New SmartThings Alexa skill (2020)

This is a known issue with the new skill :frowning:

1 Like

Mines show up as switches on the Zooz and Aeon strips but I used the below app to create the devices.

@Lars,

Can you give an update on the status of the fixes Smatthings has been working in terms of the Alexa Skill and Integration. Seems all of my devices are working properly but wanted to get your feedback.

Thanks,

John

3 Likes

I’m interested in the status as well. My biggest issue now is having a working virtual button/momentary switch. Everything else seems to be responding in a timely manner.

This was covered very early in the thread. It is Amazon who has said that they no longer want to see any special characters in device names, so those characters will be stripped out. So if you can train yourself to say “Michael Light“ instead of “Michael’s light“ that will work. Otherwise you have to come up with a new name.

1 Like

I can only assume I’ve now fallen foul of this.

This evening my legacy Alexa skill was removed by ST. I have now enabled the new skill but Alexa will not discover a single ST device.

I believe I read the Peanut plug has this issue? I have four of those.

What do I do while we wait for a fix?

What a mess. I was prepared to start rebuilding my Alexa groups and routines and remove duplicate devices but I can’t even do that right now.

1 Like

I’m completely unable to control any ST devices with Alexa as of today. I had some sort of notification about needing to login or enable the ST skill, which I did, but no devices are discovered and devices are missing. Google Home integration is still working, however. I’ve tried disabling and enabling the new ST skill many times, delinking from the new Android ST app, and a couple other things I can no longer recall. Nada.

BTW, the new ST app seems prettier and dumber

2 Likes

Of my four Peanuts only one has the issue:

Screen Shot 2020-09-29 at 10.52.19 AM

But who knows if there’s more issues in my other ~250 devices.

I really don’t want to start deleting ST devices so I can get Alexa working.

UPDATE: Support ticket #1053400 raised.

1 Like

Ok I’m over my tantrum, well kinda. But now I’m just confused about what steps I take from here. Please HELP!

If this has already been resolved in a prior thread, sorry ST, I don’t have time to read through everything.

(Old setup) I have 3 locations on one ST account. Then I have 3 separate Alexa accounts, 1 for each ST location.

I guess I’m ok with setting something new up but I don’t know how this suppose to work? The new Alexa skill adds all 3 locations. First, how do I link 3 separate Alexa accounts to the new Alexa skill in ST? If I change every location to 1 Alexa account then, well at location A, how do I disable all location’s B and C devices on Alexa and then at location B, disable locacations A and C on Alexa and so on? So, do I need to separate the locations out of ST, each location have it’s own account? I think that would fix the problem, but at the point of unpairing everything at 2 locations creating 2 new accounts then pairing everything back. That will take me days. Plus the fact I would then have to log out, log back in with 2 part authentication just to switch to another location. Really?

If this is going to be fixed, then please just tell me, and I’ll wait. I can kinda make it through until a fix. But if not, then I need to be thinking about my next step. If I have unpair everything, I might just go to hubitat.

Thank you for any help,
Mike

I tried so hard to be clear and concise when I opened the ticket. I just want to cry at the response I got.

1 Like

Linking multiple Alexa skills to one SmartThings account has never been a good idea. The only straight forward solution I can see for your case would be to create a new Samsung account for each location, however then you share each location from your original account to each new account via SmartThings app. E.g. you don’t have to remove or change anything in your “root/parent” account that you currently use (e.g. dont unpair devices). Then link each individual Alexa account to each individual SmartThings account that each has one of the original locations shared to it. Does that make sense?

Final setup:

Your Current Smartthings account with 3 locations: l1,l2,l3 remains the same and you log into that on your SmartThings app so you can control all locations from one place.

Alexa account A → Samsung account A with l1 shared to it
Alexa account B → Samsung account B with l2 shared to it
Alexa account C → Samsung account C with l3 shared to it

I have heard some reports about scenes not getting shared when you share locations but I haven’t confirmed if that is the case yet.

1 Like

@ Lars

Yes that does make since, and thank you!

Thank you for your quick response. I’ll give it a try and also let ya know one the Scenes.

Mike

Hmm…didn’t even realize this. I just checked and although there is a space there, it still works. I’m going to leave it alone!!

Didn’t know this either. Dammit, I only have three of the Peanuts in use and one has the issue. Funny thing is all have the weird characters after the naming.

image

2 Likes

How do you “share” a location from your current account to the newly created ST account (for the purpose of Alexa association) from the app?

I have two. No issues with them being discovered by Alexa after upgrading to the new skill

For the first time since I updated to the new skill, I added a couple of Z-wave devices.

Both devices were seen by Alexa as soon as the SmartThings app added them. Alexa also tracked the rename I did. No discovery needed.

Perhaps the manufacturer name for both does not have non-ASCII chars? That’s the issue. Only one of my four falls in to that category but it’s enough to blow-up the whole import of all ST devices to Alexa.

1 Like

Correct. Both are just Securifi Ltd. with no extra characters. Guess I just got lucky

2 Likes

We deployed a fix today to handle the broken manufacturer names until Amazon fixes their bug. For everyone who did not see any devices previously, please try to discover again now.

7 Likes

Thanks @Lars and all the others working to resolve the current issues and moving the platform forward. I bet you’re all frustrated as some of the users here.

Have you all found time yet to name the current Hurricane, Tsunami, Typhoon, and Meteoroid that has hit SmartThings Land all at the same time? :slight_smile:

1 Like