Switches exceed Amazon Alexa limit

Hi folks. I am having problem for the Alexa to discover devices in ST. I have 232 devices & switches and I was told by ST supports that Alexa only allows 200 devices. From the Amazon Alexa inside ST, if I allow Alexa to auto include all the devices, I always get “there is a problem or there is an error” message. If I turn off the auto and select the switches manually, as long as I select less than 200, I can get through but more than that I get the same error message. Has anyone find a way to get around the devices limit? The tech. at ST suggest to turn off the hub and discover the ST devices (bypassing the Amazon Alexa inside ST), it doesn’t work. Any help is appreciated.

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Do you have any bulbs you could group together and use the mirror function in SmartThings? Then add one “master” for the group.

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OK, by “Alexa inside ST” you mean the Alexa connect smartapp inside the SmartThings mobile app, right? The hub itself doesn’t hold any Alexa.

So… I may be wrong on the following, but I believe that each smart home hub manufacturer sets their own limit on the number of Devices they expose to Alexa. I’m basing that on the fact that different ones list different limits. Wink two lists a maximum of 49, Insteon lists a maximum of 302, etc.

So…

Do you have any devices that can connect to echo without using SmartThings? That would include the Phillips hue bridge, LIFX lights, wemo devices, Nest, etc.

If so (and this may be what support was trying to get at) if you change the setting in SmartThings so that doesn’t automatically discover all your devices and you connect anything that can connect without smartthings directly to echo, then I suspect those devices would not Count against your SmartThings limit. Then you could go in and individually approve those devices that do require smartthings, and hopefully that would be under the SmartThings limit.

But you would have to always leave smartthings set to require individual approval or else it will keep re-adding all your devices every hour or so, which is definitely not what you want in this situation.

Anyway, do you have any devices that could connect to Alexa without going through SmartThings? You will still be able to do all the things you do with them through SmartThings, the only thing you’re changing is the one branch of how they connect to echo.

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With IOT really taking off like it has, I am thinking Samsung should rethink that 200 device limit.

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Especially with the use of sensors now. :wink:

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This may actually be a technical limitation at this time. Until the use of the “new API”, current (Classic / Groovy) SmartApps have difficulty subscribing to Events from a large number of Devices. There are timeouts, etc.

The current architecture was designed long, long before Echo was launched.

I’m just impressed that you can remember the names you’ve assigned to > 200 devices well enough to talk to Alexa about them.

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If you use them in groups and routines, you don’t have to remember the individual names. :sunglasses:

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Thanks @JDRoberts and @Automated_House for the suggestion. I have been trying to combine, group and eliminating some of the switches and devices. It’s challenging especially blinds, shades and curtain already taken 72 slots and I like to be able to control them one by one. In any case, I am able to slim it down to 172 and it works ok now. For what it’s worth, 200 is not the limit (the ST tech. is off on the number), it is actually 173 is the max. Even I can get 179 devices thru the Alexa connect without error, Amazon Alexa app will not discover any devices. I wish ST or Amazon would have posted this information somewhere so that I don’t spend a whole day to figure out what the maximum devices are allowed.

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Yeah, but even if I had an average of 10 devices / group that I wanted to control/query the status of all at once that’s still 20 names I’d need to remember…and I’m old.

Get off my lawn.

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@samjjp2009, I have turned off “All devices” in the smartthings automation alexa app and selected about 40 devices to connect but alexa will not discover all of the devices. I have deleted everything except the new devices in the alexa app but still no luck discovering them. You mentioned in your post that Amazon Alexa app will not discover any devices so I’m curious if I should be doing something different or did you mean that it wouldn’t discover more than 179.