Nest Camera Not Detecting Person? (Let’s Fix It Fast)

If your Nest camera not detecting person motion, but detects other actions, it almost certainly means that your device is instructed not to notify you of human activity. 

If you don’t know why this is happening, it’s probably because you’ve recently set up an activity zone and excluded all “People” notifications.

However, this may not necessarily be the reason!

Here’s everything you can do against the person–detection problem:

 Don’t worry–whatever the problem is, we’ll get it fixed!

Nest Camera Not Detecting Person Motion – 8 Ways to Fix!

Important: Verify that your Nest camera is connected to the internet and is not saying offline!

1. Adjust the Camera Activity Zone

If your Nest camera is not sending you notifications for people crossing your activity zone, the most important thing to check is the configuration.

In short, the activity zone is a predefined area of your camera’s view, which allows you to adjust the type of motion your camera would be looking for.

Hence, if you have set up the activity zone of your camera in the wrong spot and people are not crossing it, you will receive no notifications.

How to Add Activity Zone (Home App)?

1. Open Google Home, and tap Cameras.
2. Alternatively, hold your Nest camera tile.
3. Go to Settings → Events → Seen events.
4. Under Activity Zones tap on “Add Zone+”
5. Highlight the area where people stand.
6. Whenever you’re ready, tap on “Confirm”.

How to Add Activity Zone (Nest App)?

1. First, open the Nest app and select the camera.
2. Go to Settings → Activity Zones → Create Zone.
3. Highlight the area where people typically walk in.
4. Confirm the creation of the new Nest activity zone.

In short, now that your activity zone covers the area where people typically cross, try it yourself by walking in that specific zone of the camera’s view.

Important: In the Google Home or Nest app, go to your camera settings and ensure that “Push Notifications” is activated.

If you have no notifications–keep reading!

2. Enable Notifications for “People”

The Nest and Google Home applications both provide a wide variety of options when it comes to motion detection by your Nest camera.

If you use activity zones, there is a high chance that you are not not receiving any notifications for people, because you have fully disabled them. 

When setting up an activity zone you can select what types of notifications you want to include and exclude like People, Packages, Vehicles, and Animals.

So, if you have set up an activity zone over the area where your camera is not detecting people, you simply need to enable it through the used application.

Adjust Activity Zone in Home App:

1. Open the Google Home app on your mobile.
2. Select “Cameras” or hold the tile of your unit.
3. Head to the “Settings” of your Nest camera.
4. Tap “Notifications” to access the alert settings.
5. Scroll down under “Zones” and select a zone.
6. Toggle on “People” and “Your notifications”.

Adjust Activity Zone in Nest App:

1. Open the Nest application on your mobile device.
2. Select your Nest camera and head to the Settings.
3. Choose “Notifications” and select the activity zone.
4. Enable “People” and “Your notifications” under it.

Now that your Nest camera is instructed to detect and notify you of people crossing your activity zone, try walking in front of the camera and watching your smartphone.

Still no notifications? Well, continue reading…

3. Disable Away-Only Notifications

If your activity zones are adjusted correctly, but your Google Nest camera not detecting motion, perhaps you have enabled the “Away-Only” notifications.

This is a nice feature of the camera that allows you to receive notifications only when you’re not at home, using your phone’s GPS.

If that’s the case, no wonder why you can’t trigger your camera’s alert even when crossing your activity zone–it’s because you’re home, not away!

To disable the away-only notifications, follow this step:

• If you use the Google Home app, go to Settings →Notifications, and disable “Away-Only Notifications”.
• If you use the Nest application, go to Settings → Notifications, select your Nest camera, → “When to Send” → select “Always”.

This will guarantee that your Home or Nest app will send you notifications of motion detection, regardless of whether you’re at home or not. 

Note: Have you checked if your Nest camera is unreachable and whether you see the live feed?

4. Allow Notifications on your Phone

If you receive absolutely no notifications from your Nest camera, whether you use the Google or Nest app, perhaps your smartphone is blocking all notifications altogether.

That’s why, the next step would be to reach into the settings of your phone and toggle on notifications for these apps.

