Cannot Disable SmartThings Skill from Alexa Integration

Devices & Integrations
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All,

I am having a bizarre problem and could use some guidance. I recently purchased an Alexa Echo Dot and I am new to Alexa but very familiar with SmartThings and devices. I have a house full of smartthings and a SmartThings Hub, Hue Hub, multiple Sonos speakers, Caseta hub, Nest thermostats, etc.

I started adding skills to Alexa and things were going great. I added the SmartThings skill, Hue skill, Nest skill, Sonos skill, etc. It was then that I realized that I was having duplicate name issues for verbal commands, and I was unable to setup a “bathroom” group due to the name already in use. This has been a learning experience over the past week. Ultimately, because many devices in my SmartThings hub had similar names, i.e., the word “bathroom”, I realized that I needed to first clean up names and rename devices in SmartThings (I know I can rename in Alexa, but I am trying to re-do this cleanly and smartly). Long story short, I decided to start over with Alexa, but first I was going to clean up my SmartThings naming convention, etc.

The above background in mind, I disabled the Hue skill from Alexa. No problem. I disabled the Nest skill from Alexa. No problem. I disabled the Sonos skill. No problem. But then I went to disable the SmartThings skill, and a message popped up and said “there was a problem disabling the skill. Please try again later”. All of this was on my Android App. So I went to the Alexa web interface and tried to disable the SmartThings skill and I received the same message “there was a problem disabling the skill. Please try again later.”

I then proceeded to go into the SmartThings app, and I found the Alexa SmartApp, and I deleted it, thinking this would allow me to disable the skill in Alexa. It did not work, but it did kill all of the integration of my Smartthings devices in Alexa. I still, however, could not disable the skill in Alexa.

I factory reset my Echo Dot. That did not work. I then called Alexa support. They factory reset the Dot again, tried some other stuff, but in the end, the problem remains. I was told to submit the issue using the support button at the bottom of the SmartThings skill in the Alexa app, which I did.

All I want to do is start from scratch, but I cannot disable the skill, which is a pre-requisite to re-enabling the skill and re-linking the account. And now that I deleted the SmartApp in SmartThings, I have completely broken the integration.

Help!

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I’m running into a similar problem today. Was trying to ‘reset’ my Smarthings skill and tried to disable (as I have done many times in the past) and I’m getting “There was a problem disabling the skill. Please try again later.”

To be fair yesterday I was trying to connect different Amazon accounts to the same Smartthings account, so I may have caused it, but still not able disable it.

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Having the EXACT same problem. Been using smartthings with alexa integration for almost 2 years. Decided to start over due to the duplicate name issue and because the Alexa app wouldn’t allow me to add anything but amazon devices to smart groups. Now nothing works and I can’t remove OR connect the Smartthigns skill in the Alexa Andriod OR web app.

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Well its nice to see I am not alone at least. I have tickets open at Amazon and Smartthings as well as a ticket through the Skill page. Crickets so far.

I guess the only work around is to setup skills for all my things direct, i.e., Sonos, Hue, Caseta, etc. That has got me thinking now as to the reason I need to link to SmartThings anyway. It seems that if I set up skills to everything directly I can get to the end result probably more efficiently. But still… for you guys that have the issue - can you start service tickets? Maybe if we all yell they’ll hear us.

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it’s working again (at least for me). Was able to disable and re-link and devices are responding.

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It is working again for me too! Technology is great again. I really need to take a step back and remember this is a hobby (for me at least). This integration issue bothered me for a good 24 hours. Like most petty things everything turned out okay in short order.

Edit:. Here is a life pro tip:. When you restart and enable the SmartThings skill, before you get to the stage in the Alexa app to discover new devices from the SmartThings hub, first go into the SmartThings app, then go to the new Alexa SmartApp, and turn off “discover all devices”. At this point you can individually pick and choose which of your SmartThings devices you want Alexa to discover. Then go back to the Alexa app to discover the new devices you picked. Go slow and steady. Setup room Groups in the Alexa app. Add your SmartThings devices. Take baby steps. You can go back to the Alexa SmartApp in the SmartThings app and select more devices when you are ready, and then rediscover those devices in the Alexa app. . Use unique names and change those names in SmartThings before you add to Alexa. Think about what you’re doing. Plan it out. I say this as I am starting over and doing it the right way slowly this time. Thought I would share the tip.

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