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Using a Network Drive

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Laika

Using a Network Drive
« on: March 23, 2017, 04:50:47 pm »
I have a WD My Book Live on the same network as my Echo Dot. It has 100's of albums not on Amazon or Spotify. Is there any way I can get Alexa to play that music?

Re: Using a Network Drive
« Reply #1 on: March 23, 2017, 06:27:42 pm »
Yes... with a little fuss though...

theoretically possible by setting up the external drive on a sound bar that is capable of playing the files... I can tell Alexa to turn on "turn on music" (it's set up through Harmony hub as USB input on my soundbar and Named "Music"), and I get music. I have done it with a thumb drive (16 gigs). I plan on copying all my music to a Large capacity thumb drive (128 gig or larger) to reduce the physical presence to an unnoticeable size behind my sound bar. One Caveat... I do not get to Choose so readily as with my mouse and computer... but can let the system play the music for me at least and I can command a few items I have set up with it such as "next song". You may have different results with different equipment. I think any drive that your sound bar can power would work as well as a thumb drive too.
2 Echo Dots 2nd gen
2 echo dots gen 3 (no clock) -2 Echo Dot 3rd gen with Clock
1 echo dot Gen 4 with clock
1 Echo Spot
4 10" Fire Tablets
1 15' Echo show
23 Hue Lights 1 Hue bridge - 1 Amazon Smart plug outlet
One Ring Doorbell Pro
4 cell phones with Alexa app installed!
You should see My Apple Device List!

mike27oct

Re: Using a Network Drive
« Reply #2 on: March 24, 2017, 12:18:57 am »
Basically, the Alexa devices cannot access anything on the home network, so the way to access your music on the my Book, is to Bluetooth your music playing on a phone or tablet via My Cloud app to a BT receiver device, i.e. a speaker.  I hardly ever do this except maybe to a TAP, the sound of music from a Dot is pretty bad.  I prefer to send my music through the network directly to my stereo or a better BT speaker.

jim1590

Re: Using a Network Drive
« Reply #3 on: March 29, 2017, 03:05:54 pm »
I am going to say yes with a caveat that I have not tried this yet. I have a large movie collection on Plex, not music. That being said, my movie collection is on a NAS. I am a Plex Pro Pass subscriber and it is well worth the cost to support the development of the program.

https://www.plex.tv/apps/streaming-devices/amazon-alexa/

Next question is will Alexa play your NAS music through its speaker, or feed it to your TV for playing.

mike27oct

Re: Using a Network Drive
« Reply #4 on: March 30, 2017, 06:16:16 pm »
I have looked into the above link, and PLEX cannot play one's music to/on an Alexa device.  (and that was the OP's original question)  The only way is via bluetooth from a sending device (e.g. a smartphone to an Alexa device via BT.

I set up the Plex Alexa skill today, and what it is supposed to do is send the command from an Alexa device to play something via Plex to a device.  So far, it ain't happening; even though Plex says it sees my server and I have a lot of devices it can play to (e.g. Fire TV, etc).  I will continue to fool around with it to see if it works.

I have many ways to send music to my devices from my network, and Plex is my least preferred way for a variety of reasons.  I use a WDTV or Kodi on Fire TV as a few preferred ways. I find PLEX to be over-blown and over-priced in quite a few ways.  I never use anything other than the free home network features of Plex, and just for experimental purposes.

So far, ALexa devices cannot directly interact with my home server NAS.

jim1590

Re: Using a Network Drive
« Reply #5 on: March 31, 2017, 11:58:53 am »
I have looked into the above link, and PLEX cannot play one's music to/on an Alexa device.  (and that was the OP's original question)  The only way is via bluetooth from a sending device (e.g. a smartphone to an Alexa device via BT.


Good to know and thank you for testing it. I have not had a chance to test the skill out yet and as I said above, I do not have much of a music collection. I have not even tried it with my movies yet (about 300 HD movies on a NAS, stops the kids from scratching the dvds) but will try it at some point.

I like it for the GUI on the end device and its ease of use. But, you are correct in that this would not be the answer the OP wants.