A “scheduled storage server software update that didn’t go as intended” caused a 17-hour outage for Nest cameras, according to parent company Google. The outage affected the Nest Cam, its indoor and outdoor Nest Cam IQ cameras, Nest Hello Doorbell and the Nest Hub Max display, 9to5Google reports.
During the outage which started at around noon PT on Monday, users couldn’t record video or see live streams. “We’ve rolled out a fix and most camera services should be working again. Unfortunately, video history wasn’t collected during this incident,” says a blog post from Google Nest VP Rishi Chandra.
Nest’s Twitter account was providing occasional updates on the situation as it unfolded, but it was doing little to reassure customers dismayed that they would not have access to recordings. Some users said they tried factory resets thinking the issue was on their end. Others said they had experienced a break-in during the outage or missed an accident suffered by a parent:
Yep. And my elderly father fell. Only the two times I needed it history was deleted.
— Proud Knights Fan (@3600dollarsgone) February 25, 2020
Another demanded Google reimburse them for the downtime.
We're all getting bill credits for this right?? We pay way too much to you to have any type of outage. This never happened before Google took over
— Maureen Gray (@Mrs_Gray1211) February 24, 2020
The issue appears to have been limited to Nest users in the US, according to DownDetector (via Android Central), but some users in South Africa and the UK also reported problems.