Nest Hub Max does not see Nest Doorbell (wired) camera - how do I add that missing device ?

[fpmorrison]

I can only view the Nest Doorbell (wired) camera live feed via the Google Home app on my phone.  When I bring up the Nest Hub Max, Home Control, Rooms, Front Door, it only lists:

1. Front Door Light

2. Front Door Lock

Conspicuously absent is any mention of the Google Ring Doorbell camera.

There is no "add device" on the Nest Hub Max screen and I am at wits end trying to convince the Nest Hub Max that there is a Nest Doorbell camera, the same one the Google Home app clearly knows about.  I don't want to start over from scratch just to get the Nest Hub Max to recognize and show me the front door camera.

Everything was installed on February 6, 2023 if that helps.

[MplsCustomer]

@fpmorrison 

The only normal reason why you should NOT be able to see your Nest Doorbell on your Nest Hub Max, under Home Control | Cameras is if your Nest Doorbell is in a different Google Nest "home/structure" than your Nest Hub Max.

If you go to Home Control | Rooms | Front Door, you should see your Nest Doorbell if your Nest Doorbell is in your "Front Door" "room".

Can you view your Nest Doorbell's camera in the Google Home app? Can you view it on the new "preview" home.google.com website?

[fpmorrison]

from my original post:

"I can only view the Nest Doorbell (wired) camera live feed via the Google Home app on my phone"

When I go to Home Control | Rooms | Front Door on the Google Nest Hub Max, I only see the door lock and door light, but not the doorbell. 

I've opened a case with Google Support.  From what I can detect from speaking with the first-level technical support person, this may be a known defect that may require that I become a beta-tester for Google (which they now euphemistically refer to as "preview" mode <<insert chuckle sound here>>).

The latest email from Google technical support asked for the serial number of the Google doorbell device, so I took a picture of the box and sent that to them rather than risk hand-typing the wrong number by hand into an email.

[Muddi]

Hi fpmorrison,

Thanks for sharing details about the issue. I appreciate @MplsCustomer for helping here.

I know how challenging it is when you can't control your Nest Camera on the Google Home app. To confirm, are you getting a notification from your speakers when someone rings the doorbell? Also, could you share us the case ID so I can further check what's going on with your device. 

Looking forward to your response.

Cheers,

Muddi

[fpmorrison]

I get only an audio notification whenever someone rings the Google doorbell, but no video on the Google Nest Max.   If I use the Google Home "app" on my iPhone 11 Pro, I can get live video of the Google doorbell.  I just wish I could see it on the large Google Nest Max screen.

On the Google Nest Max, if I go to Home Control > Rooms > Front door, it only sees the Leviton  light and Schlage lock, but not the Google doorbell, which is frustrating as hell because the Google Home iPhone app sees all three.

[MplsCustomer]

@fpmorrison 

In the Google Home app, what "room" do you have your Google doorbell assigned to? Is it assigned to the "Front door" room?

[fpmorrison]

Yes, the Google doorbell is assigned to room "Front Door" and appears as 1 of 3 devices on the Google Home "app".   The Google Nest Hub Max sees only 2 devices in room "Front Door", the Google doorbell being conspicuously absent.  The people who originally installed and configured all of the equipment walked me through a Factory Rest of the Google Nest Hub Max while on the telephone, but that didn't fix the issue (Google Nest Hub Max sees two devices while Google Home "app" sees all three).  I now am faced with paying $150/hour to have the same people to come out on March 6 to fix what I thought they had installed in the first place (which makes my wife very angry by the way).

[MplsCustomer]

@fpmorrison 

Do you have “Visitor announcements” enabled on your doorbell?

If you select “Cameras” on your hub, can you see the doorbell?

there is no reason why this should work, but have you tried moving your doorbell to a different “room” temporarily?

[fpmorrison]

Per Google Technical Support, I did a reset on the Google Nest Hub Max device and now the whole Home Control -> Cameras section is completely gone, so, to answer your question, as far as I can tell,  audio-only "Visitor announcements" is on somewhere hidden deep inside the Google Nest Hub Max where I cannot get to it, but bottom line, only the chime and the audio announcement occurs when somebody rings the doorbell.  I'm at the point that I think this whole Google "smart home" concept is permanently flawed and unless I am prepared to pay the original installers (Homerun Electronics) to come out at $150/hour to try (with no guarantees) to remedy the problem, I'm stuck with an expensive system that cannot show me who is at the front door on the Google Nest Hub Max while the Google Home app on my iPhone 11 Pro will, but that won't do any good for my wife if I'm away from home.

[MplsCustomer]

@fpmorrison 

Perhaps you have a defective Nest Hub Max. I don't know of any reason why the "Cameras" section under "Home Control" should be simply missing. And if your Nest Hub Max and your doorbell are in the same Google Nest "home/structure", you should be able to see your doorbell's camera under "Cameras" and under the "room" to which it is assigned. And, by the way, there is no "add device" function on the Nest Hub Max; you should automatically be able to see all the cameras in the same Google Nest "home/structure". That's how it is for our 4 Nest Hubs and our Nest Hub Max.

[fpmorrison]

The "Cameras' were there before I performed the Factory Reset as recommended by Google technical support.  Now, if I go to Home Control, that section is totally missing.  Things are getting worse, not better by following the advice of Google's second-level technical support, to whom my case (2-322300003374) was escalated.  Unless they come up with something else that actually works, I'm stuck with a set of not-so-smart Google devices.  At least my wife can ask Google to play her favorite radio station, but man, that sure is and expensive radio. 

