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    Alexa skill doesn't work. Tried everything

    Hi everyone,

    My Alexa and Google home skills have stopped working today. I have disabled the skills, relinked them, changed the usernames and password for both myhs and locally. Both find the devices but both are unable to control anything.

    Any ideas pideas.

    All worked this morning but suddenly stopped after I did a discovery

    #2
    I’ve been using HomeSeer for 3-4 years now, and although the Alexa skill has gotten better with HS-4, it’s still pretty bad. It works reliably on some of my devices, but not on others. I’ve spent many hours troubleshooting the issue and have opened numerous support tickets. But I just get tired of all the hassle.

    My biggest frustration is that HomeSeer the company does not seem to do anything to improve it. I can’t imagine how many man hours their support staff has spent chasing these problems with each customer that tries to use this skill! Instead of throwing support resources at the problem, I wish they would do some of the following:

    1. Add capability to the HS web app to help figure out problems. HS devices have to be configured just right or so he Alexa discovery process misses them. So provide us a tool that gives a tabular list of all devices, whether they are discoverable or not, and if not, why?

    2. Add the ability to enable more diagnostic logging related to Alexa device discovery and Alexa device control so we the users have better tools to figure out what is wrong.

    3. I recognize that some of the software involved in an Alexa skill is installed and runs in the cloud on the Amazon end. Perhaps that could be enhanced so they for example, if you execute the device discovery process, when it’s complete, you receive an email summary of what it saw from that end.

    Af the end of the day:

    (a) there has to be a lot of head knowledge in the HomeSeer software engineers and support staff on how this works.

    (b) the very essence of software is that human knowledge can be incorporated into executable code that others can benefit from.

    (c) HomeSeer (the company) should combine (a) and (b).

    Comment


      #3
      It’s not working here either. It’s been down at least 2 days.

      Comment


        #4
        Originally posted by Jez View Post
        It’s not working here either. It’s been down at least 2 days.
        What exactly isn't working? Can you not forget your devices and rediscover?
        💁‍♂️ Support & Customer Service 🙋‍♂️ Sales Questions 🛒 Shop HomeSeer Products

        Comment


          #5
          Originally posted by nickgosling View Post
          Hi everyone,

          My Alexa and Google home skills have stopped working today. I have disabled the skills, relinked them, changed the usernames and password for both myhs and locally. Both find the devices but both are unable to control anything.

          Any ideas pideas.

          All worked this morning but suddenly stopped after I did a discovery
          What version of HS4 are you using? I upgraded to 4.1.17.0 on Saturday and after that Alexa couldn’t control devices (discovery worked fine)
          I’ve just restored a backup of 4.1.16.0 and Alexa works again.
          I've informed support.

          Comment


            #6
            Originally posted by Rupp View Post

            What exactly isn't working? Can you not forget your devices and rediscover?
            Asking Alexa to turn on/off a device doesn’t work. I deleted devices from Alexa and discovered them but Alexa will still not control them.
            I’ve downgraded now and it’s working so I can only conclude that the latest release of HS4 has introduced a bug.

            Comment


              #7
              4.1.17.0 with Alexa is working for me in the US. Possible problem with Alexa in UK?

              Comment


                #8
                4.1.17.0 working here as well. Changes in .17 may affect how your devices are getting discovered so when this happens you best line of attach is to disable all voice commands on your devices and events and test one on/off device to see if this discovers. If it does add back a few devices at a time.

                💁‍♂️ Support & Customer Service 🙋‍♂️ Sales Questions 🛒 Shop HomeSeer Products

                Comment


                  #9
                  Originally posted by Rupp View Post
                  4.1.17.0 working here as well. Changes in .17 may affect how your devices are getting discovered so when this happens you best line of attach is to disable all voice commands on your devices and events and test one on/off device to see if this discovers. If it does add back a few devices at a time.
                  Thankyou, good to know that something related to Alexa has changed in .17 and I’m not going mad.
                  I will try your suggestion tomorrow and report back.

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Originally posted by Rupp View Post

                    What exactly isn't working? Can you not forget your devices and rediscover?
                    I have done a complete delete and rediscover and although the devices are added I can not control them. They do reflect the current state though. For example if I turn on a device in the homeseer app it will update on the alexa device menu but I can not control the device through Alexa using either voice or through the Alexa app.

                    I haven't tried adding the devices one at a time yet. Thats a bit of a pain so I am reluctant to try unless there isn't a permanent fix on an update.

                    Comment


                      #11
                      Same issues for me. I am in the US. Since upgrade to 4.1.17, Alexa responds back with device not responding. Occasionally it will work.

                      Comment


                        #12
                        From Tools > Scripts commands, could you enter hs.debugmode=2048 then click run
                        this will turn on json debugging
                        then try the command that fails from Alexa, and post here what you get in the logs
                        thanks

                        Comment


                          #13
                          I already went back to 4.1.16. Maybe someone else can try.

                          Comment


                            #14
                            Originally posted by Rupp View Post
                            4.1.17.0 working here as well. Changes in .17 may affect how your devices are getting discovered so when this happens you best line of attach is to disable all voice commands on your devices and events and test one on/off device to see if this discovers. If it does add back a few devices at a time.
                            I did exactly as you suggested but Alexa still did not work. Again I’ve downgraded to .16 as we have grown to rely on Alexa to control devices, and it works perfectly again.

                            Comment


                              #15
                              Originally posted by Jez View Post

                              I did exactly as you suggested but Alexa still did not work. Again I’ve downgraded to .16 as we have grown to rely on Alexa to control devices, and it works perfectly again.
                              Could you do this:
                              From Tools > Scripts commands, enter hs.debugmode=2048 then click run
                              this will turn on json debugging
                              then try the command that fails from Alexa, and post here what you get in the logs
                              thanks

                              Comment

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