When you set up a Nest Wifi Pro, Nest Wifi or Google Wifi network with an iOS device, you might experience issues because of certain privacy settings. This includes VPN (virtual private network), iCloud Private Relay or local network.
Note: You might see this error message: 'Connection failed. Couldn't connect to device. Try again or tap get help for more solutions.'
To resolve the issues, try the following steps during setup. After your Wifi network has been set up, you can restore any previous privacy settings that you had before.
Before you begin
Check that you have:
- The latest version of the Google Home app
- iPhone or iPad with iOS 14 or later: Check your iOS software version
Turn off VPN during setup
To provide confidentiality or other features, some VPNs route communications from your phone through a 'VPN tunnel', which might interfere with your Wifi device's setup process. You can temporarily turn off your VPN during setup, and turn it on again later.
- Go to your iOS device's Settings
General
- Tap the active VPN
General Turn off Private Relay during setup
Note: Private Relay is only available if you have iCloud+.
Private Relay routes communications to Apple servers before the rest of the Internet, which might interfere with your Wifi device's setup process. You can temporarily turn off Private Relay during setup, and turn it on again later.
- Go to your iOS device's Settings
- Tap iCloud
- To turn off, tap the toggle.
- You might get a pop-up asking you to confirm that you want to turn off Private Relay for your device. If so, tap Turn off Private Relay.
Turn on local network access
By default, apps on iOS are blocked from accessing the local network. When setting up your Wifi network, you'll need to grant the Google Home app access to the local network on your iOS device.
- Go to your iOS device's Settings.
- Make sure that Bluetooth is on. To turn it on, tap Bluetooth
- Scroll down, then tap the Google Home app.
- Tap the Local network toggle on.
Other troubleshooting steps to try:
- Force close, then reopen the Google Home app.
- Uninstall, then reinstall the Google Home app.
- Forget the nearby networks.
- Restart your Wifi device.
- Use a different device (phone or tablet) for setup.