NEST: Ghost Devices in Sync & Wifi setup failure.

[Wrivers]

I have long suffered from the issue of ghost devices in my assistant.

Whenever I use a routine, the assistant must remind me that: "5 devices are unavailable. You might want to try setting them up again." It began as 3 devices, but has ballooned over the past COUPLE YEARS that I have been dealing with this issue. Not even moving to a new phone has resolved the issue.

When asking my assistant to "sync my devices" from my Pixel 7 Pro, it used to show a device list that included these 5 unavailable devices: Pixel 4XL, XX Pixel, Pixel 7, Home, Away.

Having just gotten this new phone, I set out to try to fix the issue again. After repeated attempts, I ultimately attempted to delete my Google Home and create a new one. This did not fix the issue, but it removed the Home & Away tiles from the Assistant Device List, though the assistant frustratingly continues to say "5 devices are unavailable".

What I've come to learn is that these 3 "ghost" copies of my phone were created by Nest Thermostat's attempt at presence sensing. Each time I set up Nest on my phone, a new unavailable device was created, in addition to the unavailable devices listed for Home and Away. At no time did this presence sensing work, to be clear. Now that I've deleted my old google home and created  a new one, it seems to recognize that it shouldn't show me Home and Away tiles anymore, but nonetheless continues to say 5 devices are unavailable.

Moreover, in trying to reset and setup my Nest Wifi Router, Google Home refuses to create the network. After hours and hours speaking to both Google support and my ISP, it's clear that the issue is not with the physical function of the Wifi router, but with Google Home's integration with the account. The Wifi Router provides internet normally under the setup name and password, but fails in the setup process every time. This is after it has passed every step except "gathering some final things", which leads me to believe that the error is being created due to some unresolved integration between Nest & Google.

These issues have gone on for YEARS, and are frankly ruining my experience and opinion of Google and Nest. Every day when I hear the assistant tell me about these ghost devices, it not only makes me deeply reconsider the capability of these products, but seriously question the security of my data/home/life. The idea that there are location tracking hooks on my account that I cannot remove, constantly trying to gather my GPS, is both scary and totally unacceptable. Solving this issue of messy connections between Google and Nest needs to be a top priority.

[Wrivers]

It has been a full week without being able to set up my Nest Wifi Router.

Despite following every step provided by Google support, I continue to have zero resolution.

• The router has completed a factory reset several times.
• I have attempted setup on my Pixel 7 Pro, on my old Pixel 4XL, on a different Pixel 7 Pro, on an iPhone 14, on an iPad. None have made a difference.
• Each time, the process goes through almost completely to the end, only getting hung up on "gathering a few more things" and reporting the error "looks like we lost contact with your device, check that bluetooth and wifi are enabled and try again".
• Internet is available through the setup name and password, proving that the wifi router itself is functioning, but Google Home cannot add it to the account and setup a new name/password.
• I continue to have 3 ghost devices in my assistant. Every single time I run a routine, it tells me that "5 devices are unavailable. You might want to try setting them up again." To clarify, that's 3 bad connections created by the Nest Presence sensing, and 2 for the "Home" and "Away" tiles from a Google Home that WAS DELETED. Yet despite this, they remain connected to my account.

This is a matter of basic account security, and deserves immediate focus on a resolution. There are literally hundreds of posts across this forum and others that complain about the problematic integrations with Nest products.

Not only should buyers beware the Nest products, but the daily problems caused by their failed integration with the Google Assistant is utterly ruining my experience with the Google brand. Though I do enjoy my pixel 7, buds, & watch, being plagued by this broken and apparently unfixable assistant on every device is an absolute nightmare.

[JGrantman]

I hate to be one to provide this information... the issue is not getting fixed or at least Google won't comment and confirm it is an issue which keeps them from having to comment on whether a fix is even considered.

This is also not a new issue... it started right when there was a Google Home App update corresponding with the Sonos issue.  For several months after those updates basically all audio playing devices either did not work or only worked intermittently.  That seems to have been resolved but the error about "ghost" devices when you asked Google Assistant to "sync my devices" has not changed.

Like you I went through a very deep set of efforts to try and isolate the issue.  My error is related to 9 devices unavailable (you might try syncing them again).  I am almost postiive it is 9 identical entities for my one and only Android phone.

I have quite a few devices:

Nest Hub Max

Next Hub

Original Google Home speaker

3x Home Mini (1st gen)

Nest Mini (2nd gen)

4x Google Audio

Nest Thermostat

Chromecast Ultra

Chromecast (original)

Chromecast with Google TV (original)

Chromecast Audio

Lenovo Smart Clock

... and I have easily 30 other devices via Roku, MyQ, Home Assistant.

