Back in May, Google announced that all Nest accounts will eventually be migrated to Google accounts. Fast forward to present day and “eventually” is now here: This week Google made the account migration path available, although it’s not yet a requirement. If you want to wait for an invitation to migrate your Nest account, you can.
I have multiple Google and Nest products in my home: three smart displays, a Nest Hello doorbell, the Nest x Yale front door lock, and four Google Home speakers. So I figured I might as well run through the Nest account migration process. I also figured that Google and Nest already have gobs of my information so the two entities would do most of the heavy lifting.
Boy was I wrong, which is truly a disappointment considering the big theme at this year’s Google I/O event and at CES was that the company’s Assistant and Home products wanted to be “helpful’.
Here’s a rundown of the steps, which Google outlined in a video it provided with the account migration announcement:
- Open your Nest app, click the Settings icon, tap Account and select the “Migrate to a Google account” option.
- Click the “Continue with Google” button.
- Choose the Google account to use and select the “Allow” button so that Nest can access your Google account.
- Disconnect Works with Nest from the old account. This step will show you what current Works with Nest integrations you have. I took a screenshot of this step so I know what integrations I may have to replace in the future.
- Create a “new unified Google Nest home, then invite members to join.” Note that this step mentions that members using Nest x Yale locks (like me) will get a new entry passcode but they can change that to their previous passcode after account migration. And they won’t be able to unlock the door until they migrate their accounts. The migration app recommends creating a Home Entry Only passcode so they don’t get locked out prior to account migration. If they accept the invite and migrate their account, they’ll be fine but until then? Guess they’re ringing the doorbell!
- Read the scary-sounding message about “how access to your home is changing”. Essentially, all Google Nest Home members have “the same level of access and control as you.” I guess my family can digitally evict me from the smart home now if they so choose, which is concerning, particularly if kids in the home can administer the smart home.
- Send invites for the new Google Nest Home to your family members.
- Review the updated privacy policies, which is always a good idea
- Click the “Complete Migration” button.
If you previously used any Amazon Echo devices with Alexa to voice control a Nest Thermostat or Nest Cam, there’s one more step. Since the new Google Nest Home account breaks any Works with Nest integrations, you’ll need to add a new skill to bring Alexa voice control back to your Nest products. I skipped that step because I only use Echo devices for testing purposes.
This process didn’t take me long, roughly 10 minutes. But I can’t wrap my head around how disparate Google Home and Nest products really are. Or really were.
As mentioned earlier, both Google and Nest already have so much information about our homes: What devices we have, who has access to them, and what integrations are enabled. So why all of the integration disconnections, the new family member invites and even – at least in my case – new front door passcodes? This is not “helpful” for smart home owners.
I’m sure there are technical, if not even legal, reasons for having customers jump through all of these hoops. Even so, the customer experience here is clunky and seems unnecessarily complex. Even more so if your family already has Google accounts: They should just get a notice that Nest will be added to those accounts, along with some information on why and what it means, and then a button to accept the change.
I realize that Nest was its own company that Google purchased in 2014. And Nest later became an entity under Alphabet, just as Google is, only to be absorbed by Google in 2018. But this type of account migration experience after five years of Google and Nest being under the same roof is telling.
Google spent $3.2 billion on Nest with what it thought at the time would be a smart strategic play but the strategy either wasn’t clear or simply changed every so often. Perhaps now that Google Nest Home is just another extension of a Google account, this is the final strategy.
Do you know if after the account merge I can still view my nest cam on my echo show?
If not then this is a deal breaker. I’d rather change the nest cam for a $20 Wyze cam than change from echo to google assistants.
My changeover went terribly: Google no longer supported an enterprise-domain Gmail account as the primary email for Nest, so I had to change to a regular gmail address, which required resetting my Thermostat E to factory settings, and this disconnected it from my utility’s A/C setback program. Google says they are working on getting these energy-reducing partnerships in place, but I’m skeptical.
I accidentally deleted my
Nest account.
Now I’m trying to migrate to
My google account and it’s asking for my next email and password.
I’m locked out of my next I can’t use my camera. And I can’t get support on the phone to fix my account settings what the duck
I tried to convert to my Google account, but the error message said “G-Suite accounts can’t be used with Nest”
Same message I got, that’s why I had to re-establish an account using a real Gmail address.
DON’T DO IT!!! Stay with the Nest account as long as possible!!!!
very sorry I migrated to Google Nest. What a mess!!!!!!
I agree. I migrated from Nest to Google Home and now I’m incredibly sorry I did! At this point, after working with two Google Reps and bouncing between the Nest and Google Home apps on an issue (that I ended up resolving), I’ve decided I’m going to rip the da*n thermostat out of the wall, sell it to the highest bidder, and purchase Apple HomeKit IoT products going forward. And then my last string to Google will be cut. And then I also know my data will be secure.
