Nest notifications not working

If you’re not getting alerts from Nest, make sure that your devices are online, that you’ve set up notifications on the Nest app and the Home app, and that your phone isn’t set to block Nest app notifications. Also, check that your Nest emails aren’t in the junk folder.

Check the basics

A Nest service outage or an offline product can affect all of the notifications that you would normally get. It’s good to quickly rule out that one of these issues isn’t happening before starting more advanced troubleshooting.

Check for loss of Nest service

Check the status of the Nest service. Loss of service is rare, but it's always a good idea to make sure that everything's normal before getting into more detailed troubleshooting.

Check Nest service status

Note: There may be a delay in service status updates.

Check that your Nest devices are online

Your Nest devices won’t be able to send you emails or alerts if they’re offline.

• Nest app: On the home screen, check if your Nest device is offline.
• Home app: Tap on your Nest device to check its status.

Troubleshooting Wi-Fi and connection problems

Check your default settings (Home app only)

Home app settings are off by default. You can turn notifications on or off at any time.

1. Open the Google Home app .
2. Tap Settings Notifications.
   • If push notifications are not enabled in your phone's settings, a banner will appear at the top of the screen. To turn on push notifications in your phone's settings, tap the link in the banner and follow the steps.
3. Select General notifications.
4. Turn any notifications on or off.
   • If you turn on critical alerts, but they’re not enabled in your phone’s settings, a banner will appear at the top of the screen. To turn on critical alerts in your phone’s settings, tap the link in the banner and follow the steps.

Check that you're signed in to the app

You must be signed in to the app to get notifications.

Nest app

1. Open the Nest app .
2. If your Nest devices appear on the app home screen, you’re signed in. 
3. If the app asks you to sign in, enter your email and password to receive notifications again.

Home app

1. Open the Google Home app .
2. If your account appears in the top-right corner and your Nest devices appear on the home screen, you’re signed in.
3. If you’re not signed in, you’ll find the welcome page. Tap Get started and confirm which account you want to use or sign in with a different account.

Check that you're signed in to the right account on the app

You can only be signed in to one account on the Nest app at a time, and you will only get push notifications for the homes on the account that you’re currently signed in to. If you have more than one account or you let a friend sign in to their account on your phone or tablet, you could be signed in to the wrong account.

1. Open the Nest app . If the Nest devices and home name on the app don’t match your home, or another Nest home that you’ve been invited to, you may need to sign out and sign back in again.
2. On the Nest app home screen, tap Settings .
3. Select Account.
4. On the account screen, you'll find the photo of the person who's currently signed in. If they don't match the one that you want, sign out.
5. To sign out, select Sign out at the bottom of the account screen. You can then sign in with your own email address and password.

Troubleshoot settings on the app

If your devices are online and there isn’t a Nest service outage, the next thing to check is that the notification that you’re looking for is enabled on the Nest app’s settings. If you’re not getting camera notifications, there are some additional settings to check.

Check your device's notification settings

Nest app

Make sure that notifications and emails are set correctly for each device that you have.

1. On the home screen, tap Settings   Notifications. 
2. Select the product for which you want to change notifications.

Learn about notifications and how to change settings

Home app

1. On the home screen, tap Settings   Notifications.
2. Tap on the type of notification that you want to update  tap the switch to update your preferences.

If you have a Nest camera

Nest camera notifications are a little different. Because we don’t want to bombard you with alerts, you might get fewer than you expect if your camera is pointed at a busy spot.

Understanding how camera notifications work

Nest uses advanced algorithms to help you get more meaningful alerts. For example, your camera can notify you when it detects motion, but it won’t send separate alerts for repeated motion during a flurry of activity. For more details, visit the following articles:

How Nest cameras detect sound and motion
Tips for getting the most out of activity alerts from your Nest camera

Check if your camera is marking activity on the Nest app’s Sightline when it should. If it is but you’re not receiving the alerts that you expect, check your camera-specific notifications settings below.

