FAQ: Amazon Echo: The Official SmartThings Integration is here! (Initial SetUp FAQ)

I went into the ST app for Alexa and unchecked the four switches, but I left the ones marked Smartthings in the Alexa units app and removed the ones marked WeMO maybe Alexa won’t pick up the wemo switches again. The problem is that Alexa continues to scan every few minutes and recreates the switches. I contacted Amazon developers and they are going to look into it. I didn’t do a rescan as that will surely find the WeMo switches.

After unchecking the switches in the ST app for Alexa, you need to remove the ones marked SmartThings from Alexa. Those will not reappear because Alexa is no longer authorized to access (see) them. The Wemo ones will continue to pop up, but that’s ok because the ST versions won’t be there anymore.

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What good is that as I want to use the connected home qualities of Alexa so I want to keep the Smarthings switches and not the WeMo. You are defeating the purpose of the connected home by removing the SmartThings integration.

The other option would to be to disable the Wemo integration in the Alexa settings of the mobile app, unless Wemo provides a way to authorize at the device level. Are there Wemo devices that don’t integrate into ST that you want Alexa to control?

Once devices show up on the connected home devices list, you can use Alexa to control them by voice regardless of which controller is listed with them.

You can also set up an Echo group that combines devices from different controllers, which is very useful.

removing a device from the echo authorization list in SmartThings doesn’t remove it from SmartThings itself, so you still have all the nonvoice options inside of SmartThings that you had previously regardless of who echo thinks owns it.

It’s true that sometimes one controller will offer more features than another, like the ability to dim a particular kind of lightbulb.

Is there a particular voice control feature that you’re getting from SmartThings as a listed controller that you wouldn’t get from having WeMo as the listed controller?

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If you would just follow the steps above you’d see that it works… Or, I’m sure there’s some other long winded work around that probably works too.

I have been told there will be more Elexa integrations coming soon and I wanted to stay with the ST platform. If Amazon doesn’t come up with an answer soon I will do as suggested. but for now I will keep things running as is.

I created some groups so even if WeMo is added they should still work. Yes people are having the same problem with Hue.

I’m honestly having trouble understanding what you are thinking is wrong here.

If you have the boxes checked in the Amazon echo ST app for the Wemo devices Echo is going to see the Wemo on both the ST network and on your wifi network.

Wemo is wifi.

Disabling the Wemo in the ST app does not take away any of the home automation functions. The Wemo works fine with ST and with echo.

I honestly believe you are over thinking this. You’ve put in a trouble call to amazon on an issue that really is not an issue.

Plus, you come to this forum, state your problem and hope for help. You’ve been given help from people that have not only run into the issue themselves, but fully understand the way it all works together, and have figured out how to fix it.

Basically you’ve come across to this forum that we are wrong. But hey, everyone is free to have an opinion.

So, on that note, why ask for help if you’re going to ignore it? You’ve been told that it’s not an actual problem, but the way you have configured your system, and you act like we are wrong. Ok.

Basically it comes down to this, from me, if you don’t like the answer, then stop asking the question.

Again, follow the directions spelled out for you by the members here. It will fix the problem you are having. There is nothing wrong with the hardware, it’s because you have it configured wrong.

Joel, @bamarayne is correct. I figured out the same thing with the Hue lighting. All unchecking it dose is get rid of the conflict, not the funcationality

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I in no way wanted to come across making you think I was saying you are wrong, all I meant to say there is a flaw in the way it works. I did follow what people are saying and will see if it works. Amazon also agreed that there should be only one switch for smarthiings and the developers are looking at it. They know about this for a while as the Hue people have complained. So again I don’t disagree with you but think the integration should be better.

In a perfect world, the individual systems would talk to each enough that Echo could determine that the WeMo’s were already connected thru ST. But this is far from a perfect world. As far as Echo was concerned, you had 8 devices. 4 WeMo wifi devices and 4 ST devices.

So, obviously you need to tell Echo to ignore one set or the other. It sounds like you would ideally like to ignore the direct Echo <-> WeMo WiFi connection. Which is fine, but the problem that you discovered was that Echo, on it’s own, kept re-finding the WeMo WiFi devices and re-adding them.

