Troubleshoot Nest camera alerts

Google Nest cameras have advanced sound and motion detection that can help you monitor things without being distracted by background activity. But if you get too many or too few camera alerts, or if you don't get notified of activity when you expect, here are some things you can do to make camera alerts work better for you.

Note: 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:

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

Turn on person detection in the Home app
Turn on person detection in the Nest app

Too few camera alerts

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

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. So, your camera may not send an alert if the following is true:

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.

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

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

Set up Activity Zones to reduce unwanted notifications

If your camera detects a lot of activity in a specific area (for example, a busy sidewalk), you can create a zone and set notifications for activity outside the zone only. If you set notifications for activity outside the zone, it can help when you get too many camera alerts but don’t want to turn notifications off completely.

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

Follow the app instructions for your camera to use Activity Zones to reduce notifications.

Home app

Open the Home app .
Tap and hold your device's tile.
Tap Settings tap Events Seen events.
Under “Activity Zones,” tap Add a zone to mark the area you don’t want to receive alerts about. To save, tap Confirm .
After you set up a zone, go back to your camera’s settings tap Notifications.
Choose the zone you just created.
Make sure that notifications for any enabled events for the zone are turned off.
Go back to Seen events tap Outside of zone.
Turn on the events and notifications that you want to get.

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

Nest app

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

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

Troubleshoot notifications and emails

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Troubleshoot Nest camera alerts

General troubleshooting

Too few camera alerts