Check camera-specific notification settings

Go to your camera’s Settings   Notifications and try the following:

• Under 'When to send', check if you’ve enabled the option to get notifications Always or only when Noone’s home. If you’ve selected Noone’s home, you won’t get camera notifications if Home/Away Assist thinks that your home is occupied.
• Under 'Activity', you can turn different kinds of alerts on and off. The exact options that appear depend on which camera you have and whether you’ve added a Nest Aware subscription. You can enable all the options in this section or turn off any that you don’t want.
• If you have multiple Nest cameras in your home, you can choose different settings for each one. So make sure that you check each camera’s settings on the app.
• If you’re sharing access to your Nest home with Family Accounts, each person can choose their own settings for notifications. So when you change your own settings, it won’t change them for anybody else.
• In the Home app, you can personalise what type of notifications you get. Learn about the Feed in the Home app

For more details about each setting mentioned above, visit the following article:

Learn about camera alerts and how to change settings 

Troubleshoot phone connection and settings

If your settings look right on the Nest app, something else could be causing a problem.

Check your phone's Wi-Fi and mobile connection

Make sure that your device isn't in flight mode and that it has good mobile and Wi-Fi connections. Weak signals, especially in remote areas, can delay notifications and emails. So, if your mobile phone only has one bar, you may not get a notification straight away. You can also try to restart your device. When you restart your device, it will reset mobile and Wi-Fi connections and might fix the problem.

Check that notifications aren't being blocked in your phone or tablet's settings

Make sure that your phone or tablet’s settings aren’t blocking notifications from the Nest app. The links below will take you to Apple and Google’s support websites.

Android notification settings
iOS notification settings

Note: If your Android device is running an older or customised version of the Android OS there may be differences in the steps.

Try another mobile phone or tablet

If you’re still not having any luck getting notifications, check if you can get them on a friend or family member’s phone or tablet. With their permission, install the Nest app and sign in to your account to check if you can get notifications on their device. Make sure that you sign out of your account in the Nest app on their device when you’ve finished.

Troubleshoot email notifications

Email notifications work differently from push notifications. As long as you’ve set the option to get email notifications for your device, you’ll get them even if you’re not signed in to the Nest app.

Check that email notifications are turned on in your device's settings

Nest app

1. On the home screen, tap Settings    Notifications. 
2. Select the device or program for which you want to change notifications.
3. If you find an option for email notifications, make sure that it’s on. Note: Not all Nest devices send email notifications or allow you to change the setting.

How to set up notifications for your Nest devices

Home app

1. On the home screen, tap Settings    Notifications. 
2. Select Email notifications and tap the switch to turn notifications on.

Important: There are some important events that your Nest device will always send notifications about. For example, whenever your Nest thermostat turns your system on because your home reached a safety temperature. There won't be an option on the Nest app to turn these important notifications on or off.

Check that emails from Nest aren't being marked as spam or junk

Check your spam or junk folder. If your email service is set to mark all messages coming from unknown email addresses as junk, you may need to add our [e-mail] email address to your contacts or address book. Refer to your email service's documentation for specific information on how it filters emails and how to add a new contact.

Some email services may automatically block emails coming from domains that they haven’t whitelisted, so these emails won't even make it to your spam folder. In cases like this, adding [e-mail] to your address book probably won't solve the issue. You may have to add our email address to a separate whitelist or authorised senders list. If you're not sure how to do this, contact your email support or administrator to get help.

If you still have trouble getting email notifications from Nest, try another email address from a different email service. To change your email address, sign in to your account on the Nest app, and follow these steps:

1. On the Nest app home screen, tap Settings .
2. Select Account  Manage account.
3. Tap Account security.
4. Select Email address.
5. Enter the new email address and your current password.

Important: When you change your email address, this will change the email address that you use to sign in to the Nest app.

If the new email address doesn't work, switch back to your original email address. Re-entering your original address may fix the problem if there was a typo.

How to change the email address associated with your account on the Nest app