I went so far as to manually remove every IoT device from their source app, factory reset every single IoT device, Power off every single IoT device, delete Google Apps from all devices (Android Phone, Android Table, iPad, iPhone) and shutdown my Home Assistant server.

Then I went through and deleted my account/setup for each IoT app (Google Home, Tuya/Smart Life, Roku, MyQ, Airthings, Winix).  I further wiped my Android and iOS phones and my Android and iPad tablets.

Wait... there's more... I went through my router and wiped the entire configuration (factory reset) -- 2x times to make sure nothing remains.  When I reset up I changed the DHCP scope to ensure no IP addresses from previous configuration would be used (so I could see if something picked up IP address from old scope of addresses).

And then I went into my Google Account from multiple browsers/OS (Windows/Linux, Chrome, Firefox) -- including Google Play -- and deleted or removed any references to old devices... under Google Assistant settings, Google Play and then deleted all account history/data (after downloading what is provided).

Here is the best part... I setup new both iPhone and Android Phone and on the Android Phone I side loaded very old version of Google Home app.  Guess what... a bunch of non-sense devices showed up under settings (several versions of same Android phone) and several Google Home speaker groups created BEFORE the Sonos mess.  The groups had been deleted from more recent version of Google Home app and the speakers had been factory reset multiple times.  A couple of items still could not be deleted but most were deleted OK.

So... I then fired up the oldest iOS device I could find (iPhone 4?) and with old version of iOS installed old Google Home... and the undelete-able devices showed and could be deleted.

I THOUGHT I SOLVED IT!

Set everything back up from scratch... new Home Assistant install from scratch... new accounts for each of the apps, re-added devices one by one to accounts.  Re-linked to Google Home.  I did frequent stops where I would test that things are OK, no strange old IPs hitting network, asked Google Assistant to "sync my devices"... no errors.

Everything done, everything back like it started -- no changes to anything and just leaving things "as is" for several weeks.

Fast forward 1 month or so -- remembered sync issue and figured I would try the "sync my devices" command.  I am not sure I have ever been so completely engulfed with momentary rage as I heard that response about 9 devices are unavailable.

This is 100% for sure without a shadow of a doubt and issue with the Google infrastructure for Home and Assistant -- most likely corrupt entires in a database that was hosed during a rushed and sloppy half ass code job to not get in trouble after losing the Sonos lawsuit.

Since this does not appear to actually impact a specific function I have elected to ignore it and move as much of my environment into Home Assistant and sync/integration with Amazon & Apple (via Home Assistant) as well as impose a personal embargo on Google hardware.

I have worked in large enterprise IT management for many years and I am not at all over reacting to bugs or IT challenges... I am under reacting to one of the many times Google has the chance to just fix something they created incorrectly or broke and instead sends hoards of under skilled first level tech support resources out to cut/paste the most disrespectful responses suggesting rudimentary steps clearly confirmed as tried and failed in multiple recent responses.  I have found more than 100 different threads involved easily 2500 users wit this exact issue just searching with basic Google search for 10 minutes.

Not sure when it started but I have this internal wish growing that Microsoft will show up with a Smart Home/IoT Device platform and devices.  When did that happen... Microsoft solves problems and Google carries old poorly written code along because they are too lazy (or too poorly managed) to realize just solving or providing work around has 100-1000x the soft value as the hard costs of a developer, DBA and architect spending 1 week mapping out the issue and confiring the points where the "ghost" devices exist and then confirming why all existing user available functions to delete/remove either don't execute or error out without proper logging or notifications generated.

It was much easier to stomach Google's on the nose approach to breaking things or shutting down services when it was for free or low cost.

This hardware ain't cheap (well it is physically compared to cost) but it is costly in money to purchase.  And being in the Google echo-system is VERY expensive when you look at YouTube, YouTube TV, Google Drive... etc.

I am done but like changing banks it takes months to years to plan out and execute before you can really cut it off.  😞

I hope you (or anyone reading this) has not wasted as much time and effort as I have on this issue.  I would have guessed the answer was (1) bug (2) Google won't acknowledge (3) never fixed... but I did believe I would solve it myself or identify a work around that was cludgy but worked.

Nope.  Welcome to the future for any subscription service or any function relying on 3rd party cloud infrastructure.  This is EXACTLY the same as any company where someone without full understanding makes a generic analysis of cost/profit and says no to everything in the column under $0 immediate revenue or 0 net new users/subcribers.

It makes sense... screwing users does not negatively impact stock prices... only not getting enough yet to be screwed users impacts stock price (ask Netflix).