How to Enable Nest/Home App Notifications?

Android:

Head to Settings → Apps → Settings → Application Manager → Nest/Google Home → Show Notifications “ON”.

iOS

Go to the Settings app → Notifications → Nest/Google Home → Toggle on “Allow Notifications” → Sound “ON” → Badges “ON”.

It’s crucial to enable the notifications for the application you use for your Nest camera since if they are disabled, even if the app tries to notify you, your phone will block it.

Now that you are ready and the notifications are enabled, try walking in front of your camera to trigger an event.

Note: If you use an iPhone 14 Pro or below, make sure to disable the mute switch on the side!

5. Remove Activity Zones Altogether

Activity zones could be quite unreliable, especially when you’re not subscribed to Nest Aware, enabling advanced algorithmic detection.

The reason why this is unreliable in certain situations is that every yard or porch looks different, and environmental factors may impact the detection.

So, if you can’t get your camera to send you phone notifications when people are crossing your activity zones, it’s best to remove them altogether.

Without activity zones, your Nest camera will detect events for the entire view, hence the device should finally start detecting people’s motion.

This way you will start receiving notifications for cats walking by, wind blowing harder, and car headlights at night, but don’t worry – you will add activity zones to exclude things!

How to Remove Activity Zone (Home App)?

1. Open the Home app and go to “Devices”.
2. Select your camera and go to “Settings.”
3. Tap “Activity Zones” and choose a zone.
4. Press “Delete” at the bottom right corner.
5. Repeat for ALL activity zones you’ve got.

How to Remove Activity Zone (Nest App)?

6. Open the Nest app and select your camera.
7. Head to Settings → Events → Seen Events.
8. Select the zone for deletion from the section.
9. Choose “Delete zone” and repeat for all left.

When you have no activity zones, the respective application should detect people and send you notification alerts.

If you now receive too many false alerts, simply exclude certain zones from the camera’s view by adding an activity zone in the app and toggling all of the notifications OFF.

Note: When removing an activity zone, no recorded footage will be lost.

6. Uninstall & Install Nest/Home App

If your Nest camera is still not detecting people and notifying you, perhaps the problem is not in the camera, but in the application itself.

If you’ve tried everything so far, it’s evident that you are dealing with a bug or software glitch, hence a clean application reinstallation should be helpful.

To reinstall the Home or Nest app, follow these steps:

• Android: Open the Google Play Store, tap on your Profile icon, and go to Manage apps & devices → Manage → Nest/Home app → Uninstall.
• iOS: Tap and hold the app’s icon from the main screen and when the options appear, choose “Remove App” → “Delete App”.

When the application is successfully uninstalled, you can download an updated version from the Google Play Store or App Store.

When the app is ready, you will need to sign in to your account.

Quick Tip: If you’re using the Nest app and the problem is still there, we strongly recommend transferring your Nest camera to Google Home.

7. Reset your Nest Camera to Default

If you’ve tried everything and still, your Nest camera not detecting person, you should go ahead and factory reset the camera to defaults.

This will not only unpair the Nest camera from the Nest/Home app but will permanently erase options, activity zones, and configurations. 

To reset the Nest camera to defaults, follow these steps:

1. Verify that your Nest camera is powered on and working.
2. Locate the pinhole between the power cord and the neck.
3. Use a sharp tool that can reach within the reset pinhole.
4. Press and hold the reset button for around 15–20 seconds.
5. The Nest camera LED should blink in yellow a few times.

When your Nest camera is factory reset, you’ll need to carry out the initialization, which includes pairing the camera to the Nest or Google Home app.

Then, set up your activity zones and test whether your camera is now detecting people’s motion!

Note: When the Nest camera is ready to connect, you will see a slowly blinking blue light!

8. Subscribe to “Nest Aware” Features

If you’re not satisfied with how your Nest camera detection works, you can always subscribe to Nest Aware and enhance the device’s detection capabilities. 

The intelligent algorithm coming with Nest Aware will improve your video history, enhance your notifications, and provide you with many more features.