Nest Cams showing offline but are not

[Sphericalpuma]

TL;DR: Google Nest Battery camera stopped displaying a live video feed ("The camera is offline") after a few months via the Google Home app on multiple devices.

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I have three Nest Cam Batteries plugged into power that are showing up as offline recently. I've restarted, factory reset, rebooted the router to no solution. The Nest Cam IQ and my original Nest Hello, show online with the live preview working, so I'm trying to determine if this is a software issue with the home app or on the cameras. 

Obviously all three cameras did not fail at the same time. 

 I still get alerts from both cameras when they detect motion. This happens with two (2) Pixel 7 Pros, an iphone, and a pixel 6 pro. 

Google Home app is up-to-date. I have also tried uninstalling and reinstalling the app. The router is not far away from the cameras and neither the cameras or router changed since installation. I tried unplugging and replugging the modem, router, and cameras - still no luck

Thanks for any help and/or feedback!

[Pwr96618]

I am having the same issue. I removed one camera from the app and tried to reinstall and now I can’t even add the camera back to the app. Rebooted router, charged camera, app is up to date. Camera records motion and sends notifications. It sporadically will allow a live feed. 

[Sphericalpuma]

I had this issue, it wanted to download an update but never did. What I ended up doing was while it said downloading update, factory reset the camera, use a new device to set it up while the "update" was installing, named the camera something else and I could add it. I then went and removed the failed device from the home app. 

[Brad]

Hey there,

Thanks for bringing up the concern you're having. I'd love to look into this for you. The first troubleshooting step that I'd recommend would be to restart your device. This process should keep all your settings, and reconnect it to the same Wi-Fi network. This might be helpful if it ever freezes, has connection problems, or isn't working normally.

Best regards,
Brad

[Sphericalpuma]

As I laid out in my steps above, I've restarted devices, reset the devices, restarted and reset my wifi network using the same credentials. 

Older nest Cams such as the nest cam IQ and 1st gen hello show up and are reachable. Newer cams are not

[SusieQ]

I've tried that as,well as reboot ..and reset as well as checking WiFi 

Nothing works 

[aparticka]

This is the only thing that worked for me. Thanks for the tip! Got both of my cameras back online.

[MplsCustomer]

@Sphericalpuma 

We've had a battery camera for 17 months using the optional 10-meter power cable with no issue (except that it only works in the Google Home app). My comments are based on issues I've seen posted by other customers. Are you using the charging cord that comes with the camera or one of the optional power cables? Is your cord/cable plugged in securely in the bottom of the camera with the cable feeding towards the FRONT of the camera? Are you able to access your camera at all in the Google Home app? If you can, does the Battery setting show as "Plugged in" with an infinity symbol? Can you view the cameras on the "preview" home.google.com website?

[Pwr96618]

I have three cameras and they worked flawlessly for the past year until two weeks ago. 

[MplsCustomer]

@Pwr96618 

If everything else checks out, then I don't know. I've seen similar postings, and don't know whether something has changed on a customer's Wi-Fi setup that they're unaware of, or Google Nest's servers are having problems in certain regions or countries, or with random customers, or whether these new battery cameras are failing after awhile.

[Sphericalpuma]

Just out of curiosity, what kind of Wi-Fi router are you using with your setup?

[Sphericalpuma]

Everything plugged in and working great. Cameras show offline on the preview Google home site, but again they are constantly recording as I can view the timeline. 

[Sphericalpuma]

I should note that I run three Nest Cam Batteries at another house and have no issues. I'm also running a nest wifi at the other house compared to a Google wifi with two points at the house with the problems. 

Points are online and hardwired, mesh is fine, and again all cameras that we're originally in the nest app (nest hello 1st gen and nest cam indoor IQ) work flawlessly with a live preview.  

Other cameras are constantly recording as I can see in the timeline, there's just no live preview because it shows as offline. When I go into the battery settings it shows as "100%" when it was last able to contact the camera which was three days ago. 