[MplsCustomer]

@fpmorrison 

After you did a factory reset on your Nest Hub Max and then reinstalled it, did you add it to the same Google Nest "home/structure" where your cameras are located? That's the only thing I can think of that would make the "Cameras" section disappear. Can you see your Nest Hub Max in the Google Home app?

[fpmorrison]

I don't know how to check the home/structure on either in the Google Home app my iPhone 11  Pro or the Google Nest Hub Max.  The folks at Homerun Electronics had me verify that the Google Home app on my phone was signed into the same Google account (@gmail.com) that the Google Nest Hub Max was signed into (both show me in my ice hockey uniform as the avatar - the only Google account I have).  Does that count as the same thing as what you are asking?

[MplsCustomer]

@fpmorrison 

Your Google Nest "home/structure" is the name or nickname you assigned to your home, and displays at the top of the initial Google Home app screen (and in the Google Nest app as well). If you have more than one "home", then there's a drop-down where you can select the "home" you want to view. We have only one, so I don't know what the drop-down looks like.

Does your Nest Hub Max appear on the screen in the Google Home app, along with your front door light and front door lock and doorbell camera?

By the way, which doorbell do you have, the older Google Nest Hello Doorbell that is installed in the Google Nest app or the newer 2nd Gen Google Nest Doorbell that is installed in the Google Home app?

[fpmorrison]

I have a wired, second generation Google Doorbell.

[MplsCustomer]

@fpmorrison 

As I said earlier, one possible explanation for what you're seeing now is that your Nest Hub Max is in a different Google Nest "home/structure" than your cameras. That's why I asked whether your Nest Hub Max appears in the same Google Nest "home/structure" in the  Google Home app, along with your front door light and front door lock and doorbell camera. And why I asked whether you have more than one Google Nest "home/structure" (see earlier remark).

[fpmorrison]

I have only one Home (that I know of) so I must assume EVERYTHING is in that single Google "home".

[MplsCustomer]

@fpmorrison 

I'm at a loss then. The name of your "home" appears at the top of the Google Home app screen. If you have multiple "homes", tapping the "home" name lets you switch between "homes".

[fpmorrison]

When I look, there is only the one and only home.  I just wish the doorbell camera would appear somewhere.  Anywhere.  At this point, I'd settle for the tiny screen on my iPhone.  I've pretty much given up hope that it will ever appear on the Google Nest Hub Max.  A total waste of my money and Homerun Electronics' installers' time.

[MplsCustomer]

@fpmorrison 

Your 2nd Gen Google Nest Doorbell no longer even appears in the Google Home app on your iPhone?  I thought you could access it on your phone but not on your Nest Hub Max.

You could try restarting your doorbell by briefly turning off the electrical circuit that includes your doorbell.

If that does not cause your doorbell to reappear, you might want to contact Support (https://support.google.com/googlenest/gethelp) again to walk through your issue(s). It's kind of hard to resolve a complicated issue with exchanges in this forum.

[fpmorrison]

It was there and worked at one time on the iPhone.  Now, when I bring up Google Home on my iPhone and select Cameras, sometimes the "live" feed works, and at other times, it doesn't.  It's highly hit-or-miss as to when it will work.  For example, all day yesterday, February 26, 2023, the live feed could not be shown (not sure of the exact error message) while today, February 27, 2023 at 15:53, as I am writing this email, I can see and hear the live feed of the front doorbell camera on my iPhone.  At the exact same time, the Google Nest Hub Max shows "connecting" when I try to bring up the doorbell camera, then shows a 90% dark screen with the word "Idle" in the top-left corner and "live video" (liar, liar, pants on fire) on that same screen.  Bottom line: the entire Google "smart home package" is hit-or-miss on any given day and I dare say on any given hour as to whether it will work or not.  No amount of unplugging and replugging in the Google Nest Hub Max will make it show me the front door camera, the one place I absolutely, positively need it to appear.

[MplsCustomer]

@fpmorrison 

I am out of ideas.

[fpmorrison · Accepted solution]

I contacted Google Support over a week ago and spoke to a level one person who indicated somebody higher up than him would have to figure out what is wrong.  The case number is 2-3223000033740.  I have not heard a single word from Google Support after the first couple of days.  No evidence that they are still investigating.  No evidence of what state the case is in (open, closed, pending, something else?).  It's as if Google Support has silently given up and hope I don't notice that they have lost interest.

[Muddi]

Hey fpmorrison,

Sorry to hear about your experience. To confirm, have you tried resetting your Nest Doorbell to see if you will still have the same issue?

Cheers,
Muddi

[fpmorrison]

I finally got the issue resolved with the help of Homerun Electronics (the original installers).  They had to unplug EVERYTHING: modem, router, WiFi extenders, every single piece of Google equipment (Nest Hub Max, Nest Hub Mini - even gave me a brand new one), reregistered everything and finally it started working.   It seems like the proverbial "kill a fly with a cannon" approach to problem solving, but when simple tips don't resolve the issue after a month of trying, I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that it took such drastic measures to get Google equipment to work properly.    Technology can be a blessing when it works, but from where I'm standing, Google technology is a long ways from being consumer-friendly.  I'd like to suggest they invest in some basic self-healing firmware/software to avoid the kind of month-long nightmare we went through.

[Muddi]

Hi fpmorrison,

Sweet! Happy to hear the issue is now resolved and thanks for keeping us in the loop. We also appreciate your feedback and it will be forwarded to the team. Let me know if you still have questions and concerns otherwise, I'll be locking this thread after 24 hours.
 

Cheers,

Muddi