universal devices unavailable right now

[trevorst]

When I ask Google home to turn anything on I am getting the reply “universal devices unavailable right now”.

The ISY is working fine and I can access the portal with no problem, any thoughts on possible issues and solutions.

[James Peterson]

3 minutes ago, trevorst said:

When I ask Google home to turn anything on I am getting the reply “universal devices unavailable right now”.

The ISY is working fine and I can access the portal with no problem, any thoughts on possible issues and solutions.

I had this issue a couple days ago.  I had to unlink and relink UD from the GH app to get it to resync. 

[trevorst]

Thanks James that solved the problem...

[Michel Kohanim]

Hello all,

We have provided feedback to Google. They are looking into these issues.

With kind regards,
Michel

[mstrsmth]

On 6/22/2018 at 11:18 AM, James Peterson said:

I had this issue a couple days ago.  I had to unlink and relink UD from the GH app to get it to resync. 

Just did exactly that and re-did all my spokens and nicknames to no avail - It still says "Sorry, I couldnt reach universal devices" or "It looks like universal devices is unavailable right now" For a few devices ?

[Michel Kohanim]

Hi mstrsmth,

We still haven't heard back from Google. Perhaps we'll get better results if you also submit a ticket.

With kind regards,
Michel

[Michel Kohanim]

Hi mstrsmth,

While waiting for Google, if you can provide us with your UUID and the time you tried link/relink (to support@universal-devices.com), we can look at our logs. 

With kind regards,
Michel

[f11]

Im in Canada ... having same issue with Google Home and Google Mini, starting yesterday July 28th:

- ISY-994i/IR w/ ZWave card installed, firmware v4.6.2;

- can control devices from ISY Admin Console and from controllers;

- Admin Console diagnostics reports no problems;

- ISY Portal Dashboard error and event logs show no problems;

- GH can control my non-Insteon devices (Logitech Harmony devices, Samsung Smart TV);

-->> when asking GH/Gm to turn on or off lights, I get the errors reported by "mstrsmth"

Will try unlink-relink of UD to GH.

[f11]

Rechecked my GH Activity logs.  The last time GH communicated with UD and successfully controlled my Insteon lights was July 7th-8th weekend.  I saw a lot of "Unknown Command" entries since then in Activity list (probably unrelated), but apparently I didn't try using GH to turn any lights on or off again until yesterday ... so the problem (for me) started sometime between July 7th and July 28.

[ Later Edit: removing UD from GH, then going through the unsettling process of re-adding UD to GH Home Control devices (waiting to see if GH will recognize all the UD-Insteon devices that I'd configured ages ago - it took a few minutes but everything came back properly as far as I can tell) did the trick.  I can once again use voice commands to control my Insteon lights. THANK YOU James Peterson !!  - R ]

Edited July 29, 2018 by f11

[arzoo]

We've been testing both Amazon  Echo and Google Home to see which is more useful. AE works perfectly with our ISY. GH is useless; it links to the devices and works for a minute, hour, day, who knows? The next time we try to turn a light on it says "Universal Devices Unavailable" and has to be relinked. I've given up using GH to control our lights, but it is better at answering questions.

Edited August 1, 2018 by arzoo

[larryllix]

We've been testing both Amazon  Echo and Google Home to see which is more useful. AE works perfectly with our ISY. GH is useless; it links to the devices and works for a minute, hour, day, who knows? The next time we try to turn a light on it says "Universal Devices Unavailable" and has to be relinked. I've given up using GH to control our lights, but it is better at answering questions.

Your experience is similar to mine. Google is so intent on artificial intelligence simulation that it makes too many guesses at what you actually mean, it is undependable for home automation. Google changes their security frequently and causes disruptions in user convenience.

 

GH is much better for online information, whereas Alexa is better for HA.

 

So far.

 

We have been finding GH plays games well. Try 'play trivia'

 

Sent from my SM-G930W8 using Tapatalk

 

 

 

[Jimbo.Automates]

My 7 Google homes have been working for a long time, can't remember the last time I got an error, or needed to unlink. I use them for HA a few times every day.

Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk

[brians]

I get the error sometimes but it often still processes the command (eg. turns on/off the lights). Subsequent commands seem to work fine. Seems to be when I don't use it for a while.

[beninsteon]

I got this for the first time last week.

