Derrick Cain Posted July 19, 2017 Share Posted July 19, 2017 I've seen a few different posts on here regarding Alexa and Control4. I'd like to provide some information that may help solve issues you are running into. This link below will go over the basics and requirements for integrating Alexa with Control4. It has a couple of videos, and a guide, highly recommend watching the quick videos to get familiar. https://www.control4.com/stashes/alexa-help If Alexa was working, but you're having intermittent issues, or it stopped working, try the following: - Ensure you have 4Sight, you can do this by logging into your account. - Proper network setup, such as using static DNS look up. (may need to include your dealer for this) - Ensure the time of your Control4 system is correct and in the right time zone(check a remote, navigator, or touchscreen), if it's wrong please contact your dealer. - Verbally have Alexa discover devices after making any changes to names or scenes. - Check the naming of your devices through your account page, change a name of a device and verbally ask Alexa to discover devices. - Disable the Control4 skill through the Alexa app, and re-enable it. This will also prompt you to re-discover devices. - Reboot your main Control4 unit, as well as the Alexa device. Dealers can refer to KB 1890 as well. Matt Lowe and turls 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
digitaltrader Posted July 19, 2017 Share Posted July 19, 2017 I've tried all the above and am still having trouble getting the devices to stay online. My dealer has looked into to this as well without success. Any further suggestions? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
knowitall Posted July 20, 2017 Share Posted July 20, 2017 Seems like my native Alexa integration has actually gotten quicker Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gary Leeds UK Posted July 20, 2017 Share Posted July 20, 2017 Derrick, Well done for stepping up -But you could have posted KB1890 for he people to review. Sometimes if it was not for this forum our dealers would be struggling when we contact them. However thank you for your input Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derrick Cain Posted July 20, 2017 Author Share Posted July 20, 2017 Hi Gary, KB 1890 is pretty much the steps I posted. It only leaves out a few things specifically in Composer Pro, for example, another step is: Is the system stuck on updating a device? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
control4user007 Posted July 20, 2017 Share Posted July 20, 2017 Any chance we can get "read-only" access to dealer forums (even portions of it) ? Edited: Just wanted to say that I really appreciate Derrick reaching out to us on this forum - re-assures me as a C4 customer! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derrick Cain Posted July 20, 2017 Author Share Posted July 20, 2017 2 hours ago, control4user007 said: Any chance we can get "read-only" access to dealer forums (even portions of it) ? Edited: Just wanted to say that I really appreciate Derrick reaching out to us on this forum - re-assures me as a C4 customer! I'm glad to hear! I'll try to be an additional resource, and I know I've talked to a few people here on the phone and through e-mail. I'll pass along the suggestion, although I know dealer forums are geared more towards dealer/manufacture information. control4user007 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
canuckpaisa Posted July 21, 2017 Share Posted July 21, 2017 this has happened to me daily at 9:30pm for the last week ... help Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carvelln Posted July 21, 2017 Share Posted July 21, 2017 8 hours ago, Derrick Cain said: I'm glad to hear! I'll try to be an additional resource, and I know I've talked to a few people here on the phone and through e-mail. I'll pass along the suggestion, although I know dealer forums are geared more towards dealer/manufacture information. Thanks so much for your help Derrick. I'm having a repeat of the issue that you helped me with last week, with the Alexa integration suddenly disappearing. The prior fix, resetting the controller, did not work this time. I tried disabling the c4 skill in the Alexa app but cannot re-enable it. I get this error:"an error has occurred while attempting to link Alexa with control4. Please try again later" I think it's something on C4's end because I'm even having trouble just logging into my account on the control4.com website.... It's very sluggish and takes forever to load. Any ideas? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
msgreenf Posted July 21, 2017 Share Posted July 21, 2017 5 hours ago, carvelln said: Thanks so much for your help Derrick. I'm having a repeat of the issue that you helped me with last week, with the Alexa integration suddenly disappearing. The prior fix, resetting the controller, did not work this time. I tried disabling the c4 skill in the Alexa app but cannot re-enable it. I get this error:"an error has occurred while attempting to link Alexa with control4. Please try again later" I think it's something on C4's end because I'm even having trouble just logging into my account on the control4.com website.... It's very sluggish and takes forever to load. Any ideas? if the integration fails to appear, that means it's unlinked. If you can't login to your control4 account that is really odd. What happens when you go directly to customer.control4.com, can you login? Maybe you need to do a password change? Does your mobile app still work? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carvelln Posted July 21, 2017 Share Posted July 21, 2017 3 hours ago, msgreenf said: if the integration fails to appear, that means it's unlinked. If you can't login to your control4 account that is really odd. What happens when you go directly to customer.control4.com, can you login? Maybe you need to do a password change? Does your mobile app still work? Customer.control4.com is what was responding sluggishly all last night (and several times throughout the last week). As another poster mentioned above, it does seem that the slowdown and lack of Alexa communication occurs around the same time of night (approximately 9-11 pm eastern). I can eventually login but loading the account after putting in my email account and password literally takes minutes. That's why I thought something was affecting C4's servers and preventing communication with AWS? The mobile app was still working and allowing appropriate local control but without any Alexa integration. But then this morning, everything started working fine again. I was able to finally re-enable control4 integration through the Alexa app. And the customer.control4.com website is fast and snappy again, allowing me to login immediately. It's very weird. Does control4 do server maintenance or something like that every night at the same time? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
msgreenf Posted July 21, 2017 Share Posted July 21, 2017 Just now, carvelln said: Customer.control4.com is what was responding sluggishly all last night (and several times throughout the last week). As another poster mentioned above, it does seem that the slowdown and lack of Alexa communication occurs around the same time of night (approximately 9-11 pm eastern). I can eventually login but loading the account after putting in my email account and password literally takes minutes. That's why I thought something was affecting C4's servers and preventing communication with AWS? The mobile app was still working and allowing appropriate local control but without any Alexa integration. But then this morning, everything started working fine again. I was able to finally re-enable control4 integration through the Alexa app. It's very weird. Does control4 do server maintenance or something like that every night at the same time? don't think its server maintenance, sounds more like load during peak prime-time hours when people are home... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carvelln Posted July 21, 2017 Share Posted July 21, 2017 1 minute ago, msgreenf said: don't think its server maintenance, sounds more like load during peak prime-time hours when people are home... That makes sense. As I edited above, the customer.control4.com website is now loading immediately after login without any delay. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
msgreenf Posted July 21, 2017 Share Posted July 21, 2017 Just now, carvelln said: That makes sense. As I edited above, the customer.control4.com website is now loading immediately after login without any delay. that's what made me think load... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derrick Cain Posted July 21, 2017 Author Share Posted July 21, 2017 Let me investigate this a bit more. It sounds from the posts above are around 9PM (or evening in general)? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
msgreenf Posted July 21, 2017 Share Posted July 21, 2017 9pm what timezone? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carvelln Posted July 21, 2017 Share Posted July 21, 2017 eastern for me Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
adam333 Posted July 21, 2017 Share Posted July 21, 2017 same issue for me. tried everything under the sun. so like others have done, i removed and added the skill on my iphone app about a dozen times. and it randomly worked. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derrick Cain Posted July 21, 2017 Author Share Posted July 21, 2017 Hi Adam, Are you having similar issues as mentions above? Are the devices non-responsive towards the latter part of the day? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derrick Cain Posted July 22, 2017 Author Share Posted July 22, 2017 Our web services team is looking into the cause of these interruptions. I appreciate the feedback and patience. VINCELdUB and msgreenf 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AK1 Posted July 23, 2017 Share Posted July 23, 2017 I have a customer who experiences an Alexa / Control4 outage consistently around 930pm EST Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derrick Cain Posted July 24, 2017 Author Share Posted July 24, 2017 Our web services team has identified and addressed the issue that may have been affecting users during higher traffic times. If your Control4 account is currently disconnected from Alexa (devices showing offline), disable and re-enable the skill. We are continuing to improve stability and response when using native Alexa. Please PM me or post if you have issues or feedback. msgreenf 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
digitaltrader Posted July 24, 2017 Share Posted July 24, 2017 I disabled and re-enabled the c4 skill and the devices still show offline but do however now respond appropriately. I'll let you know if they become unresponsive. could you give us further details on what was the issue? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
msgreenf Posted July 24, 2017 Share Posted July 24, 2017 thanks @Derrick Cain this is the best outcome yet of you being part of this forum Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
carvelln Posted July 25, 2017 Share Posted July 25, 2017 8 hours ago, Derrick Cain said: Our web services team has identified and addressed the issue that may have been affecting users during higher traffic times. If your Control4 account is currently disconnected from Alexa (devices showing offline), disable and re-enable the skill. We are continuing to improve stability and response when using native Alexa. Please PM me or post if you have issues or feedback. Derrick, any suggestion when we're not able to re-enable? That happened to me during the high load period. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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