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Alexa commands have stopped working with C4


DRP

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Yesterday, C4 suddenly stopped responding to Alexa commands, either through the echo devices or the app.  It had been working for several years, although most commands needed to be repeated at least twice.  But that was better than nothing.

I read Derrick's very helpful troubleshooting tips from the 2017 thread on this topic, but the site suggested I start a new thread since the previous one is so old.  (Derrick has saved the day for me more than once).

In addition to unlinking and re-linking, I have rebooted all of the controllers.  Also verified that my 4Sight account is active.  Upon re-linking the C4 skill, Alexa is unable to find any C4 devices.  (Alexa is working perfectly with my Next, Ring, Sonos, myQ, TP-Link, and other devices.

Any suggestions?  My dealer is unfortunately unable to help.

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Thank you South Africa.
I did log in to my.control4.com this morning, and all of the devices have the "enabled" box checked.
C4 is working from the wall switches and the app, so the problem seems to be in the interaction between Alexa and the system.
DRP

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I'm having similar problems, though more selective.

I have multiple virtual Devices for my Theater (Netflix, Amazon, HBO Max, Hulu, etc.) so I can turn any on with Voice Commands. I've used these for years. Most of these are still working, but for some bizarre reason, neither of the Bluray Player players are being recognized. When I log into my Alexa account, they are listed there as devices, but strangely when I log into my.control4.com they're not (while all the others are listed). They have been there in the past, since I have been using them for several years, customized the name, etc.

I have tried multiple things to get this working:

  • Reboot Controller
  • Reboot the Echo dot I'm using
  • Unlinked the Control4 Skill in the Alexa interface, rebooted the Controller again, and then relinked
  • Rediscovered devices through Alexa multiple times
  • Cleared the cache on the Alexa App, checked for updates (last update was June 1)
  • I even removed one of these bluray devices in the Alexa app, hoping that it would be 'rediscovered', but no joy. It's now nowhere to be seen
  • I renamed one of the devices for the same reason, to see if that would trigger re-recognition, but also no joy

The only thing that has changed is Control4's release of OS 3.30, and while I haven't yet upgraded, the release and system changes actually fixed another problem I've had for months, where Alexa would respond "Hmm..I'm having trouble reaching null" whenever I gave a voice command to turn on any of these devices (and which did in fact turn on, despite this odd error).

So no matter what I do, I can't get Alexa to respond to voice commands to activate these 2 bluray players, even though they were shown as devices in the Alexa App. And presumably because there's an issue there, my.control4.com isn't seeing them either. Very strange...

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Yes, I went through a similar process.  I'm still running OS 2.91, and auto-upgrades are not enabled.

One small clue may be that when I try to activate one of the "unavailable" C4 devices, Alexa flashes an error message that says "Server is unresponsive."

This sort of suggests an Amazon problem, but all of the 14 (!) other smarthome platforms are working perfectly with Alexa.

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Yay it's not just me! I may sound happy but am really sad as it feels like this is intentional.

From what i have found anything that uses the dvd proxy is no longer is usable via Alexa. (not even detected for the customer.control4.com site anymore)

Also my HDMI Matrix is basically useless with Alexa now as well as the devices connected to it no longer show up in the rooms with the TV's and will only show up in the room with the devices!

I have been at this for days and am at a standstill waiting for someone to see there is an issue or have someone who knows make some type of statement or acknowledgement as to this is now working as intended.

I hate to have to build out a ton of manual workarounds for what should be built in functionality and WAS built in previously and would prefer to not have to if anyone can answer why it seems functionality was removed.

*I should also note that previously when it "was" working i was running 2.10 and updated to 3.3. to see if it would fix some of the Alexa weirdness and issues i had been experiencing (Server is unresponsive, cant connect to null, device is not responding...) but all it did was make things worse!*

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If you don't see the device oncustomer.control4.com under voice then there's no way it's making it from the system to control four and then from control 4 to Alexa. Version 112 of the Alexa driver may have changed some of what devices can be used. But I have not got it a confirmation on that

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28 minutes ago, DIEHARD said:

*I should also note that previously when it "was" working i was running 2.10 and updated to 3.3. to see if it would fix some of the Alexa weirdness and issues i had been experiencing (Server is unresponsive, cant connect to null, device is not responding...) but all it did was make things worse!*

Very disappointing, but glad to understand a little better what's going on, and that it's not just me, or something odd in my system.

I was wondering if updating to 3.30 might fix this, but your last statement, quoted above, gives me the answer, unfortunately.

This does seem like a pretty major step backwards, and hopefully will be corrected sooner rather than later.

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Thanks all for the additional insights.  Sorry to hear that so many people are having a similar problem.

In my case, it was not due to a C4 OS upgrade (as my controller is too old to run 3.X).

