Alexa can't connect with HS4 devices

[peterm]

I have an intermittent issue that my Amazon Alexa smart speakers (I have 9) can not connect to my HS4 devices. The problem goes away when I open the Alexa app on my phone and just select the "All Devices" icon under Devices. I had my power disconnected yesterday of my house while swapping a Z-Wave switch and when the system came up, this problem occurred again. Even rebooting HS4 was not enough. Actually this issue of Alexa and HomeSeer being "disconnected" is quite frequent (several times per week), even without having my system powered off.

Is this a HomeSeer or Alexa issue? Anyone else seeing this issue?

[Rupp]

Just as a point of reference I've had two disconnects in the last 3 years. Just so we are on the same page, a disconnect here is when I issue a voice commend to Alexa and she says to me she doesn't support that device. Each have started working as soon as I restart HS3. You may want to go to https://alexa.amazon.com/spa/index.html#cards in a web browser and under SmartHome > Devices, try forgetting all of your device and then try one on/off switch and test. All it takes is one unsupported devices to mess up the reset of your devices.

[peterm]

The Alexa response is "Device isn’t responding. Please check its network connection and power supply.". I get this a lot of times. It has nothing to do with specific devices not being added or supported correctly but rather that Alexa has lost ability to control ALL HomeSeer devices. When this problem occurs it's everything not working. Yes, I actually have recovered it by rebooting HomeSeer also. My IP address of HomeSeer is fixed and HomeSeer works otherwise fine. My Device Count is 332 and Event Count is 227. My system is using both Z-Wave and IoT devices. To reduce the problem I run a reboot every night, but it doesn't actually eliminate it. I'm suspecting it's something in the Alexa HomeSeer plugin intermittently failing. Any idea what I could do to log the root cause?

[dbrunt]

The Alexa response is "Device isn’t responding. Please check its network connection and power supply.". I get this a lot of times. It has nothing to do with specific devices not being added or supported correctly but rather that Alexa has lost ability to control ALL HomeSeer devices. When this problem occurs it's everything not working. Yes, I actually have recovered it by rebooting HomeSeer also. My IP address of HomeSeer is fixed and HomeSeer works otherwise fine. My Device Count is 332 and Event Count is 227. My system is using both Z-Wave and IoT devices. To reduce the problem I run a reboot every night, but it doesn't actually eliminate it. I'm suspecting it's something in the Alexa HomeSeer plugin intermittently failing. Any idea what I could do to log the root cause?

When Alexa fails, is MyHS working? If the MyHS app can't connect then the issue is between MyHS and your HS server. If it does work, then retry Alexa at that point to see if launching MyHS has re-established a connection to HS. If not then the issue is between Alexa and MyHS...

I had an issue with networking (DNS) recently on my server and HS could not connect to MyHS thus causing Alexa to fail. Once I saw in the HS log that HS could not resolve the myhs URL I was able to fix the problem. Not necessarily your issue but may give you some insight into the connection points and possible places of failure.

[peterm]

I haven't tried using MyHS app but HomeSeer works fine when addressed through the IP address directly. It could be some DNS issue causing Alexa not to find HomeSeer maybe. Perhaps unrelated, but I also often see my Alexa products not automatically reconnecting if I have the house power turned off and turn it on again. In lots of cases I've had to take out the power cable to my Echo Dots and reconnect them just to make them successfully connect on WiFi. I need to play with my network settings.

[dbrunt]

I haven't tried using MyHS app but HomeSeer works fine when addressed through the IP address directly. It could be some DNS issue causing Alexa not to find HomeSeer maybe.

Alexa does not connect directly to your HS server. The inter-process communication path/procedure is... HS reaches out and logs into MyHS. Alexa (cloud, not the Dot itself as the Dot just connects via WiFi to Amazon cloud) also reaches out and logs into MyHS via the Alexa HS Skill. So, MyHS has to be up and running for Alexa to be able to control HS as it is the intermediary "glue" connecting the two endpoints together. In essence it is just a remote extension of MyHS. You can view the HS connected/disconnected messages to MyHS in you HS log. That is why I asked if MyHS is working when your Dot's are not.

Perhaps unrelated, but I also often see my Alexa products not automatically reconnecting if I have the house power turned off and turn it on again. In lots of cases I've had to take out the power cable to my Echo Dots and reconnect them just to make them successfully connect on WiFi. I need to play with my network settings.

I don't think that is unrelated at all. That could very well be the source of your problem. After a power outage, your WiFi can take several minutes to re-establish, depending on what you're using and how it's configured. My PoE powered UniFi AP AC Pro's take 60-90 seconds to be back up and operational then followed shortly thereafter by my Dot's.

Do the Dot's show as online or offline in the Alexa app? If offline, they have not connected to Amazon cloud and can do squat!

"Sometimes your Echo is working fine, but it's still showing as offline in the Alexa app. That's usually because of a weak connection between the Echo and your modem/router. To fix this, make sure your Echo is close enough to the modem for a strong signal.Mar 24, 2020"

"Make sure that your Echo device is within range of your wireless router and has a good connection. Check that your Echo device is away from any devices that cause interference (such as microwaves, baby monitors, or other electronic devices). Make sure that you have the correct Wi-Fi password."

[Guest]

Just as a point of reference I've had two disconnects in the last 3 years. Just so we are on the same page, a disconnect here is when I issue a voice commend to Alexa and she says to me she doesn't support that device. Each have started working as soon as I restart HS3. You may want to go to https://alexa.amazon.com/spa/index.html#cards in a web browser and under SmartHome > Devices, try forgetting all of your device and then try one on/off switch and test. All it takes is one unsupported devices to mess up the reset of your devices.

Hi rupp! Just wondering why you Put emphasis on ‘’disconnection’’ with this definition?

did you ever had this type of response more than 3 times ‘’Device isn’t responding. Please check its network connection and power supply’’

Here in three years using Homesser I have tried the alexa myhs route 2 times.

the first time was the first 6 months. I had problem with alexa and or myhs every 3 weeks or so...

So I Moved to an hue emulator (so was bypassing myhs)

It was working perfect .

And one time 3-4 months ago , I tried alexa with my hs again because I needed the port 80 on my server for something else.

In two weeks I had to repair the alexa app about 5 times and support didn’t know how to help.

So back to the hue emulator and no probs since.. fond another solution for my port 80 problem.