Alexa + Philips Hue integration - anyone else having issues?

Forums › Gadgets, robotics, home automation, electronics (including wearables) › Alexa + Philips Hue integration - anyone else having issues?

steve98

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#298663 5-Jul-2022 16:41

I've been using Alexa devices to control my Philips Hue bulbs via the Hue Skill for a number of years without much issue. On Friday last week, Alexa began responding with something to the effect of "Sorry, the hub that device <light name> connects to is not responding. Please check its network connection and power supply". The hub is on and the lights all work as normal via Google Assistant, Siri, and the Hue app itself. So it appears to be just the Alexa integration not working. I reached out to Philips Hue via their Facebook page and they have confirmed to me that there is currently a problem but that they don't know how long it will take to resolve.

Given that, for me, this has been ongoing for several days now, I was expecting to find a lot of forum / reddit posts about it, but I see relatively nothing.

Wondering if this is a localised issue -- are any of you guys experiencing issues with your Alexa / Hue integration?

richms

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#2938574 5-Jul-2022 16:44

Ask her to refresh devices and see if that helps.

Richard rich.ms

steve98

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#2938589 5-Jul-2022 17:15

richms: Ask her to refresh devices and see if that helps.

Didn’t find anything new. All the lights show in the Alexa app, they just show as unresponsive

freitasm

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#2938596 5-Jul-2022 17:37

My Hue Hub had a new update to install late last week. Something about APIs update, etc. Perhaps check with the Hue app the status of the Hub. And for what's worth, the Hue light are working with my Alexa setup.

steve98

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#2938606 5-Jul-2022 18:29

freitasm:

My Hue Hub had a new update to install late last week. Something about APIs update, etc. Perhaps check with the Hue app the status of the Hub. And for what's worth, the Hue light are working with my Alexa setup.

Thanks Mauricio. I think I've been a victim of a very inelegant software update rollout. I checked for updates several times today and it told me everything was up to date. Thought I'd try disabling / re-enabling 'out of home control', but it wouldn't let me re-enable. Went back to software update screen, suddenly a 'mandatory update' for the hub... after applying was able to re-enable 'out of home control' and Alexa skill working again. Terrible customer experience but at least things seem to be working again.

steve98

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#2938608 5-Jul-2022 18:32

Ugh... spoke too soon... ten minutes of it working and now all devices showing 'unresponsive' again.

Faulty hub?!

freitasm

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#2938612 5-Jul-2022 18:46

Hub connected with all three LEDs lit? Not using a third-party DNS? No firewall blocking outgoing connections?

steve98

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#2938622 5-Jul-2022 19:31

freitasm:
Hub connected with all three LEDs lit? Not using a third-party DNS? No firewall blocking outgoing connections?

Ok interesting. Yes, all three LEDs were on. I do use DNS4ME (have done for years with no issues) but just switched back to ISP DNS, rebooted hue hub and now it’s working… so possible DNS4ME issue? But you use DNS4ME also, don’t you Mauricio?

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steve98

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#2938624 5-Jul-2022 19:35

Ok no… same as before, works for about 10 mins then everything goes unresponsive. Pretty sure I have a faulty hub here.

freitasm

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#2938656 5-Jul-2022 21:48

steve98:
freitasm:

Hub connected with all three LEDs lit? Not using a third-party DNS? No firewall blocking outgoing connections?

Ok interesting. Yes, all three LEDs were on. I do use DNS4ME (have done for years with no issues) but just switched back to ISP DNS, rebooted hue hub and now it’s working… so possible DNS4ME issue? But you use DNS4ME also, don’t you Mauricio?

I used DNS4ME before but only on devices - not at router level. In any case, if your Hub is going offline after working for a while it could be a fault.

SepticSceptic

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#2938675 5-Jul-2022 23:31

Alexa and hue working ok for me as well.

Try replacing the Hue PSU. Switch mode PSU can give weird symptoms when they start to fail.

SepticSceptic

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#2938676 5-Jul-2022 23:33

Then again, maybe not as you mention Hue works fine with Siri, etc

steve98

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#2940345 10-Jul-2022 12:35

OK I am going seriously out of my mind with my Hue setup now. This is a long post, so I apologise but really hoping somebody has some ideas.

To summarise the problem:

I have a Philiips Hue Bridge which has been working solidly for around 5 or 6 years. I have it integrated with Apple HomeKit, Amazon Alexa and Google Home.
Recently I have been finding my lights going 'unresponsive' for both Alexa and Google Home. The hub is powered on with all three LEDs lit but Alexa and/or Google Assistant will say the lights are unresponsive.
When the lights are unresponsive to Google and/or Alexa, they remain responsive to HomeKit.
I believe this is because HomeKit is able to access the hub within my LAN, and that when they are 'unresponsive' the bridge has simply become unreachable outside of my home network, even though 'Out of home Control' is enabled inside the Hue app.
If I power cycle the bridge they become responsive to Alexa / Google again for a period of time, and then eventually it breaks again.
I have been trying to detect if there is a specific event that might trigger the bridge to become unresponsive, but I can't nail it down. For a while, I thought it might have been particular lights, or using Alexa voice commands, but every time I think I have it nailed it randomly drops out again without that trigger

All of this points to a faulty bridge, right? So here's the real kicker:

Yesterday I purchased a replacement Hue Bridge. Brand new one.
I deleted a subset of my lights from the original bridge and added them to the new bridge.
I linked the new bridge to Alexa / Google
After working for a short while, the same behaviour presented itself... the new bridge became unresponsive to both Alexa and Google.

A little about my home network:

Spark gig fibre over Chorus network
Fritzbox 7530 router connected to 16-port gig switch and Unifi AC Lite for wifi (Fritz wifi disabled)
Hue Bridge connected to fritzbox with static IP set by DHCP server
Normally use DNS4ME at router level but have disabled this for now so currently using Spark DNS

Can anyone think of anything that might be the culprit?

freitasm

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#2940349 10-Jul-2022 12:50

Do you have a proxy at home?

Are you blocking outgoing connections by any means such as a firewall allowing only 80/443?

Are you using a DNS that filters connections to some services/ads/malware/etc (I see the DNS4ME mention but asking if it could be set at AP level)?

Have you restarted your router lately?

steve98

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#2940351 10-Jul-2022 12:58

freitasm:
Do you have a proxy at home?

No
Are you blocking outgoing connections by any means such as a firewall allowing only 80/443?

No
Are you using a DNS that filters connections to some services/ads/malware/etc (I see the DNS4ME mention but asking if it could be set at AP level)?

No, the AP doesn’t have its own DNS settings and using Spark DNS on the router
Have you restarted your router lately?

Yes, have done that a few times as part of troubleshooting this

Strangest problem I’ve ever dealt with.