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New Nest Hub Max won't connect to wifi.

jampat
Community Member

I've never had a device behave so poorly. It was new and I have tried many things without success.  Ran setup every time, all failed to connect during setup process.

  1. Device ~20' from AP. Tried to connect to main wireless wireless network (5Ghz) (Ubiquiti).
  2. Try main AP 2.4Ghz network. 
  3. Try alternate 5Ghz network on upstream router (Mikrotik).
  4. Try alternate 2.4Ghz network on upstream router.
  5. Try using cell phone as an AP in case there was something on home network blocking device. AP was android phone.
  6. Moved NHM to ~8' from main AP.
  7. Moved NHM to ~8' from alternate router.
  8. Tried manually entering wifi passwords in case saved passwords were the issue.
  9. Multiple factory resets, multiple power down of routers/ap's.

In every case, things went well up to and including selecting wifi networks and entering password but after that failed every time.

What's left to try? Getting very close to sending this back. Miserable user experience so far. Building a device with a screen that requires setup from another device is a huge fail right off the bat. Being basically a brick out of the box doesn't improve my opinion of it.

 

1 Recommended Answer

jampat
Community Member

Brutal. Appears to be working now. Needed to use the very long way around.

  1. Setup a new google "home" connected to a cell phone AP. Connect spare cell phone to same AP.
  2. Connect NHM to new google home and allow it to update.
  3. Move device to google home I want it in (it is still connected to cell phone AP)
  4. In google home for NHM, forget wireless network.
  5. Connect setup phone to network with google home I want on it.
  6. Add NHM to google home.
  7. Working. Brutal end run that should never have been required.

EDIT:
I can't remember if I had to unlink NHM from fake "home" first. I tried many different things before something worked and can't remember if I did this or not in the final iteration.

Fwiw, it is now connected to the exact SSID that it refused to connect to during the first setup I tried.

 

Edit 2:

It appears google home is having issues for many people. Maybe that caused my problems?

https://www.androidpolice.com/google-home-adding-smart-home-devices-error/

View Recommended Answer in original post

13 REPLIES 13

ThanhL
Community Member

Hi 
I'm facing same issue with him but my device is Nest Hub gen2.

I cannot connect from the first time, so I cannot do anything until now.

Try some solution I can found but I can not fix it.

MplsCustomer
Bronze
Bronze

@jampat 

Since you mentioned a main network and an alternate network, how many Wi-Fi networks do you have? Each device in a Google Nest "home/structure), including your phone or mobile device, has to be logged onto the same network name (SSID).

There are 5 wireless ssid's. Phone was logged into the same SSID I was trying to setup the NHM on each time. In this google "home", chromecast is connected to main AP. After the first round of no luck with NHM setup I added a nest thermostat to the router (due to location, signal from router was stronger than signal from AP). No issues with home app seeing both the thermostat and chromecast (as the router is upstream and handing out the addresses I suspect they are the same network in googles eye). Tried NHM setup again after thermostat installation with no luck.

EDIT:
You did give me an idea I haven't tried. I will create a new "home" and see if NHM works there. If yes, that should let me update firmware and then try connecting it to my home again.

@jampat 

I have no experience in working with 5 wireless SSIDs that are downstream from a DHCP server, but I suspect it may be challenging for Google Nest, which wants a separate Google Nest "home/structure" for each Wi-Fi network (that is, for each SSID).

For example, when changing routers, Google Nest's recommendation is to set the network name (SSID) and password to the same value as on your old router. And if that's not possible, then their process calls for removing the Google Nest device from the Google Nest app or Google Home app while still on the old Wi-Fi network, then doing a factory reset, and then re-installing on the new Wi-Fi network (https://support.google.com/googlenest/answer/9223711?hl=en#zippy=).

Given all that, I wouldn't be surprised if Google Nest would get confused if, for example, your thermostat and chromecast device were on different SSID(s) than the SSID where you are trying to install your Nest Hub Max. Are your thermostat and chromecast device in separate Google Nest "homes"?

Thermostat and Chromecast are in the same google "home" but on different SSID's (in same network, thermostat is upstream). When I first tried to setup NHM, there was only one device active in google home and it is connected to the first SSID I tried.

