Nest Cam (wired, 2nd gen) misses motion or records too many events

The checks in more detail

Make sure the camera is online, since an offline camera records nothing. Scos's guide for Nest motion detection adds that sunlight shifting across a room, a fan or a pet moving through the view cause false alerts, and that a camera mounted too high or aimed at a bright window misses subjects, so aim it across the room at a height of about two meters. Because the wired camera is powered all the time, it does not have the battery limits of the battery model, so a missed event is rarely a power problem.

Check the Wi-Fi, since an event that cannot upload may not appear. Check the schedule: Home and Away can turn the camera off when you are home. Make sure notifications are on in the app and on the phone. Test by walking through the scene and watching the live view for the detection indication. For pets, the camera can ignore animals if Familiar faces and animal detection settings are on in a subscription plan; otherwise, lower the sensitivity or draw zones to exclude the pet's area. Restart the camera and keep the firmware current.

If motion is missed with good settings and a strong signal, contact Google Nest support with examples of missed events and their times. If you use the camera in a room with a window, the changing light through the day, with clouds and shadows, can trigger alerts, and a zone that excludes the window solves it. A television or a ceiling fan in the view is another cause, so draw zones to avoid them. Check how the alerts correlate with the time of day to see whether sunlight is the cause. Test the sensitivity by walking through the scene at dusk.