I just created a group called Christmas lights. It consist of two GE Z-wave outlets for outdoor lighting and two zigbee outlets for indoor lighting. See below. The two zigbee lamps were part of a Living room lamps group. I removed them from that group and added them to this one. Both Zigbee plugs are linked and one of the GE plugs via hubmesh. Not sure it matters but I thought I would mention it.
I have the 4 switches on a dashboard along with the Christmas light group device. If I turn on and off the group device in the dashboard all the outlets turn on and off as they should.
If I tell Alexa to turn on Christmas lights, the Christmas lights group device has been added to the Amazon Echo skill, the group switch will change but only the GE Z-wave outlets will turn on, the indoor zigbee plugs will not. If I tell Alexa to turn off the Christmas lights then they all go off as expected.
The first log shown below is from the group device. The first off at 7:50:19 was through Alexa, it worked as expected. I then told Alexa to turn the Christmas Lights group device back on, and the switch, per the dashboard, did turn on and both Z-wave outlets came on, however nothing is in the log and the zigbee outlets remained off.
The second on and off @ 7:51 and 7:52 were done via the dashboard. all outlets went on and off as expected.
The last log log shown below is from the group app itself. It only shows the offs and not the ons from both the Alexa and dashboard interactions. Is this a bug, or is there something I am missing. I have tried all the different options. On/Off optimization, zigbee messaging, metering, nothing makes a difference.
Alexa is probably not turning it on because it thinks they are already on -- that would be my guess. Have you turned off that option you have on? Have you tried the other "Show group state" option? You need to have the group device page open, and observe the state as you do these things.
I have watched the group device page and the group device itself works as expected. It turns on and off every time. I have tried every option available. None make a difference. The Z-wave outlets turn on and off no issue. The Zigbee plugs, however, will only turn off, they will not come back on using Alexa. If I control the group from the device page or the dashboard I setup, it works as expected.
It's a not a hug deal as the rule I have to turn them on and off works, I probably won't use Alexa that often but I don't understand why it doesn't work
BTW I also deleted the group and re did it from scratch. No change.
It's an Alexa issue I guess. From your comment I went and looked and I had both GE plugs enabled in the echo skill but not the zigbee outlets. Didn't need the GE plugs enabled I would never use those with Alexa anyway. So I removed them from the Echo skill. Then it wouldn't turn any of them on.
I added them all back and still no change.
I have found, however, if I say set Christmas lights to on, it works. If I say turn on Christmas lights it does not. So apparently it's the same issue we see with Fans. I can't say turn off bedroom fan, for example, I have to say set Bedroom fan to off. Never had this issue with a switch before.
It may be the name I will play with it some more tomorrow.
Or, use a "Group Dimmer" instead of Group Switch. Perhaps Alexa will respond better to that type of device. Also, look at In Use By for all of these group members to be sure no other automation is getting involved behind your back.
Alexa really does not work well if the device name you’re trying to control includes the word “light” or “lights”. I believe it stems from the fact that this term can be used natively by Alexa to turn on or off any “lights” that are in the same Alexa room as the Echo device.
