Nest cameras are a popular security camera choice that can increase the safety of your house or property. They provide high-resolution images and rechargeable batteries (which last 3-6 months). The camera is controlled by the phone app and you can watch the live feed, playback the footage, and back it up if necessary.
What happens if you want to delete recordings or footage of your Nest camera? Can you do such a thing and how?
The video clips are stored in the cloud and the user can watch them by accessing the video history via the phone app, tablet, or using computer.
If something is worthy, you may download it and save it locally for future use. In this guide, we will talk in detail about how the footage is served in the Nest camera, whether the clips are auto-deleted and what to do if you need to purposely erase certain recordings.
How to delete Nest camera footage
You can delete your Nest camera recordings by using the Nest app or via the web browser. Basically, you need to access the app with your credentials and then erase the video history. Follow these steps:
- Open up the Nest app on your phone and sign in to your account using your username and password. If you’re using a computer, open up the browser and go to home.nest.com.
- Once you’re logged in, select the camera that you want the footage erased.
- Select the settings and then hit the “Delete Video History” option.
- Tap to confirm the delete selection.
By doing this procedure, all the saved videos and snapshots of that camera will be deleted and will be no longer accessible.
Once you have hit delete, there’s no way to bring them back. If you need any clips, make sure to have saved them previously on your local devices.
Does Nest delete the camera footage automatically?
By default, the Nest camera will delete its footage automatically after a certain period of time which depends on the type of plan and contract you have with the provider. Usually, the recordings are not kept indefinitely on the cloud, they will cyclically be auto-erased.
Different plans offer certain periods when the videos are available for viewing and downloading. If you’re subscribed on the Nest Aware plane, the system will keep the recordings on the server for 30 days after which they will be auto-erased.
If on the Nest Aware Plus plan, the footage will be saved for 60 days only.
If you’re not enrolled
in any type of subscription, then the videos and the snapshots were taken by your camera will be kept for 3 hours only.
Obviously, this is not a good thing because you may not notice incidents until hours or days have passed. This is Nest’s tactic to make people subscribe to their paid service.
Our recommendation is not to use the free plan (the 3-hour option) but to subscribe to any of their plans. If you don’t like this type of business plan, it’s better to go for other types of cameras and doorbells that record locally.
Also, you need to be careful if you delete the camera from the Nest app, or decide to cancel the subscription. If you do so, all the recorded videos will be erased and you can no longer access them.
Ensure you have saved locally all the important videos, before erasing the camera or canceling the plan. Additionally, when you delete your Nest account, all the videos associated with it will be deleted automatically.
Obviously, if you decide to factory reset the camera, all the Nest videos and snapshots stored on the system will be automatically erased.
Besides resetting the camera, ensure that you’ve saved all the videos and snapshots that are important to you. You can back up them on your phone, tablet, or computer.
Moreover, when resettings, all the settings will be deleted as well (we’d recommend taking screenshots of the settings so you can re-apply them faster when you set up the camera from scratch).
How to save and download video recordings from the Nest camera?
As we mentioned earlier, the footage and snapshots on the Nest camera are saved in the cloud which is Nest’s online server. When you playback, or back up the recordings, you’re actually accessing them online and not from your local Nest camera.
If you have relevant videos of incidents, you need to download and save them locally on your phone, tablet, or computer. It’s important to do so because the video will automatically be deleted after a certain period of time (3 hours, 30 days, 90 days, etc).
When downloading video on your phone, the clips will be 150 seconds in length; when saving on a computer, they could be up to 1 hour per clip. Follow these steps to save your Nest recordings locally:
Using a computer:
- Open up your browser and go to home.nest.com.
- Select your Nest camera.
- On the lower corner of the screen, select the Clips option and tap on Create Clips.
- You should see sliders on the timeline and you drag them forward and backward to create the timeframe of the clip (beginning and end times).
- Add a name for the clip and hit Save. The clip will then be saved on your computer.
Using the app on a phone or tablet.
- Open up the Nest app and select your camera.
- Go to your camera history and play the relevant recordings. As the clip plays, press and hold the New Clip button and release it when the relevant time frame ends.
- Tap Save to download the clip on your phone.
Using the Home app:
- Open up the Home app and select your Nest camera.
- Select the History button on the bottom of the screen and then choose Full History to see all the saved clips.
- Select the one you want to download and then hit Event details.
- Tap the Download button on the top of the screen which will save the recording on your phone.
How to access your Nest camera video history?
All the clips and snapshots taken by the Nest camera are saved on the cloud and by accessing the video history which is another fancy name for the list of saved clips.
Here’s how you can access the saved list of recordings via the Nest app:
- Open up the Nest app on your phone (or tablet).
- Select the camera from the list.
- Below the live video stream, you should see the camera’s video history list.
If you’re using the Home app:
- Open the Home app.
- Select your Nest camera from the list.
- At the bottom of the screen, you should see the History option.
How to stop the Nest camera recording mode?
YOu can also use the app to stop your Nest camera from recording and storing any video clips. If you turn off the video history, all your clips will be erased and you cannot access them anymore.
Follow the steps below to stop your camera from recording clips:
- Open up the Home app (or Nest app) and choose your camera.
- Tap the gear icon on top and then go to Video.
- Tap on Video History and choose the No Video History button to turn off the recording mode.
Are Nest camera videos stored locally?
Nest camera videos are not stored locally (on microSD cards), but on the cloud only (which is a fancy name for saying “Nest’s online server).
Other cameras such as Arlo, Wyze, or Eufy can record the footage locally on microSD cards and on the cloud. Additionally, Nest cameras need a subscription plan to save the cameras on the cloud for 30-60 days.
This means, that Nest cameras require a stable and continuous internet connection to store the videos in the cloud. If the internet connection had dropped, the camera will temporarily store the footage (for a certain time frame only) on the internal memory, and then upload it to the server once the internet connection has been restored.
This is valid for battery-powered Nest cameras and the wired version as well. However, if the internet is disconnected for longer periods of time, then eventually the camera’s internal memory space will run out of space.
Conclusion
Nest cameras are a good choice if you’re looking for reliable and good resolution security cameras at affordable prices.
Remember that these cameras need a subscription plan to have the footage saved and stored online (after all, that’s their business model).
As shown in this guide, using the Nest app or the computer, you can stop the camera’s recording mode, erase the footage, and download and save locally relevant clips into your local devices.
If there are important videos, you should download them off the cloud right away and save them locally because the footage is usually auto-erased after a certain time frame.