Cannot Use Voice Command on Alexa Devices

[shoegazer73]

I'm having a problem with my Alexa devices. I recently changed my premium Spotify account to a different account, and now songs are only playing by voice command on a single device, not on the others. This all worked correctly before, so I switched back to the original account, which had no effect. I can play fine on my mobile app, and can select the other devices to play via the app, but when I attempt voice command to play on the other devices I get the spoken error: "to listen to Spotify you will need to link your account".
I tried disabling and re-enabling Spotify on the Alexa app. I also tried removing and re-adding one of the Alexa devices. All apps and devices are on the latest software.
I have to admit I'm stumped on this one. Any ideas?

[Dian]

Hey @shoegazer73,

Thanks for posting in the Community. Great troubleshooting so far!

The described issue can have various reasons. One of the reasons might be duplicate device names - Alexa prefers that names for devices, groups and scenes are unique.

Check if you have any duplicated device names (Alexa App> Smart Home). You can then change the names in the source app for your particular playback device, e.g. the Sonos app for Sonos devices etc. Once you have changed any duplicate names, open the Alexa App on a browser (https://alexa.amazon.com or the equivalent for your country), then Smart Home> Devices and select 'Forget All' followed by 'Discover'.

NOTE: This will remove ALL Actions from ALL Alexa Routines! (Only the Browser version has this functionality.)

Another reason might be some form of Account Linking or Authorization has not completed successfully. There are a number of causes for this and it's best to try these steps 1 at a time and test before moving on to the next step if the problem persists:

1. Open the Alexa App> Skills > Your Skills >[Name of the playback device manufacturer] and 'Disable' followed by 'Enable';
2. Ensure that you don't have multiple Amazon accounts logged into different Apps on your device, as this can confuse the Amazon Authorization. If yes, then please log out of the other accounts and then complete step 1. again.
3. If the problem still persists, please logout of all Amazon accounts then select the Alexa App>Skills>Your Skills>[Name of the playback device manufacturer] and 'Disable. Now power down all playback devices for at least 10 secs, allowing for any wired devices to boot before booting the remaining playback devices. Now log back into the Alexa App>Skills>[Name of the playback device manufacturer] and 'Enable'

Let us know how these steps went,

Cheers!

[shoegazer73]

Unfortunately this didn't solve my problem. I went through all of the steps to no avail. I'm just going to have to use my mobile app to run songs through the device.

Thanks for posting the potential fix.

Shawn

[MihailY]

Hey @shoegazer73,

Thanks for your reply.

If we still haven't reached a result, then an entire reset of the Authorisation & Account Linking process might be required:

1. In the Alexa app, select Skills>Your Skills>[Name of the playback device manufacturer] and then 'Disable';
2. In the Alexa app (Browser version), select 'Smart Home>Devices'. Now select 'Forget All' at the bottom of the screen;
3. In the [Name of the playback device manufacturer] app (Android or iOS), select Settings>Room Settings and for each of the playback devices sign into 'Voice Services' and select 'Remove Amazon Alexa from this Room'.
4. If you have any wired playback devices, please power down for at least 10 secs and then switch on and wait for it to boot;
5. Now power down all other playback devices for at least 10 secs then switch them back on and wait for them to boot;
6. In the playback device's app, Select Manage>Add a player (or similar) and add the playback devices again. This will complete the set-up process again.
7. In the Alexa app, select Skills>Your Skills and ensure the skill for the playback device is 'Enabled', if not 'Enable' it.
8. In the Alexa app, select Smart Home>Devices>Discover. Ensure that your playback devices are displayed correctly and not shown as 'Offline'.
9. Also check one last time that there are no devices with the same name. Remember, if there is a need to rename any then you'll need to select 'Discover' again.

We hope this helps, please keep us posted.

Cheers,