Live View has stopped working for many owners of Google’s original wired Nest Doorbell, the Nest Hello. The live feed won’t load in the Google Home app, though the doorbell still records events. As of November 7, Google hadn’t confirmed the problem or announced a fix in the threads we checked.
Google lists the affected model as the Nest Doorbell (wired, 1st gen). Owners in the US, UK and Germany have reported it.
What’s broken on the Nest Hello, and what still works
Owners open the doorbell in the Google Home app and get an error instead of video. One owner reports the message Live view unavailable – The camera may be unreachable.
Another says that when the bell rings, they can neither see the visitor nor talk to them. For a security device, losing two-way talk at the door is a real gap.
Other functions are holding up, based on user reports:
- Event recording: the doorbell still captures events.
- History playback: recorded clips still play in the app.
- Ring alerts: notifications still arrive on phones.
- Nest Hub displays: doorbell notifications still show up there, according to 9to5Google.
Owners across several forum threads say the usual fixes change nothing. Factory resets, power-cycling at the breaker, and removing and re-adding the device have all failed.
How long this has been going on
Reports go back to late October. The main Google Home Community thread has posts from October 27 and October 30. Users there say the problem started about a week before that.
One owner wrote that their doorbell had worked fine since 2022. Complaints have spread over the past few days. 9to5Google counted nearly a dozen Google support threads, and Android Authority has reported the issue too.
On October 28, a reply marked as the Recommended Answer in the main thread said the issue would be escalated. Replies from November 5 to 7 still report no fix and no official comment.
That’s well over a week of a doorbell’s main live feature failing, with no fix announced in the threads we checked. Owners of a still-supported device deserve at least a status note there.
Other older Nest cameras: unconfirmed
The problem mainly affects the first-gen Nest Hello. Some owners of other older Nest cameras report the same, which we couldn’t confirm. 9to5Google says some first-gen Nest cameras are reportedly affected, with far fewer reports.
One forum owner says Live View stopped on first- and second-gen cameras while a third-gen doorbell kept working. That owner had just switched to a new internet gateway. Another user said Live View returned on one older camera but not the others. That’s a single report, not a fix.
What’s causing it? Only theories so far
Some users suspect Google’s switch to WebRTC streaming. That’s speculation, and 9to5Google notes that workarounds based on it don’t reliably work. Others blame the migration from the Nest app to Google Home, which is also a user theory.
What Nest Hello owners can do for now
Your doorbell is still saving recordings, so check the event history when you miss a visitor. A factory reset hasn’t helped other owners, so it may not be worth the setup hassle.
Add your report to Google’s community thread or contact Google support directly, so the issue is on record. For other recent Nest problems, see our coverage of the Nest Doorbell Gemini accent bug.
Source: 9to5Google, Google Home Community, Google Home Community
This post was written with AI assistance from public sources and published under the editorial responsibility of AndroidPure’s editor. How we work.
