Just updated to 2.3.9.157 and (coincidentally?) some of my light switches (specifically those that were Tasmotized or local Kasa) stopped responding to Alexa. I have been using a C-7 for approximately 4 years now and have never had this type of problem. I can still control all the lights through my HE dashboard, but the lights which had been linked to Alexa via the Amazon Echo Skill are no longer responsive to voice commands. Whenever I try to use a voice command now on these specific devices Alexa responds “Front Bedroom isn’t responding” or something similar.
I don’t know if I’ve just been unbelievably lucky in the past but in the past 4 years I have never had to try to revert back to an earlier OS and so I am just a little wary of trying to revert to my backup (I always make download a backup right before updating but I have NEVER had to revert before so am inexperienced in this as I am worried to screw things up even more, lol!). To Hubitat’s credit, I have had extremely few problems over the last 4 years, all of which have been pretty much addressed and solved by this community (the only exception has been recent very slow response time with the Envisalink Integration).
Again, the Amazon Echo Skill was working just prior to the update (recognizing even child devices, etc such as the light switches I had Tasmotized). All other switches/lights appear to still be responsive to voice commands, it is only the “local only” switches (the ones not cloud based) that have stopped responding (i.e., those switches that in the Alexa App are identified as being connected “via Hubitat”).
Has anyone else experienced this? Any help would be greatly appreciated (I suspect many will suggest to restore my backup which I will try as well but just wanted to see if others have run into similar problems). TiA to all.
If you want to rollback to a previous version of the firmware you need to use the Diagnostics Menu http://<yourHubIP>:8081 - backups do not contain the firmware code.
What happens when you add a virtual switch on the Hubitat side, authorize it in the Hubitat Alexa skill, have Alexa discover it, and you try to control it in the Alexa app?
You could revert back to the previous firmware to confirm, but I doubt it is related to a firmware upgrade.
Apparently, after I did a more thorough check, all devices that were added to Alexa via the Amazon Echo Skill and appear in Alexa as “connect via Hubitat” in the Alexa Device page (Tasmotized devices, Zigbee devices such as power plugs etc, and Kasa devices that had originally been removed from the Kasa cloud to make them “local”) are non-responsive.
WiFi devices connected directly to Alexa are all responsive so it appears that something has changed in the interface between Alexa and the Amazon Echo Skill app in Hubitat. As I mentioned, this may just be coincidental but it happened right after I upgraded the firmware.
In my attempts to trouble-shoot, I tried removing a light switch from the Amazon Echo Skill app and deleted it from Alexa as well, then added it back into the Amazon Echo Skill app. It appears in the Amazon Echo Skill app, but does not appear in the Alexa app. It is also not “discoverable” in the Alexa app. In the past, any devices that were loaded into the Amazon Echo Skill was automatically picked up by Alexa as a new device. In the rare situation when this did not occur in the past, the device was always added to Alexa when I used the Alexa “Discover devices” tab. This no longer appears to work.
Again, could just be a coincidence, so I wanted to exhaust other options before rolling back the firmware version since even if the rollback works, that would mean I would be stuck with the earlier firmware version indefinitely into the future. Thanks again to all for all your help and suggestions!
Thanks for the suggestion @HAL9000 . I finally had some time to devote to this and did indeed tried to add a virtual switch. The virtual switch was added to Alexa via the Amazon Echo Skill, however, when I tried to activate the switch in Alexa, it again responded the “device is not responsive”. Based on this, it seems that for whatever reason, Alexa is not able to connect from the Alexa end to Hubitat, although Hubitat’s Amazon Alexa Skil is able to create a virtual switch in Alexa.
Again, if this is a new limitation on the Alexa end, I would suspect that many others would be having this problem. If others are not experiencing this, then could something have occurred to my Hubitat in particular when I performed the firmware update? Again, TIA to @HAL9000, @thebearmay and any others that could give me some assistance with this.
I recently had a virtual switch that stopped responding through Alexa, after years of working correctly. After rebooting Hubitat, it began working again.