Clearly something is up with either the Google wifi doing something weird with just newer cameras (as the other ones work) or there's some weird software issue somewhere else. 

No network changes at all. 

[jaredmccoy]

I'm having the same issue and I use a Plume router, so I don't think it's wifi.

[Pwr96618]

It can’t be. Currently one of my three cameras works as it should, the other two will not display a live feed. 🤷‍♂️

[jsermer]

Having a similar issue.  The only effective temporary solution I've found is to unplug the camera from power and then I get the option to see a live feed.  After plugging it back in after a few days it works fine until it doesn't.  Definitely seems software related since none of my other cameras are experiencing this issue.  I can even see the camera connected to my wifi and transmitting data 

[Pwr96618]

I plug mine into power and live feed works 💯, but the reason I got battery is because I don’t have an outlet close. My driveway camera works  live every time, the other two work live about 10 percent of the time. 🤷‍♂️. I want new cameras but I paid a lot of money for these…

[jsermer]

That used to be the case with me for nearly the past year but within the last month or so, something changed

[Galant56K]

Hi,

Same issue here for me. an older Google next hub max is working fine for live view and recording. but my nest doorbell battery (hardwired) and my nest spotlight cam (hardwired) are both displaying offline. but they are still uploading events to cloud and also sending notifications to my phone. this is very frustrating as my wife and I like to look at the live feed from the cameras a lot. everything has worked fine for the last 12 months just fine. only in the last 3 weeks has this become an issue. I have tried every thing. including New router,  new Wi-Fi AP and  updating everything. I have wasted a lot of time in this. It is defiantly a 'GOOGLE' problem. please fix asps please!!!!

PS. have you seen the home.google.com site for viewing you cameras live on big screen on pc? its great (when the cameras are not offline), when will we be able to look at the event history videos on that same site? cant wait.

[Pwr96618]

I’m currently looking into different camera options. I’m done trying to figure out what the problem is. 

[Galant56K]

dont go reolink. very average

I think I might go back to IP cameras with a local NVR. they have never let me down in may last house and business. Just have to hardwire everything. I do like the car, people and pet detection with google. 

[Halesbales]

Sounds like a bunch of people are having the same problem all of a sudden which leads me to think this is not on the customers end 

[MplsCustomer]

@Halesbales 

Whatever the cause is, it does not affect all customers. Our Google Nest cameras and doorbells are rarely, if ever, offline.

[jaredmccoy]

I had 2 cameras doing this. One I removed from the home app and factory reset. The other one I just left alone. Then I bought a new camera and set up like normal. Then it did this error of the box at some point after 24 hours of uptime. I factory reset but it would get stuck at the update when setting up. I returned it. Then I bought a second new one and returned the original messed up one. I set it up and just left it. Then a week later both the new one and the old one I never messed with both worked.

I'm learning with smart home devices/cameras to just leave them alone sometimes for a week or 2 because it's usually something on the manufacturer's end. Now, 2 of my 3 nest hub maxes turn off and on the camera every couple mins randomly. SIGH

[Galant56K]

this is still an issue for me. has anyone had any luck with fixing it?

[austin2]

Issue for me as well. I don’t recommend contacting Google support about this unless you are within the 1 year warranty period. If you aren’t they don’t care about it and will not help you.

[Pwr96618]

They are going to replace one that is still under warranty. 

[isthisajoke]

Similar issue as previously posted

I have 3 Nest battery camera, 2 are plugged in permanently and the other is with the solar charger outdoors. They worked for a number of months and then started to fail individually where it wouldn't show a live feed but it continued to upload videos.

Eventually, they all started to even fail to upload videos. The camera light turns green so I believe that it does record but it's not uploading anymore. I use Google WiFi pucks and my speeds are all 350mb/s down and up at maximum capacity. All cameras I have tested their wifi response speed within the Google Home app and well above bandwidth capacity. Battery is a non-issue as they all have power access but to confirm, I had them fully charged a week prior when I factory reset them.

