5 Fixes for Nest Thermostat WiFi Disconnecting or Offline

These days, almost every device in your house connects and functions through your home wireless network. Whether it be your television, Alexa, or now, even your thermostat. Google’s Nest thermostat is a smart device, and it can connect with your Wifi and when it does, it is controllable from your smartphone. 

So if you want to get the most out of your Nest and it’s not properly connecting to your home router, here are five easy solutions to fix your problem. Read on to learn more about fixing your connection issues.

Check Your Home Wifi Router

The first and easiest solution to try if your Nest is not connecting at all to the Wifi is to check to make sure the router is working properly. 

To do so, you can use any other technological device you have on hand, but your smartphone is probably the most convenient. Turn your phone to airplane mode and turn on the Wifi, then try to connect to your wireless network. If it doesn’t work, it’s quite obviously a problem with the system itself. You can skip ahead to number three on our list to find out how to reset your router.  

Ensure You Have Updated the Google Home App

If your phone easily connects, then it could be a problem with the Google Home app. The app is how your thermostat connects to both the wireless network, and to your phone. 

There are often updates that Google recommends for its apps that we don’t give much thought to. However, the app does need to be fully up to date to function properly. You can check to see if there are any available updates on the settings for the app on your phone. 

Restart Your Router & Nest Thermostat

The restart is really the oldest trick in the book, and funnily enough, it usually works! Let’s find out how to reset both your router and thermostat itself and your offline or disconnecting problem might be fixed in just a few minutes!

Restart Your Router

If you found out in step one that your router is not working, you will need to restart the router itself. While every router is a little different, here are some general step-by-step instructions that will work for most models. 

• Unplug all router and modem cords from the wall socket. You can ensure they are completely off if all the lights turn off on the devices. 
• Wait at least 30 seconds, then plug the cables back in.
• It will take a few minutes to reboot, and then you can try to reconnect your Nest to the Wifi. 

Once again, if the Nest isn’t connecting, try your smartphone. If it doesn’t connect to the Wifi, you probably have to get in contact with your internet service provider. However, if the phone does connect, but the Nest still won’t it’s time to try another tactic.

Restart Your Nest Thermostat

Just like every other aspect of the Nest, restarting it is really user-friendly; all it takes is a few clicks on the display screen itself. 

• Select the “Menu” option.
• Click “Settings” > “Restart” > “Yes” to confirm. 

That’s all! Now you may need to reconnect the Nest to the wireless network if it does not automatically do so. Luckily, Google has wonderfully simple instructions on their help page to make sure you get it right.

Check for Interference

So, if you have followed the above steps and you have established that your router is working, the Nest has the capability to connect and maybe even does connect but often disconnects, here’s what needs to happen next! 

Home routers are really working overtime these days to produce fast internet for so many new smart devices. There is a chance that the router is simply overworked and cannot connect and stay connected to yet another machine! 

Try turning off a few other connections such as a Google Home device, the television, your phone, or anything that is working off the Wifi. If that does the trick, you will probably want to invest in a mesh system, the newest improvement for home Wifi; it will extend your network throughout your home while allowing thousands of devices to connect seamlessly. 

It could also be a physical interference affecting the thermostat’s connectivity. Wifi is amazing, but it can’t actually travel very well through adobe, concrete, or even brick. If you have a study home, you may need to move your router closer to the thermostat so as to ease its route of travel. 

Make Sure Your Router Is Compatible

While the Nest is a pretty technologically advanced thermostat, it can’t quite do everything. In fact, there are several types of networks and even router models that it can’t connect to at all. 

Google has provided two detailed lists of the networks and routers that the Nest will never be able to connect to, no many how many times you restart, update, or even rewire! So make sure to check this list before you give up and throw the thermostat out the window!

Conclusion

If your Nest thermostat is constantly disconnecting from the Wifi or will not connect at all, you now have quite a few solutions to help you solve the problem! 

While these are the five most likely issues and the easiest to fix, Google has a whole list of other more troublesome possibilities it might be. If you have tried all of the above and found out that your router and network are in fact compatible, you can find a few more options here on the support page.