BTW, I see all of my C4-controlled devices, enabled, under "Voice Control" on customer.control4.com.

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@Darin, C4 PM UII don't know if this is within your area of expertise with Control4, and if not, please let me know who would be, but since this seems to be a fresh bug associated with the release of OS 3.30 and associated infrastructure, I am hoping that this has been recognized by Control4, with a fix in the works.

@DIEHARD's post above seems to be the best summary of the problem:

Quote

 

Yay it's not just me! I may sound happy but am really sad as it feels like this is intentional.

From what i have found anything that uses the dvd proxy is no longer is usable via Alexa. (not even detected for the customer.control4.com site anymore)

Also my HDMI Matrix is basically useless with Alexa now as well as the devices connected to it no longer show up in the rooms with the TV's and will only show up in the room with the devices!

I have been at this for days and am at a standstill waiting for someone to see there is an issue or have someone who knows make some type of statement or acknowledgement as to this is now working as intended.

I hate to have to build out a ton of manual workarounds for what should be built in functionality and WAS built in previously and would prefer to not have to if anyone can answer why it seems functionality was removed.

*I should also note that previously when it "was" working i was running 2.10 and updated to 3.3. to see if it would fix some of the Alexa weirdness and issues i had been experiencing (Server is unresponsive, cant connect to null, device is not responding...) but all it did was make things worse!*

 

 

Thanks.

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This is not my area of expertise, but the PM and engineers that would don't have C4Forums accounts so I'll pass along what they said.

  • Quote

     

    • v112 was a larger update that included changes required by Amazon to keep things working going forward.
    • Device discovery issues with 2.9 systems is a known issue, team is testing a fix for this now, and it should be rolling out soon. @DRP
    • HDMI Matrix issue is being worked on now and will roll out once resolution is confirmed. @Don Cohen
    • DVD proxy is a new report, may relate to the HDMI Matrix issue, but I'll have the team start investigating this. @Don Cohen / @DIEHARD

     

     

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Thank you! Will keep my eyes out!

I will also note that even if connected to the TV inputs directly without the matrix in the mix. DVD Players will not show up as devices for Alexa.

Just want to get things back to a working state! ;) Testing the build video showing how clean the Alexa integration was working -->

 

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Due to Amazon's new requirements, v112 was force updated on all systems to make sure they keep working with Amazon's servers going forward.  The team will be swarming around these 3 issues since they slipped into production, so I expect they should have fixes pushed out of all of them relatively soon. I'll try to keep track of things so I can provide you guys with some updates on where things are at, but like I said not my expertise so you may need to remind me to check for you.

These won't mean anything to you, but they'll help me track things down to keep you guys updated.
DRIV-7915
DRIV-7920
DRIV-7921

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Is there any reason why that when you give a voice command that some of the actions work and others don't. For an example in my set up. Projector turns on, Zappiti turns on, receiver turns on, actuator (Controls the lift) does not, lighting scene does not.

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As much as I enjoy the simplicity and efficiency of using Alexa to interact with Control4, I have definitely found it to be inconsistent in its response.

@daveva- I've also had situations where not all programming commands get activated when initiated by Alexa voice command, which have always been vexing. Sometimes it does involve Lighting control, but sometimes other functions as well.

@DRP - I would say that in general I find Alexa to be about 80% to 90% responsive, with the most usual scenario being giving a Room-level AV command: there will be a pause in Alexa's response, and basically at the same time that the command is actually executed, Alexa says something along the lines of "Hmm...(x) device is not responding".

Given that Control4 has to interact with Amazon's servers and programming, I understand that it can't be as consistent as reliable as dedicated Control4 functions. But I do hope that things will improve over time, since It is so much quicker and easier to give a quick voice command than it is to find a tablet, phone, go through any number of taps, to accomplish the same thing. Not for all functions certainly, but for many of them.

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I would agree the only real issues I have had with Alexa started about a year ago too. The having to repeat every command to even turn something off or on and at random have it do the action after Alexa already said the device was not responding and the more recent can’t talk to null is what drove me to give 3.3 a whirl.

I get the interacting with the cloud and the delay.. and I am even accepting it will exist. But for just basic lighting on/off/dim functionally it does hurt my heart a bit when the cheep Chinese cloud based non-c4 smart devices I have in my closets react 10x faster and more reliably than a professional system to the same commands over the internet via Alexa.

I am hopeful again though as with this last update the lights are being much more responsive… even if much of my media functionally is currently missing. :)

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I have a situation that one room is not listed for AV Commands, but the Alexa commands for lighting in that same room are in the Alexa Voice Command list and it works. I unlinked the skill, relinked and re-discovered, but no change.  Am I missing a setting that must have somehow got changed with the new OS update to enable voice control?

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