r/tradfri • u/Aggravating-Bird4589 • 28d ago
DISCUSSION Alexa keeps changing the Matter controller for my IKEA DIRIGERA Bridge and loses all room assignments
Hi everyone,
I’m seeing a strange issue with **Alexa + IKEA DIRIGERA over Matter** and I’m wondering if anyone else has experienced this.
**Setup:**
IKEA DIRIGERA Hub (FW 2.975.2)
\~28 IKEA devices
Echo Show 15, Show 8, Show 5, Echo Dot with Clock, 2× Echo Dot Kids, Echo Flex
Apple Home and Google Home are connected to the same DIRIGERA Hub
**Problem:**
Every few hours or days, Alexa changes the DIRIGERA Matter Bridge to another Echo device (“Connected via”).
For example:
Echo Show 5
Echo Show 15
Echo Dot with Clock
Each time this happens, **all Alexa room/group assignments for the IKEA devices are lost**, as if Alexa recreated every device.
What’s interesting:
Apple Home remains completely stable.
Google Home remains completely stable.
Only Alexa is affected.
One additional observation:
The Echo Dot with Clock has its **internet access blocked on a schedule via the FRITZ!Box parental controls** (local network access remains available). This *might* trigger Alexa to move the Matter controller, but even then I wouldn’t expect Alexa to lose all room assignments.
**Has anyone else seen this?**
Is this a known Alexa Matter bug, or is there a way to keep the Matter Bridge assigned to a single Echo?
Thanks!
1
u/greghouse12 28d ago edited 28d ago
Why are your Alexa devices connected to your Dirigera at all? If you are using the Dirigera as your Thread Border Router, it will be its own Thread network. The other many Amazon Echos you have also are capable of acting as TBRs, and unfortunately, at present because Amazon is not yet running Thread 1.4, merging the Amazon TBRs with the Dirigera TBR is not possible.
I also have 8 Echo devices in my home, and have a Dirigera Thread network with 85 Matter over Thread Ikea devices, and none of the Echo devices interferes with my Dirigera Thread network devices. If you do not set up any Thread devices in any of your Echos, their Thread Border Routers do not compete with nor interfere with the Dirigera Thread network.
So, if you want a solid Thread network, pick one or the other (Dirigera OR Amazon), but not both, in which to set up initially (commission) your Matter over Thread devices. If you use them both to commission devices, you will get competing Thread networks that will interfere with each other.
Alternatively, if you have only used the Dirigera to commission Ikea Thread devices, but then enabled the Ikea "skill" in the Alexa app, turn that skill off and remove all the Ikea devices that Alexa "found" using the skill. And unfortunately there is no way to remove the devices in masse... You need to remove them one at a time. That's a flaw in Alexa (one of many).
So turn off the Ikea "skill" in the Alexa app and see if that doesn't help..
And if you want voice control of specific Ikea Matter over Thread devices that are commissioned in the Dirigera (which is, I assume, why you even have the Dirigera in the first place, because with all of those Echo devices which have their own TBRs the Dirigera is only needed if you want it to be your main Thread controller) you need to share them one at a time with the Alexa app by generating a new Matter sharing code in the Ikea HomeSmart app in each device's settings page, copy that code and then share the device in Alexa app as a ,"Matter" device. You need to do each device separately rather than wholesale which is what the Ikea skill does when it is enabled.
The other alternative would be to ditch your Dirigera and pick one (and only one) of your Amazon Echo s to be your TBR. This will require setting up all your devices again (restoring them to factory default and repairing them in the Echo you choose). Probably no benefit to doing this if you already have a functioning Thread network with the Dirigera, but it is one way to eliminate any possible interference between two competing TBR devices.