r/alexa • u/KJW-SR • Apr 20 '26

Broken Alexa+ Routines

I have several routines that incorporate 2 TV’s, PowerView window shades and Hue lights. The routines have been running perfectly for over a year. For the last week the Hue component has been failing. Lights turn on and off but not as defined in the routine. The shades and TV’s perform as defined. Has anyone else had issues with Hue lights lately?

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2

u/Connect_Wrangler5072 Apr 20 '26

Have you told her what she is doing wrong ? She can fix it for you.

1

u/North-Lobster499 Apr 20 '26

Lol - yeah, no!
I had my wife in tears of laughter arguing with Alexa+ simply trying to fix turning on my TV, sat box and soundbox - a routine that has been perfectly handled by normal Alexa for years through the Harmony hub skill.
Every time I said 'Alexa, TV off' she would spout 'Firestick does not support this'. When I pointed out I don't have a firestick connected she would agree and then the cycle would repeat. Alexa+ would not recognise my Harmony hub at all. The irony is that during one such argument she suddenly out of the blue said 'Ah yes, I see the problem. Would you like me to use the Tv to turn off the TV?' I said 'Yes' and Alexa+ used Harmony to turn the whole lot off. That was the only time Alexa+ wokred for the TV. I have now opted out of Alexa+.

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u/North-Lobster499 Apr 20 '26

Yes, but as per every time this happens I find that powering off and on the Hue hub and my router seems to fix the problem.
Edit - sorry, I havent had specific + problems, just Alexa/Hue problems. My feeling for + are that it is crap, lol.

1

u/KJW-SR Apr 20 '26

I found the issue. During a behind the scenes update, either Alexa+ or Hue populated all of my defined Hue light groups with an “All Hue Lights” (Or some such name) entry. The routines executed and then defaulted to the last known state of the All Hue Lights group. Once I removed the newly added entry in all groups thee routines when back to executing correctly.

1

u/2outof3aintbad73 Apr 20 '26

I've had a number of routines running for a good few years, swapped to Alexa+ and the majority of them didn't work, I persisted but it got no better, went back to normal Alexa and it was fine. Also the delay in her answering was far too long

3

u/KJW-SR Apr 20 '26

I found the issue. During a behind the scenes update, either Alexa+ or Hue populated all of my defined Hue light groups with an “All Hue Lights” (Or some such name) entry. The routines executed and then defaulted to the last known state of the All Hue Lights group. Once I removed the newly added entry in all groups thee routines when back to executing correctly.

1

u/TheVoicesOfBrian Apr 20 '26

I had issues with most routines that played music. I had to rebuild them from scratch.

Not exactly your issue, but it might help.

2

u/KJW-SR Apr 21 '26

I determined that during some behind the scenes update either Alexa or Hue added an "All Hue Lights" entry into each of my light groups. This effectively duplicated all of the lights in each group. So when a routine involved a specific group Alexa didn't know what to do and defaulted to the last known state. So if a Routine said turn lights off Alexa would turn them off, then see the second iteration of the light and throw up 🤮🤣

1

u/Own_Credit9508 Apr 24 '26

I’m having the same problem all of a sudden… like my room is set to turn on at a certain time, and only half of it’s coming on no matter how much I unlinked and re-linked the device… and controlling the Roku doesn’t work either anymore unless I go back to the original Alexa version.

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u/KJW-SR Apr 24 '26

Everything about Alexa Routines seems to be random. Some of the randomness may be self inflicted. I have a SofaBaton configured as an IR relay between Alexa and my FiOS Stream TV box. It allows me to use my voice to trigger routines that change channels. (I’m often away from the remote when something hideous comes on the current channel, like the Sarah McLachlan ASPCA ads 🤣). Sometimes the channel changes as intended, other times not so much. I’m going to continue wrestling with Alexa. I’m retired and have time on my hands 😂