Nest Doorbell Live View Is Broken for Many Nest Hello Owners

Owners of Google's oldest wired video doorbell are opening the Google Home app and finding no picture. The Nest Doorbell live view feed on the first generation wired model, the device many people still call the Nest Hello, has stopped loading for a growing number of users, and Google has not said when it will be fixed.

According to 9to5Google, reports have been building for weeks and picked up in the past few days. The problem sits in the live feed itself. Doorbell notifications on Nest Hub smart displays still come through, so the bell rings and alerts arrive, but tapping in to see who is at the door can fail. Android Authority has also reported on the outage.

A Nest Hello update landed days before the reports spiked

The timing stands out. On October 29, Google listed a batch of software updates for older Nest cameras in its official What's new in Google Home changelog. The list covered the Nest Cam Indoor (1st gen), Nest Cam Outdoor (1st gen), Nest Cam IQ Indoor, Nest Cam IQ Outdoor and the Nest Doorbell (wired, 1st gen), which Google also labels Nest Hello.

For the doorbell, Google described two changes:

• better person and Familiar Face detection when visitors stand farther from the door or turn away from the camera
• a fix for audio and video falling out of sync, an issue Google said could trigger unexpected restarts

Those updates apply only to older devices that owners have moved from the Nest app into the Google Home app. A thread on Google's own support forum is titled "Nest door bell camera will not do live video feed since google home migration," which points the same way. Still, neither the changelog nor any Google statement we could find mentions live view problems, and nothing confirms the October update caused the outage.

Google has not publicly acknowledged the bug. Per 9to5Google, the replies owners have received so far are generic troubleshooting steps. Some users suspect Google's switch to WebRTC streaming and have tried workarounds built on that theory. 9to5Google reports those tricks do not work reliably.

What Nest Hello owners can do while Google stays quiet

There is no confirmed fix, so the goal is to keep the doorbell useful and make sure Google hears about the problem.

Keep notifications on. Alerts still reach Nest Hub displays, so you will know someone is at the door even when the video will not open. Check that alerts on your phone work too; our guide to a phone that is not ringing covers the settings that quietly silence them.

Restart before you reset. Rebooting the Nest Hub or cutting power to the doorbell at the breaker for a minute is harmless. A factory reset is a bigger step, since you would have to set the doorbell up again in Google Home, and there is no sign it helps.

Report it from inside the Google Home app. Feedback sent from the camera screen gives Google a log tied to your device, which carries more weight than a forum post alone.

Google keeps patching old Nest hardware, but the feed comes first

The October changelog shows Google is still putting work into first generation Nest cameras after moving them into Google Home. That is welcome for anyone who wants to keep using hardware that otherwise works. A broken live feed, though, removes the main reason to own a video doorbell, and the longer it lasts, the more owners will start pricing replacements.

If you are rethinking the gear around your front door, our look at the Galaxy SmartTag3 by the numbers covers a cheap way to keep tabs on keys and bags, and our tips to protect your privacy online are worth a read before you add another camera to your account. The gadgets section has more smart home coverage.

The next "What's new in Google Home" entry is the one to watch. If it does not mention live view on the wired 1st gen doorbell, owners will be left troubleshooting on their own a while longer.