It was related to having multiple google accounts linked to the same google home. For example, when I asked GH to turn on kitchen lights, it worked. When my wife issued the same command immediately after, GH would respond "universal devices isn't responding". Both my wife and I were using the same UDI portal account linked to GH.

I fixed the problem by:

1. making another UDI portal account for my wife
2. unlink the ISY from GH using the GH app on my wife's phone
3. relink ISY to GH using the new portal account on my wife's phone

Fixed. No more not responding. My voice is linked to the ISY with one portal account and my wife's voice is linked with a different portal account (sub account of mine, so all the spokens are the same)

@Michel Kohanim perhaps this is the issue others are experiencing?

Ben

[Michel Kohanim]

Hi @beninsteon,

It's quite possible. Unfortunately, we have not heard back from Google.

With kind regards,
Michel

[dantoronto]

Michael

Everything is working fine on Amazon Alexa, controlling over 50 devices.  Now trying to set up Google Home for the first time.  Use "Universal Devices" under "Add Devices".  Use same email name and password.  Get error message "your client does not have permission to the requested URL"  Suggestions?

[Michel Kohanim]

@dantoronto,

Have you linked your Google account to ISY Portal yet?

With kind regards,

Michel

[dantoronto]

I finally did.  I had to use Google Assistant rather than Google Home.  It worked like a charm.  Thanks much.  Now trying Polyglot.  Gulp.

[robin71]

Thanks for the posts. The Google Assistant app worked perfectly for me. It took about 5 minutes to re-familiarize myself with the app and seconds to fix.

Assistant menu -> Home Control -> Manage accounts (under the 3 dots in the upper right corner) -> UD Unlink & Link

 

 

[SteveKlos]

It seems that I regularly have the response of "Universal Devices is unavailable right now" - I regularly get frustrated that Google doesn't have a decent interface for their Assistant app (the manage accounts is sufficiently well hidden that I now have a reminder on how to find it.

Is there a clear reason why this keeps happening and where do we go to upvote a fix for this?  I recognize that there will, from time to time, be issues when you have multiple companies working on something this complicated, but just about every time I've actually wanted to use voice commands to turn lights on or off, it appears that I need to unlink and re-link the ISY Portal.

(edited to ensure I'm notified of replies).

 

[MWareman]

It seems that I regularly have the response of "Universal Devices is unavailable right now" - I regularly get frustrated that Google doesn't have a decent interface for their Assistant app (the manage accounts is sufficiently well hidden that I now have a reminder on how to find it.
Is there a clear reason why this keeps happening and where do we go to upvote a fix for this?  I recognize that there will, from time to time, be issues when you have multiple companies working on something this complicated, but just about every time I've actually wanted to use voice commands to turn lights on or off, it appears that I need to unlink and re-link the ISY Portal.
(edited to ensure I'm notified of replies).
 

The reason I used to get this is I had only added ISY Scenes to my Home. The issue here is scenes do not generate status events. Without the ISY Portal pinging Googles servers with status updates for devices on a fairly regular basis the authentication credential expires. Then, when Google tries to execute a command you get the unavailable message (and have to disconnect and reconnect the portal).

Best solution to that (if that’s the issue here) is to directly add some devices that will cause status to be sent on a regular basis. In m6 case, I stopped using scenes and started assigning spokens to the master Insteon device (load controlling) and then wrote programs on ISY to keep secondary devices in sync.

[gemarsh]

I only receive this error when I attempt to turn off a group of lights.  For example, I have a few lights assigned to the room "Outside" and when I say "Hey Google, turn off the outside lights" it turn them all off as expected but then it completes by say "Sorry I couldn't reach Universal Devices"

[apostolakisl]

35 minutes ago, gemarsh said:

I only receive this error when I attempt to turn off a group of lights.  For example, I have a few lights assigned to the room "Outside" and when I say "Hey Google, turn off the outside lights" it turn them all off as expected but then it completes by say "Sorry I couldn't reach Universal Devices"

I have had the same experience with some commands.  The command works as intended, but google says it didn't.  Usually the world works the other way.?

[gemarsh]

1 hour ago, apostolakisl said:

I have had the same experience with some commands.  The command works as intended, but google says it didn't.  Usually the world works the other way.?

So do you know the resolution?

[apostolakisl]

33 minutes ago, gemarsh said:

So do you know the resolution?

I have just ignored it.  Yes, it is mildly annoying that it tells you it didn't work, but since I can see that it did work, I don't worry a whole lot about it.