So, the bug, if there is one, is that there isn’t a way to tell Echo right now to forget and ignore the WeMo devices.

The solution/work around as other have said is to remove these devices from the Alexa SmartApp in SmartThings. It is important to note that doing this doesn’t remove functionality of the WeMo devices in SmartThings.

I’m not sure if you understand this or not, so I’m not trying to insult you here, but this picture might help you or others who are having a similar issue:

So again, ideally we’d cut the yellow connection, but Echo seems to be spontaneously recreating this connection. So instead we’ll remove the devices from the Alexa SmartApp, and there by cut the blue connection. Note that the red connect (WeMo to SmartThings) still exists in this situation.

Functionally you will notice nothing different about cutting the blue connection vs. the yellow connection. Echo will still work the same. All other smartapps within SmartThings will work the same. The only difference is Echo will talk directly to the WeMo vs. Echo talking to SmartThings who then talks to the WeMo.

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I understood without the diagram and yes it can help others. I do think it is an Alexa doing a scan on a schedule, that is why Amazon support sent it to the developers. My suggestion is to add a button that would stop scanning until you ask Alexa to scan either via voice or app. I have everything working now and once WeMo connect is fixed, which I know is being worked on now other WeMo issues will be gone. That should not be to far off. To make sure that Amazon support can see the problem, I created rooms to operate for now and keep the double entries. I don’t mind being a Guinea Pig if it helps the community.

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@joelw135
I must really be struggling to understand what you’re saying. All I need to do to get Alexa not to discover my hue bulbs twice is the following: go into my ST/ Amazon Echo (after she discovered my devices) and not select my Hue bulbs
As you can see my bed side light, fireplace Light, Hugo light, living room light, and living room light 2 (see below) are not selected because they are already connected to Alexa through the Amazon/Alexa App. So in order to avoid conflict (having it auto connect) I just don’t select it to find . I guess that just doesn’t seem broken to me :neutral_face:

OK let me make myself clear I understand all you have said! I was asked by Amazon Developers to not change my setup as they are working on a permanent solution. I set up groups for use now. I am being a test setup so WeMo can work with SmartThings without non selecting them. I know about this as I had it that way.

I wish you would have made that point earlier :smiley:

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I bad sorry I should have said so. But just so you know there is a new WeMo Connect coming in the future and I don’t think too far away.

That will be awesome. I have the Wemo switches and have only installed one. I may wait for that before I get rid of them.

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The one thing I can say is I is the app is much more stable and the programing of on and off etc is much better.

Ok guys I guess Amazon had no solution, and your solution is the best.
here is their answer:
Hello,

This is Jeremy from the Echo support team here at Amazon.

I wanted to let you know that I’ve received a response from our technical team, and they can see what the problem is. WeMo switches (and other WeMo devices) connect to your network using their own methods. So when you have them also attached to your network through the SmartThings Hub, they are actually on your network twice, once through their own means and once through the SmartThings.

The easiest way to fix this would be to unauthorize the WeMo duplicates from SmartThings app. After you have disconnected WeMo from SmartThings run Echo discovery again and the units will only show once. You will still be able to set up “groups” through the Alexa app so that you can control both your SmartThings and WeMo with a single command.

If you’re still having trouble, please provide as much information as possible, including any new error messages. You can reach Alexa Customer Support by phone directly and toll-free at 1-877-375-9365 or by e-mail at echo-support@amazon.com. We’re available from 3 a.m. to 10 p.m Pacific time, seven days a week.

This should get rid of those pesky duplicates! Thanks again for your patience and let us know if this resolves the problem!

Best regards,
Jeremy K.
Thank you.

Now if I can figure out why the WeMo switches go offline in the Alexa app and not in WeMo I will have thing all straight. It usually takes a refresh of the WeMo app then a discover devices in Alexa. And the funny thing is Alexa finds only two or three at a time so two or three scans are necessary. I have a strong WiFi signal at all switches as I have a second router in the rear of the house which extends the network…