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A few things share that "Group Name" issue

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clinto69

A few things share that "Group Name" issue
« on: December 19, 2018, 11:14:01 am »
Just suddenly tonight everything i ask Alexa to do she responds with "A few things share that "name", which one did you want?" Ive isolated it down to Group Names. Individual devices work ok.

However, for example, if i ask her to "turn off dining room lights", which is a group name containing 2 lights, I get the message above. Ive checked groups and there is only 1 group name of Dining Room Lights. I then deleted the group name Dining Room Lights and she is still giving me that same message despite no group name even existing. How is that possible? I put back a new group name of Dining Room Lights, still same.

I put a new Group Name called "blob" added the 2 lights and that works.

Its like this for every Group Name I have.

Asking her to turn on FireTV I get same response!

It just started literally like 3 hours ago.

Anyone else? Or can anyone help?

PS the Group Name buttons from within the Alexa App work. i.e I can turn on "Dining Room Lights" from within the Alexa Apps

ByronJ

Re: A few things share that "Group Name" issue
« Reply #1 on: December 19, 2018, 11:58:11 am »
Seems to be a worldwide problem. A user on Reddit says Amazon, Germany, knows about it and is working on it. I'm guessing they didn't do a very good job of quality control testing.

The glitch seems to be a problem with group recognition. If you have several devices in one group, such as "bedroom", you can work around it by saying, "Alexa, Bedroom off". When she asks "Which device", say, "all". Somehow they disconnected the concept of a group name and all the devices in that group. But I think they may have also screwed up the distinction between the Alexa device grouping "Lights" and any user-defined group or device that contains the word "light".

Interestingly, the glitch only showed up in rooms with only Hue lights or only Leviton switches. My living room has 1 Hue light and 3 Amazon smart switches. They all work as expected when I say "Living room on".

I'm hoping they get this one figured out soon, clearly explain the naming rules and implement better QC procedures in the future.

Re: A few things share that "Group Name" issue
« Reply #2 on: December 19, 2018, 03:06:41 pm »
Seems to be a worldwide problem. A user on Reddit says Amazon, Germany, knows about it and is working on it. I'm guessing they didn't do a very good job of quality control testing.

The glitch seems to be a problem with group recognition. If you have several devices in one group, such as "bedroom", you can work around it by saying, "Alexa, Bedroom off". When she asks "Which device", say, "all". Somehow they disconnected the concept of a group name and all the devices in that group. But I think they may have also screwed up the distinction between the Alexa device grouping "Lights" and any user-defined group or device that contains the word "light".

Interestingly, the glitch only showed up in rooms with only Hue lights or only Leviton switches. My living room has 1 Hue light and 3 Amazon smart switches. They all work as expected when I say "Living room on".

I'm hoping they get this one figured out soon, clearly explain the naming rules and implement better QC procedures in the future.


it's called growing pains  :-)

rogerwoods2007

Re: A few things share that "Group Name" issue
« Reply #3 on: December 19, 2018, 03:30:54 pm »
I am so glad I'm not the only having this problem. I was late to work this morning trying to fix it. I knew it was working fine last night.

Re: A few things share that "Group Name" issue
« Reply #4 on: December 19, 2018, 05:27:22 pm »
that is why I keep a google home as a backup.  It comes in handy during amazon glitches and helps me to determine where the problem is.