: "The minimum upload Internet speed required for Nest products is 1.2 Mbps. The upload speed required to stream video from Nest cameras and doorbells at a 1080p resolution is 5 Mbps. For a home or office with multiple Nest products, an upload speed of at least 10 Mbps is recommended."

Source: https://smarthomestarter.com/internet-speed-requirements-for-all-nest-products-cam-hello-thermostat-...

 

I just tried my camera again from my living room over my own wifi and high speed home internet, using Google Home app on my phone. It takes about 10 seconds for the camera to turn on after I touch the "Turn on" button in the home app. Then when I wave at the camera the delay is about one second before the waving hand shows on my home app camera live video. This is with 10mbps and my internet speed always tests accurate at 9.5 to 10.3 or so.

I’d think it’s possible but improbable. If it were, just the act of shutting down other devices and retrying with max would have worked. Turning all devices back after the max worked should have again caused an issue if it’s bandwidth. We also have folks here with only a doorbell and a max who’ve reported this issue. Similarly the google support suggested solution of creating a new home doesn’t increase bandwidth. It just isolates the max. 

Thanks, that makes sense to me!

Tproveau
Community Member

Home monitoring works ok for me too however I do not use the optional "Nest Aware" so just get warnings and camera shots on my phone. The Nest thermostat thought my house cooled down at the wrong time and gave me a critical warning last week! I am not sure why as I was away from home so the Thermostat turns way down when I am in "away mode". they wanted to connect me with a "heating expert" to help me fix mu furnace!

Be wary of these heating experts. Google  will point you to onetech. These folks only fiddle with the thermostat. They have little to no experience on actual HVACs and won’t touch them. How do I know? I paid for them thinking they would debug a incompatibility issue I had with my HVAC. When I called Google support they crossed checked my model number and  assured me it was compatible and fixable via their support partners. 

Yep I am not surprised. I would never go with the Google suggestion. I do most of my own plumbing and heating when I can. When I cannot troubleshoot it I call a local business who sold and installed my furnace and central air. He is knowledgeable and always fair. 

Thank you so much for sharing this.  After messing around for hours trying to get a new Google Nest Max camera to work I came across this work around.  Another hour uninstalling all non Nest Hub Max devices (doorbell and 3 cameras) and reinstalling them after the the Nest Hub Maxs and all cameras work fine.  Only downside is you loose all recorded Nest history.  Google really need to fix this issue.

Tproveau
Community Member

I think maybe having other cameras in your home is causing the issues? I have no other camera's yet however I do have multiple plugs, bulbs, two Nest hubs (one a max), Nvidia Shield and XBox all working well with Google Home and voice controlled. Since I already have the Nest Max hub working I am hoping if I add a camera or two I won't end up with this issue of the Max camera not working?!

Crossy
Community Member

Wow…sounds like you might have actually purchased the one that works. I just knew there had to be one out there somewhere lol. 😂😂😂

Tproveau
Community Member

The only issue I had with the Nest Max was when I was installing it the first time. When the update download was running during the install it lost the connection and I had to unplug and plug back in, the Max, about 7 times till the update finally completed! I thought I was going to have to return it? I have never had any issues with my wifi dropping out with any devices before and the other Google speakers and 7 inch 2nd gen display installed and updated without issues. The Max has worked fine ever since so I think it was an install/updating at the same time/first time timing issue??

That is the issue. It doesn’t have anything to do with other non camera devices. It’s only a correlation between max and other google camera devices installed before max. 

Rockbottom8
Community Member

its odd i was able to finally add this camera to my existing home. It's like it decided to work. sigh. I have been having issues with this hub staying connected to the wifi.

Dalej2148
Community Member

Well I just received mine and it would not connect at all. It would show my other Neat Cam but the cam that is built in would not connect…. All it did was try to but nothing …. Gave up and will be sending it back …. This was a a deal maker but if it will not even connect why keep it … 

BirdsNEST10
Community Member

HI All,

Recently purchased the hub max and doorbell for my wife... We are having the same issues that have been mentioned above. We got everything working to a T until this am. The camera for the hub is NOT connecting. What is interesting about this factor, is that the camera is built into the hub. Which is mind blowing when your using the hub to view the camera.

My question now, why are so many people losing hours upon hours trying to keep everything connected? Obviously the internals and/or software are the biggest issue. It should not be this hard to connect your products. It is sad to see a billion dollar company produce such an inferior product... Maybe personnel playing too many games rather than working on software. But never assume... GOOGLE the product looks and sounds great but unfortunately it is 5/10 because of the workability.

Delta
Community Member

Anyone find a solution? I had my hubmax and hub connected. Everything worked fine. I bought a nest battery doorbell and wasn’t able to add. I used another home separate from all other devices and it was able to add. Unfortunately, this meant losing use of the hub and hub max for seeing people via the doorbell.  I tried adding the doorbell after having the hub max setup and it would get stuck and not connect to the original home. Please help

When you say wasn't able to add, what exactly happens? In my experience (link), adding devices back sometimes gets stuck in "looking for assistant devices" which usually means an inactive device (and if not, retry again).

DishManTed
Community Member

Fixed nest hub max camera problem using another's solution.

Installed 4 battery cameras, hub mac,  and mini. Camera on max would not turn on even after factory reset, remove device and reinstall using + and add device.

Removed all 4 cameras, mini, and max in Google home.

Factory reset max and reinstalled using + and add device. Camera works now!!!

Then reinstalled cameras using saved qr codes. First one said code and device do not match,  restarted iphone and got same error. Tried different camera with same error. Restarted camera and iphone and installation worked! (Was waiting for blue light on camera before proceeding when prompted, but blue flashing light works). Then other 3 cameras and mini installed without restarting!

(And hub mac camera still worked!) Whew

DishManTed
Community Member

Same hub camera problem not working. Hub was added after 4 nest camera battery. Tried hub factory reset, remove and readd, hard reset, restart phone. This is for a dish customer. Any solution coming up soon? Home app wouldnt even allow 4th camera until 1st was remove and readded.

Delta
Community Member

Found a solution

I removed the Nest doorbell and Hub max from the home. Factory reset both devices. Then I added and configured my Hub Max first. After I had that set up, with nest cam working, I then set up my nest doorbell (battery). It finally works now! 

One thing I did notice when setting up both the Max and Battery is during the setup and connecting, they both went to downloading new updates. I don’t know if it the bugs were fixed but I have both cams working now IN ONE HOME!

Fixed nest hub max camera problem using another's solution.

Installed 4 battery cameras, hub mac,  and mini. Camera on max would not turn on even after factory reset, remove device and reinstall using + and add device.

Removed all 4 cameras, mini, and max in Google home.

Factory reset max and reinstalled using + and add device. Camera works now!!!

Then reinstalled cameras using saved qr codes. First one said code and device do not match,  restarted iphone and got same error. Tried different camera with same error. Restarted camera and iphone and installation worked! (Was waiting for blue light on camera before proceeding when prompted, but blue flashing light works). Then other 3 cameras and mini installed without restarting!

(And hub mac camera still worked!) Whew

 

Removed all d