@jampat 

I don't know how you manage to have devices on different SSIDs in the same Google Nest "home" without having problems.

In the Help page below, Google Nest says "The Google Home app supports only one Wi-Fi network per home." Google Nest wants to have all of the devices in the same "home" have the same SSID and password; that's why they use the problematic "assisting device" procedure when installing a new Google Nest device to get the SSID and password from an existing Google Nest device in the same Google Nest "home".  And all of the posts I've seen on the subject in this forum say the same thing.

https://support.google.com/googlenest/answer/9547597?hl=en

Ok. Even though I didn't think it was an issue as I had problems before adding thermostat I moved thermostat to AP so all google home devices were on the same SSID. No change in behaviour.

I tried adding NHM to a new "home". Same physical location, same AP, just a new virtual home. No change.
EDIT:
Made a new "home" using a cell phone as an access point (based on your comments before, my previous attempt was doomed as one "home" can't be spread across networks). Setup phone and NHM were connected to cell phone. Progress. That finally connected. Updating now and will then try and get it connected to my real "home". At least the hardware is working.

EDIT 2:

Another epic UI fail. Man did Google ever drop the ball on this one. Update took a while as it was using cell data. Setup phone expected update to be done within 4 minutes and it wasn't.  Update finished and NHM says to finish setup on phone. Phone has gone to "there may be a problem" and the only two options are leave setup or help centre. Pressing back gives you continue setup (back to screen with two useless options)  or leave setup. Bleeping terrible. Help centre link provides nothing useful. I guess we leave setup and start again.

EDIT 3:

It seemed to be working on the alternate "home" using cell data. I unlinked from that "home" as I wanted to add it to the real "home" but that doesn't work. Ahh. Some progress but obscuring whatever the issue is behind friendly messages with no technical information available is bad practice. At least give me an error code I can look up. Obviously it doesn't like something about my network (which is strange as chromecast and thermostat had no issues at all).

 

 

Hi @RachelGomez123 

Thanks for your recommendation, my network setting includes 2 routers, one as main router and one setting as Bridge Mode to expand wifi signal range.  

I'm not sure if Bridge mode causes my issue or not. Anyway, I will try to move my device to my main router.  

If the issue still occurs, I will contact google in a separate thread because my issue and @jampat  seem not similar.

 

@ThanhL 

Are your two routers using the same network name (SSID)? If not, that may be your problem; all of the Google Nest devices in a Google Nest "home/structure" need to be on the same SSID.  Beyond that, I'm not sure if there's an issue with your second router being in bridge mode.

Hi @MplsCustomer , thank for your support. Current I able to complete setup progress. My action is change my router from 802.11ax Asus to 802.11ac totolink. Beside that, asus router use smart config to choice 2.4Ghz or 5Ghz while totolink router separate it into 2 diffent ssid network. I dont know where issue from, I temporaty using wifi 5 totolink and will check again with wifi 6 asus in futute. 

Thanks for the process. I followed your directions. Same result as every other thing tried.

Muddi
Community Specialist
Community Specialist

Hey folks,

 

Thanks for updating the Community forum of your resolution — it's a big help! Also, I appreciate @MplsCustomer and @RachelGomez123 for helping here. It looks like we can consider this one complete, so I will lock the thread shortly unless I can help out with anything else. 

 

Cheers,

Muddi
 

jampat
Community Member

Brutal. Appears to be working now. Needed to use the very long way around.

  1. Setup a new google "home" connected to a cell phone AP. Connect spare cell phone to same AP.
  2. Connect NHM to new google home and allow it to update.
  3. Move device to google home I want it in (it is still connected to cell phone AP)
  4. In google home for NHM, forget wireless network.
  5. Connect setup phone to network with google home I want on it.
  6. Add NHM to google home.
  7. Working. Brutal end run that should never have been required.

EDIT:
I can't remember if I had to unlink NHM from fake "home" first. I tried many different things before something worked and can't remember if I did this or not in the final iteration.

Fwiw, it is now connected to the exact SSID that it refused to connect to during the first setup I tried.

 

Edit 2:

It appears google home is having issues for many people. Maybe that caused my problems?

https://www.androidpolice.com/google-home-adding-smart-home-devices-error/