Google Home issue has left some older Nest Cams constantly offline

Ben Schoon | Dec 1 2025 - 9:40 am PT

Google has shown a lot of love to older Nest products recently in terms of adding new features, but users of older first-generation Nest Cams have been left with an issue that leaves the cameras offline in the Google Home app, with no clear way to fix it.

In 2023, Google rolled out support for transferring the 2015-released Nest Cam Indoor (first-gen) to the Home app from the legacy Nest app. This allowed users to keep these older cameras in their smart home alongside new models without bouncing back and forth between apps to control their cameras. While many still lament Google’s choice to move away from the Nest app, it’s great that older hardware was given the option to move over.

That said, there have been some issues lately.

Over the past two months, give or take, users have noticed that first-gen Nest Cams have been marked as offline in the Google Home app. The issue isn’t fixed with a reboot or any settings in the app, and leaves the camera as though it’s not plugged in at all. We’ve experienced this with one of our first-gen Nest Cams, and while the hardware shows itself as up and running, the camera doesn’t work in the Home app at all.

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In a growing thread of users who have the problem, some report that it’s also happening with the older Nest Hello doorbell, though there aren’t any reports of the Nest Cam Outdoor (first-generation) or Nest Cam IQ cameras having the same issue. Some have found that a reset temporarily fixes the problem, but the camera goes back offline some time later.

Google has yet to acknowledge the problem, so it’s unclear if a fix will be coming.

Given that Google has been working hard to support its older smart home hardware – such as bringing Gemini to all smart speakers and adding new Home app controls to the Nest x Yale Lock – it seems reasonable to expect a fix. That said, Google isn’t unwilling to throw in the towel eventually, as was demonstrated by the end-of-support for the oldest Nest Learning Thermostat models.

We’ll update this post if any new details come to light. Let us know in the comments below if you’ve run into this problem.

Thanks Bruce!