Troubleshoot Nest camera alerts and notifications

Google Nest cameras have advanced sound and motion detection that can help you monitor things without being distracted by background activity. This article can help you address issues like getting too many or too few alerts, or there are delayed notifications.

Tip: This applies to all Nest cameras, Google Nest doorbells, and Nest Hub Max.

General troubleshooting

If you don’t get any camera alerts when you expect to, here are a few things you should try:

• Google Home app settings are off by default. Learn how to turn notifications on or off.
• Check that your camera is powered on. Most Nest cameras need to be plugged into a power outlet to stream video and send notifications. If you have a battery-powered camera, make sure it’s charged.
• Make sure that your camera is online in the app.
• Make sure that notifications from your camera are turned on in the app.

Tip: Package alerts can work better with person detection also turned on. If you don’t get package alerts when you think you should, make sure that person detection alerts are turned on for the camera or doorbell.

If you want to turn on person detection in the Home app or the Nest app, you can go to Camera and doorbell alerts.

Too few camera alerts

Your camera detected something but you didn't get a camera alert

Nest cameras are designed to alert you when they detect important activity so you don’t get bombarded by notifications. While your camera may notify you when it first detects activity, it shouldn’t send additional notifications as the activity continues.

For example, if you don’t get a notification when someone walks in front of your camera, it may have been because it already detected similar activity moments before.

How to troubleshoot

Check your camera’s video history for activity your camera records. That way, you can easily view everything your camera has picked up, even if you didn’t receive an alert.

You can go check the video history by going to Video history in the Google Home app or Video history in the Nest app.

Something happened but your camera didn't detect it

Nest cameras determine when something moves based on how much an image changes over a short period of time. Your camera may not send an alert if:

• The activity is out of your camera’s field of view.
• An object is blocking the camera’s view.
• The camera is very far away from the activity.
• The lighting in the scene is dim or washed out.

How to troubleshoot

You might have to move your camera, change your camera’s angle, or change something in the scene so that you don’t miss important activity.

Event detection accuracy

Important: When it’s dark outside, the distance your doorbell or camera can detect a package may be shorter due to low lighting conditions.

Nest cameras and doorbells help show you what's going on at home, but the technology isn't perfect. We try to make our camera events as accurate as possible, but these can happen:

• A picture can be confused with a real event. For example, a t-shirt with a picture of a dog might trigger an animal detection event.
• A person crawling on the ground can be misidentified as a pet.
• Close relatives can be misidentified.

Too many camera alerts

If you get too many notifications from your camera, here are a few things you can do to help:

Adjust which activity you get notifications for

You can turn off notifications for certain kinds of events so that your camera only sends alerts for types of activity that you care about.

Tip: Anyone who can access your camera in the app can adjust which notifications they get without affecting others. For example, one person can choose to get notifications for all event types. Another might want to only get notifications about motion in a specific zone.

To adjust the notifications for your camera:

Google Home app

1. Open the Google Home app .
2. At the top right, tap your Profile picture or Initial.
3. Tap Home settings  Notifications.
4. Choose which events you want to turn notifications off for.
   • Tip: If you turn an event off altogether, your camera won't send you a notification when that kind of activity is detected. The event also isn’t marked in your camera’s video history.

Nest app

1. Open the Nest app .
2. On the home screen, select your camera.
3. Tap Settings Notifications.
4. Choose which events you want to turn notifications off for.

For sound notifications, you can also change your Nest camera’s speaker, microphone and audio settings. If you turn off the microphone, the live stream and recorded video won’t have any audio.

Set up Activity Zones to reduce unwanted notifications

If your camera detects a lot of activity in a specific area like a busy sidewalk, you can create a zone. Then, set notifications for activity outside the zone only. This setting helps if you get too many camera alerts but still want notifications.

Tip: If you've already set up Activity Zones, the Google Home app should automatically create a zone for you in the area outside your zones.

To use Activity Zones to reduce notifications for your camera:

In the Google Home app

1. Open the Google Home app .
2. Tap Home   Cameras   your camera.
3. Tap on the player to bring up the overlay.
4. At the top right, tap  Tap More   Settings   Settings.
5. Tap Activity Zones  Add a zone . The new zone appears in the middle of the camera’s view.
   • Change the shape of the zone to capture
     1. Turn your phone to go into landscape mode for a full screen of your camera’s view. Make sure the screen rotation setting on your phone is on.
     2. Touch and hold inside the zone, then drag to move it.
     3. Touch and hold any of the 8 dots on the sides of the zone, then drag to change its shape.
   • Change the color of the Activity Zone: Tap Zone color and pick from 4 different colors.​ ​
   • Update your Zone name: Tap the Zone name to give your zone a descriptive name.
   • Choose which types of events you want to record in that zone and which notifications you want to receive.

Your camera won't send you notifications for activity in that zone, however you can still get notifications for activity in other areas in its view.

In the Nest app

1. Open the Nest app .
2. On the home screen, select your camera.
3. Tap Settings Activity Zones Create Zone to mark the area you don’t want to receive alerts about.
4. After you set up a zone, go back to your camera’s settings, then​​ tap Notifications.
5. Make sure the Activity Zone you just created has both People and All other motion alerts turned off.
6. Go back to Notifications, then tap Motion outside of a zone.
7. Check the alerts you want to get.

Your camera won’t send you notifications for activity in that zone, however you can still get notifications for activity in other areas in its view.

Use Home & Away modes

You can turn the camera off through Home/Away Assist in the Nest app or presence-based automations in the Google Home app. The camera doesn’t send activity alerts when the video stream is off.

With presence enabled, notification settings can be adjusted in the Nest or Home app to only send notifications when no one is home.

Learn about delayed notifications

Important: Email notifications aren’t available for these devices:

• Nest Cam Indoor (wired, 2nd gen)
• Nest Cam (battery)
• Nest Doorbell (battery)

Delayed notifications are when you receive camera alerts but there’s a delay between when the event happened and when the notification came in.

Delayed email notifications

1. Check your spam folder for notifications.
2. Make sure your email provider allows emails from [e-mail].
3. If possible, add [e-mail] to your allowlist.

Delayed push notifications

1. Try to get another device that has access to the same home because it is possible your device may have an issue.
2. Sign in with your Google Account and trigger a notification test.
3. If the issue was resolved, the issue is not related to Google Nest. If not, try to connect the camera to a different network and test it again.

Reduce unwanted alerts or false positives

Triggers for unwanted alerts or false positives

Because the camera uses software for changes in color and lighting, some of the triggers may happen if:

• There are changes in light levels
• Shadows move across the frame
• Trees or bushes sway in the important areas
• Headlights or flashes enter the camera’s field of view
• Opened side doors or large windows are detected in the field of view for garage door alerts

False positives with garage door detection

If you're experiencing false positives with garage door detection, it might be due to the camera's placement. To minimize false positives, you can use the Placement guide in the settings:

1. Open the Google Home app .
2. Tap Home   Cameras  the camera that's pointed at your garage door.
3. Tap on the player to bring up the overlay.
4. At the top right, tap More   Settings   Settings  Events .
5. Under "Garage door", tap Placement guide.

If you’re subscribed to Google Home Premium, you can adjust the activity zones and also select the notifications you’ll get. You can disable specific events or change the position of the camera to minimize unwanted alerts or false positives.