Thank you @didymus, @HAL9000 and @thebearmay. I finally ended up restoring the app, then performed several soft reboots and a hard reboot. For some reason, devices started to be recognized by Alexa again *woowhoo!”. . . Except for one of the Tasmotized switches that I had originally deleted from Alexa in my first attempts to resolve this issue. For some reason, no matter how many times I try to re-add this Tasmotized switch back into the Amazon Echo Skills app (it does appear in the app), it is still not picked up by Alexa. Fortunately, I had only deleted this one switch from Alexa in an earlier attempt to get Alexa to re-recognize it. The other switches which I had not removed from Alexa now appear to be working (thank goodness I did not delete all of them from Alexa). I just cannot seem to re-add this one switch back and it is still not recognized by Alexa (i.e., it is checked off in the Amazon Echo Skill app, but does not show up as a device in Alexa).
Have you try disabling the skill on the Alexa side and then enabling it again? This will force it to log back into the hub again. In my experience this did not remove all the devices they just wont work until you log in again.
At this time, I would definitely NOT recommend disabling the Hubitat skill in Alexa then re-enabling it!
In an effort to try and add back in my Tasmotized switch (the one I deleted from Alexa in my first attempts to trouble shoot, the other switches were working after my hard reboot), I just tried disabling the Hubitat skill in Alexa to try to re-establish communication between my C-7 and Alexa as it seemed to be a reasonable approach to see if the problem was primarily on the Alexa side. I should have not gotten “greedy” and left well enough alone.
However, after I disabled the Hubitat skill, it would not allow me to re-enable the skill (enabling the skill takes you to a page “pitangui.amazon.com” that states “unable to link the skill at this time, please try again later”. I’ve tried several times now to relink without any success (will try again perhaps tomorrow?). Now, nothing in Hubitat is linked and ALL my Hubitat devices (about 70 of them!) no longer work with Alexa.
After this happened, I noticed in the reviews of the Hubitat skill that there were several reviews (the most recent one on June 28, 2024) that stated once the skill was disabled then re-enabled, that it was no longer working.
I should have done my due diligence on this prior to attempting to disable then re-enable the skill and take full responsibility for trying this. I want to be clear, I am NOT trying to throw shade on your suggestion as it also made complete sense to me to try this. JUST A WARNING to any others in the community that may be having the same problem that you run the risk of losing the link completely without the ability to reconnect once you disable the skill on the Alexa end.
I will wait again to try at another time as suggested by Alexa, however, I noted that there were a number of reviewers that have not been able to re-enable the skill for several months now (according to the dates of their reviews). Just a PSA for everyone!
Sometimes HE has issues with the OAuth server which prevents it from logging in.
I also got a notice from another app I use that Amazon was making some changes effective July 1 and it would break parts of their app until Amazon gave them the info they needed to fix it. That app is more about lists though, not smart home stuff.
Hi @hubitrep , cloud dashboards all work and one of the first things I did was to perform a hard reboot on the hub. I believe that as @jtp10181 suggested in his last post that this may be a OAuth problem not allowing the Hubitat Skill in Alexa to re-link (when I tried to re-enable the Hubitat Skill, the OAuth page would briefly show up then would be replaced with the pitangui.amazon.com message that it was unable to link at this time.
At which point did the message appear?
Did the browser just hang there for a while after logging in? I assume you got the login at some point, right?
Does the hub have a cloud connection?
The log in page did occur and I was able to input my log in info for Hubitat. The “link unavailable” message showed up after a slight delay. Subsequent attempts briefly (less than one second) showed the OAuth page then immediately reverts back to the “link unavailable” message. Hub does have a cloud connection and other cloud related stuff works.
@bobbyD and @gopher.ny , I tried to log in again on the Alexa Hubitat skill and this time the OAuth finally went through (after several attempts the Hubitat Skill is now re-enabled). Unfortunately, the one Tasmotized device still will not link even though it does appear in Hubitat’s Amazon Echo Skill app. At this point, outside of technical curiosity (the OCD in me), I am ok with losing this one light switch, lol. I suppose its like when painting a masterpiece, sometimes you just have to know when to stop and leave well enough alone in order not to ruin it.