This turned into a rant more than a post -- sorry -- but if others realize before instead of after and save money or time... it's worth it to share some experiences and a little frustration.

Sincerely... good luck getting things working well enough to be worth the investment.  If I knew then what I know now I would not have purchased anything beyond 1 Google Home Mini and the original Google Home speaker.

[Wrivers]

100% correct, from what I've continued to learn.

There is nothing the consumer can do to resolve this frustrating and concerning issue, yet support seems to be unwilling to look into the actual problem.

The problem has absolutely killed my interest in using smart home products or using the assistant/routines more often.

[JGrantman]

I'm back...

I got so frustrated I decided to go nuclear just to prove a point.  First I opened multiple cases with Google via Google One since it claims "priority support".  I did get much better interaction but still no change in the 12-13 mystery devices that I can't get rid of but Google tells me to try setting up again.

The Google One support exchange suggested my OnePlus phone was causing the issue (though they said I had an Oppo phone but close enough).  This will become interesting later.

(And I preface this with confirming I had LITERALLY zero thought any of this would work.  That was the motivation to take it so far... being able to once and for all silence all the idiotic Google support suggestions like rebooting a device.)

I took the nuclear option - complete and full removal/deletion of everything user available -- and renamed and reconfigured everything as it was brought back so eliminate all possibility of confusion).  This includes deleting all info in my Google account.

I wipe the original phone (OnePlus) and powered it off.

I bought a Pixel 7 Pro.

I wiped/reset every one of my Google devices (1x Nest Mini, 3x Google Mini, 4x Nest Audio, 1 Nest Hub, 1 Nest Hub Max, 1 Chromecast (original), 1 Chromecast Ultra, 1 Chromecast Audio, 1 Chromecast with Google TV and for good measure also my Shield TV.

I reset all non-google IoT devices, deleted accounts, uninstalled every component in my Home Assistant server then shutdown the server.

Wiped the iPhone I was using to kill all the other IoT devices/accounts

I wiped my router and installed different firmware then wiped again (no chance of residual DNS or ARP records)

I setup WiFi, LAN with different config (subnet, SSID)

I setup Google Pixel 7 Pro from scratch and said yes to all defaults

Added Google Home, setup new home with new name

Added 1 Nest Audio

Installed brand new Home Assistant server with nothing else configured or installed other than connection to Nabu Casa cloud to connect to Google Home and 1 light bulb so there was something to expose to Google.

Added Nabu Casa (Home Assistant) into Google Home - 1 light worked fine.  Nest Audio worked fine.  All good.

(FYI... Google Home and all my Google Devices have been in the preview program for more than a year.  This new install too is using preview program).

What happened?  I asked Google "Sync my devices".  It synced 1 device for Nabu Casa then said 12 devices are not available and I should try setting them up again.

So I added 1 more device -- Google Nest Hub Max.  Here is what is the most irritating.  It is obviously 100% a Google issue on their backend.  After adding the display, after getting same 12 devices are not available error the 12 devices show up on the display.  They can't be tapped/clicked for info, can't be deleted... nothing... then they disappear.  All 12 are identical phones.  (So all the weeks of back and forth with Google One support accomplished is someone at Google saw same corrupt back end Google system data for 12 phone devices... but didn't delete them or fix whatever causes them to persist in my account).

Oh yeah... one more point... Before setting up the whole new network and Google Home -- I wiped every setting and deleted every items with delete options in my Google account.  These 12 devices do not show up anywhere I can access.  But everything I could wipe/delete I did.

Yes it was overkill but I can't entertain another useless basic troubleshooting step from junior Level I support only to waste weeks across 10 emails and get to exact same place (for 10th time) where nothing happens other than I can't get back that part of my life that I wasted training Google support noobs.

I will likely get maybe $200 for my $3000 in Google garbage devices and will lose money trading in the Pixel 7 Pro but I honestly don't care anymore.  I am at the 99% spot with Google after being loyal since literally day 0 (using Google's first search months before it was even available for invite).  I am going to undo 20+ years of Gmail (now Google account) over Thanksgiving time off.

There is no more troubleshooting to be done by users.  This is 100% a Google backend problem that won't get fixed unless someone can correlate a drop in expected sales to the issue.  Ditching already purchased devices only makes me feel better... Google has their money.  But if I can talk as many people as I can out of Google devices that will make me feel even better.

Or...  Google can just fix their issue.   GOOGLE - Just fix the dumpster fire! 

You build the dumpster.  You sold access to the dumpster.  You sold accessories to use with the dumpster.  You lit the dumpster on fire. 

Put out the dumpster fire.

Serenity Now!  Serenity Now!