Bryan Young

You are a genius! That worked! While Amazon support had me do a factory reset on the device, they did not tell me to remove it from my account. I went to devices->echo and alexa->[broken echo name]->deregister, then did setup again and now it works!

Yeah I was disappointed too...replacing the echo dots was painless, since I got refurbished ones at a discount, but I still have an original echo and an echo show that arent working (I realized it's not just groups that dont work...they dont recognize any device names). That's a few hundred bucks of equipment I'm not sure they will replace or refund. I'll post an update on how that works out though.

Alexa support got back to me today. They said the engineering team changed some settings on their end and wanted me to try the test again. No luck there. But, my 4 new echo dots arrived today and all 4 work with groups. So now the conversation with Amazon will be about getting refunds for the devices that don't work. Those were purchased over the last few years so I'm not sure how that will work. But the important part is that I have a working device and group in each room and I can just say "Alexa turn on lights" and the appropriate lights come on.

Unfortunately even with a factory reset and a brand new name, deleting devices and rediscovering them, creating new groups, the same devices still dont work.

Thanks! That's a great idea...I'll try that and report the results.

I'm not sure why or how something would be wrong with the device itself, but the only common element is the echo device. One echo dot in the group works, then I swap a different echo dot into the group and I get the error message. They both have the same software version 618571720. Same with the two echo shows...one works, the other doesn't. I ordered 4 replacement echo dots today, and if any dont work, I'll keep sending them back until I get some that do.

Still no word back from Amazon support. I set up the rest of my ech devices. There are 10 total: 2 echo shows, 1 echo, and 7 echo dots. Out of those 10, five work properly: 1 echo show and 4 echo dots. So what I will do is swap the working devices around so they are in rooms where I need Alexa groups working, and see if Amazon can swap out the broken ones at a later date.

Factory reset did not work. The devices that did not work before still don't work after factory reset. The devices that worked before still work even when I delete all groups and recreate them with a different mix of lights. The devices have the same software version on them so they should work the same. They are escalating it to the engineering team.

I'm on the phone with Amazon support. I demonstrated it live that I can add Camden's echo dot to any working group and it breaks the functionality. The Alexa app is able to control them just fine. So far 1 echo show and 2 echo dots work no matter what we change, and 2 echo dots and 1 echo show don't work no matter what we change. Doing factory resets now.

In this case I'm not saying the group name, I'm just in the room with the echo device and I say "Alexa turn on lights." In the groups Master Bedroom, Master Bathroom, and Kitchen it works. In the groups Sunroom, Office, and Camden's Room it does not work. Your suggestion gave me an idea for a new test, though. The group Master Bathroom works with device Master Bathroom Lights, but I deleted this group and the Camden's Room group and switched the echo dots. Now Camden's echo dot is in the bathroom and the bathroom exho dot is in Camden's room. Now Camden's Room works and Master Bathroom does not. It is definitely the echo device that is the issue.

Some additional info...if I add the light from the broken Alexa group to a group that works, the newly added light works. If I add a light from a group that works to a broken group, that group still doesn't work. It appears to be device specific.

I have an ISY994i/IR Pro, insteon PLM, and my.isy.io portal. I have several Alexa devices as well. I have grouped the Alexa devices with the insteon devices in the same room. For 2 of the rooms, everything works fine (e.g. Alexa turn on lights will turn on the devices of type light in that room only). The other 2 rooms when I say the same command Alexa responds "a few things share that name, which one did you want?" The setup in the ISY, portal, and Alexa app looks the same for all rooms and devices. Any idea why some would not work?