I have restarted and several times I have factory reset the devices. Factory reset seems to have them working as intended for about a week before it fails to show live feed and it fails to upload. The camera is inaccessible from the Google Home app completely.

I did like the smart notifications but that means very little with a camera that is not dependable at all. I do not want to have to constantly fiddle troubleshooting to maintain the function of the camera. My Nest doorbell (wired) works and my Google Hub Max camera works well. Seriously reconsidering my Google ecosystem to a company that is more vested with their products. Their Nest lineup can sometimes seem more of an afterthought at times.

[Atlis]

So this happened to me today. Both cameras (wired Doorbell Battery and Indoor) just went offline (Home app device info - 10 mins from each other). I thought it was a power cut or something, but my modem (TP-Link AX73) was up and both cameras showing as clearly connected to the router. To my surprise, they were and still are sending movement notifications. I just cannot view the live feed. Both cameras were updated to 1.67 firmware recently and were fully functional, I have the latest Home app and Pixel 7. This is not a user error. Google needs to fix this. 

[ResuElgoog]

Around 6 hours ago a very similar issue for me, 3 cams suddenly all went offline. Checking the network (Google Wifi) they are still connected and my nest doorbell, which is further away from the router, is working fine, as are other devices in the house. Seems likely to be a software issue. Hope Google fix it.

[bazwilkinson85]

Randomly same for me last night - one camera is still showing a live feed but doorbell and another camera are showing as offline, despite still sending me recordings of activity. Any luck fixing yours?

[Ichbintimo]

I have tried restarting the cams, restarting the wifi, rebooting the nest hub, rebooting the mesh system and removing/re-adding the cams with no luck.

This looks like one that Google needs to address and fix as it has been going on for almost a month now 

[bazwilkinson85]

Yeah I've Googled and it seems to be a current issue. I'm not going to try removing or resetting or anything, will cross fingers Google sorts it out their end quickly. Away soon so would ideally like it sorted! The whole reason I bought the cameras.

[Ichbintimo]

Yep, the problem seems to be the automatic update to the latest firmware, so even if you did reset them, they would work until they update again 

[Chris71]

Same on my site. 3 cams going offline today but still recording. 

Firmware 1.67

Google you have a problem to solve.

[Ichbintimo]

Another two cameras down this morning too. One camera and one is the camera on the Nest Hub Max. 

Both showing offline with no live feed, good internet, fully up to date and both (obviously) hardwired. 

Tried resetting them both and still nothing, yet (the cam at least) is still sending events, so despite saying it's offline, it's not else it wouldn't be able to send the events for me to view on my phone. 

Just no live video, which is a very important feature for me. 

Google, this one is on you. It's been an issue for some time by the looks of it, time you sorted it and fixed it to get our expensive cameras working. 

[dox]

Same Problem for me, 1/1 Nest Doorbell and 1/2 Nest Cam gone offline, still sending notifications and recording events.
My other Nest Cam is working fine. same Update Release.
I can see them clearly on my router as connected.
It just happened out all of sudden, no changes on my end were made.
I tried to restart them but i'm afraid of a reset and them bugging out on me. I got not time for that atm.

[Ichbintimo]

I'm hoping it's some sort of Nest server issue then, seeing as they're all dropping at around the same time. 

Would be nice if Google confirmed, or gave us a way to see server status, or even an ETA. 

These aren't convenience devices, they are security systems. 

[dox]

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@Ichbintimo wrote:

I'm hoping it's some sort of Nest server issue then, seeing as they're all dropping at around the same time. 

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It has to be!

My Nest Cam dropped at 19.06.23 17:25:49 UTC/GMT +2 hours
and my Nest Doorbell at 19.06.23 10:48:14

At least, notifications are working so i'm not that worried yet.

[Ichbintimo]

Reading further, this seems pretty widespread, as it is all over Reddit, and even 9-5 Google has reported on it, but I have seen no official announcement from G anywhere, which is more than disappointing.