Google’s Nest Product Managers are morons for not including a Roles based access system for members in a home like their smart things competitor over at Amazon already has. This notion that all members in a home have the same access rights and anyone could remove anyone is ridiculous and very much a security issue for a product that’s supposed to handle security amongst many other things. Do all Google employees have the rights to remove Pichai Sundararajan from his CEO position or any other employees from their positions at Google? No, so then why do their Product Managers for Nest think it’s perfectly fine for a Smart Home system to allow all users the rights to remove the system owner and any other users? This is just bad decision making, bad system design, and illogical thinking on the part of Google.
Absolutely right on!
If a child “home” owner is added to their parent’s “home,” will the parent be able to see the child’s home?
Since I migrated my Nest Thermostat account to Google, I am unable to access my thermostat info on my Android phone. The thermostat says that it is already linked to an account so why cant I use my phone as I did before migrating. I am sick to death of Google as they dont seem to have any remedy for this issue. in effect my nest is useless to me thanks to them.
I just get the message “Oops! We encountered an error. Please try again later.” when I try to link them. No way out of it except the link to ‘reset password’, which makes no difference. My only recourse is to reset all the devices and start from scratch.
This migration has been a nightmare. My wife and kids ended up thinking they had to re-add everything and when I invited them through “home”(because that is the only way), all I got was errors. What a cluster!
I just purchased a new home and installed Nest Cameras, smoke alarms and Thermostat and Schlage Wi-Fi doorlock. Also changed all my lighting switches to Insteon and pool automation to Pentair with a Rancho irrigation controller, Samsung smart TVs and Sonos speakers. I’ve been looking to integrate these systems using an additional controller. Does anyone have any suggestions? The reviews on my grading to google scare the heck out of me.
Happy to NOT drank the koolaid on the not so SMART Yale lock… this integration was done by the third tier engineering team for sure
I was content with my nest app until I got the alert to migrate. Wasn’t thrilled about having to enter my home address, but eventually caved to continue using the nest app. Now I cannot sign I to nest, even after being “invited” because now I need to download the Google home app. Which I do not want to do. I guess now I am content with actually walking up to the damn nest to physically change the the temperature. And I even find that the damn thermostat goes back to a lower temperature after reaching the set. I.e., I set it to 70 then a few hours later I’m freezing again and find it down to 68. It’s not “still learning” because it’s been in my home for over a year. It’s annoying to have to constantly fight it to keep my house warm
try going to your nest control and tap on the current temp that says family room or whatever you named it. Then tap on the schedule and you should see what the temp is for the whole day and week for that matter. Now you should be able to set your temp to 70 degrees for the whole day, week, etc.. but remember that you have to change everything that has a number inside of the circle. I am sure that you know this but just in case you didn’t, Happy Holidays.
Your Nest app on your phone
Unfortunately, my husband is the one with access to control the nest app, and even after inviting me to the home, i cannot sign in. I tried resetting my password on the nest app, and I never get the email with the link to reset. tried uninstalling the app, now i am locked out altogether and can no longer control the temperature on my phone. As a result, the nest turns off and we wake up to our home being as low as 61 degrees in the morning. Worst migration ever.
For goodness sake, do not ever migrate from Nest to Google. I did and Google have now blocked all my payment options so I will undoubtedly lose my 4 camera subscriptions. It is impossible to talk with a GStore “expert” (that’s what they call them). I have spent countless hours chatting to various people in the Google network, all to no avail. Google is too big, it doesn’t give a toss, even when you are trying to give them money.
I am in exactly the same situation. There doesn’t seem to be a fix for this and nest aware subscription has also lapsed and there’s no way of restarting it.
The migration was a nightmare, and my wife’s G-Suite account won’t work. Funny enough, I run into this problem sometimes with the G-Suite accounts, and it is just mystifying why Google won’t support these accounts like any other. I had similar problems with Google Home when I configured it.
I have a standard Gmail account, but now i have a problem where every few days, I have to reauthorize Google to access my Nest, and then I get more email telling me I’ve permitted Google to access my Google account. Wonderful!
Honestly I was on the fence before, but if you’re in the market for a smart thermostat, this is the nail in the coffin. There are better thermostats, with more features, at cheaper prices. The Nest was first, but they simply haven’t kept up with the market.
Had I know a few years ago I would never have installed a nest. I do not want everything controlled by Google. I like having what I have and use now
I have found the Nest Yale integration, and the Nest to Google migration to be a nightmare. Google blew it.They had a chance to dominate this field, but have made integration very difficult, and have prohibited professional monitoring of their nest smoke detectors.
Nest migration killed the Apple TV app for Nest too.
after migration i can’t seem to control my nest app on my smartphone. Any idea on how to do this. I am frustrated
migración Google no sirve para nada no se compara en app Nest siendo una marca tan buena como fue a cambio con Google Nest
No se la recomiendo sirve nadamas para dolor de cabeza
I would like to migrate to the new Nest Aware as there appears to be a significant cost saving, but I don’t want to do it if I have problems and can’t return. Our Nest account is under one gmail account, but Google Home is under a different gmail account. Does anyone know if these accounts have to match?
I have not migrate to Google from the original Nest app yet. Unfortunately I did accept the Nest Aware feature, which is awful. For now I am planning to “resist” with my Nest account. I also have everything with Alexa, so worst case scenario I will dump the Nest Thermostat and Smoke Detectors and will find something else.
I am sad since I have a couple of rental properties with Next thermostat and smoke detectors, that my tenants change to google nest and are not very happy.
I do have my company email with Google and other applications which work great.
Come on Google, since you acquired the company to add value to your customers, fix all the issues created to migrate and accept competition from Amazon.
I was freeking out until I decided to just delete the Nest Thermostat and rediscover it. Worked like a champ!
I have both the nest and Alexa Connected to my Gmail/google account. But I keep getting this message “ If your home has multiple members, the person who first set up the home must migrate their Nest Account to a Google Account before you can link to Amazon Alexa”. WHAT AM I DOING WRONG?!
You need to use the same gmail or email to migrate that you used to set up the original devices.
I purchased the nest aware and cannot access my cameras anymore. Nightmare! Sorry i migrated
I hate this as well. I have add an app to make it all work. It was just fine before google got into this
I didn’t even think before doing it.. I thought it was as simple as linking for the sign-in purpose only (and to sync email address to each other). It started “migrating” info and removed all my devices and automations that I had set between 2 houses………
I was cleaning up and updating things today because I wanted to start using Google Assistant for automated shortcuts.. This is so discouraging. I have decided to not use google assistant. At least for a while, it’s going to make me sick.. I worked on those automatons for 3 straight days.
Sorry for venting here.
Long story short, if you haven’t but was about to and happened to see this before you proceeded further, DO NOT connect Nest and Google unless it is your very first time setting it up.
You don’t have a choice, either you migrate and give google all of your information and re-input all of your devices or you can throw them out because they’re useless
Now I am on board with Google being broken up as a monopoly.
The stupid “continue” button doesn’t even work!!!!! I got the notice from nest to migrate and started going through the steps and I’m hung up here “Nest your data with Google” page. They continue button doesn’t highlight and there is no other button or check mark to select
So after I purchased eight cameras and two thermostats and entered them all into the Nest system as€hole google comes along buys the company and now I have to do all that work again because they don’t know what the hell they’re doing
Soo, here is another unhappy customer. I had a few google minis, home hubs and nest doorbell. I disconnected it all and moved to Australia from the USA. I set up the hubs and a couple smart led bulbs and set it all up on Google Home at my new residence. So now I have 2 apps, Google Home and Nest.
I recently had a home invasion and had people 20 feet from my family while we were sleeping so I paid $1,300 bucks for 2 indoor/outdoor battery cameras, a new battery powered nest doorbell and a nest hub max for security purposes. I set everything up using my Google Home app and it all works except the camera on the google nest hub max.
I called the help less desk and it was escalated to the senior team. They send me an email that i first have to integrate Nest and Google Home. So I follow the instructions and it sends a one time passcode to my old mobile/cell number. I spoke with the help less desk and they tell me I have to reactivate my old number :0. That’s impossible I tell them. So now I have to create a new email address and migrate everything over to a new email address on Google Home and then I am supposed to be able to migrate.
Is anyone interested in some “slightly used” google products?
Signed: Frustrated
I had to migrate nest to google account in 2019 or I could not log on my portal to see the dashboard. Now, I just want to switch to a new google email address. How do I do that? It does not seem the method provided on internet works. Some buttons that I clicked, and they just don’t work.
I’ve learnt that it’s just easier to use Amazon products. I have one nest mini speaker, it will only take voice commands from the last person that set up a routine. Installed Nest to see if it magically helps but I’m wasting my life away.
Logged into Nest using Google account. Then went to link nest app within google home app but it asks for my password. I can’t login with google account and it won’t take my email and password manually.
Such a basic flaw and I can’t see a fix other than changing password which will no doubt change my google log in and will require a new one as you can’t use an old one.
Aaaarrrggghhhh!!!!
I debated this for years and having just purchased a Google doorbell decided to go for it … surely after 8 years they would have ironed out the system glitches bye bye nest hello Google …do not do it … thermostats and protect all disappeared from nest and nowhere to be seen in Google…thankfully this post saved the day all reinstated in the nest app but several hours lost reinstating it all
I also cannot migrate my Nest thermostat to google – despite hours of trying and one full hour on the phone with Google tech!!!! this is outrageous, I am going to replace my Nest thermostats with another brand that I can control with Alexa. I’m fed up with Google, why did they do this? no consideration for customers!