This may not be a question for the forum but I've had issues not unlike this before.

Have the EISY, all insteon switches etc. Alexa devices, and a Harmony Hub

I checked and my Portal license is still up to date.

When I tell Alexa to turn on a scene or a device it responds no problem.

Timers and programs all seem to work no problem. I even created a new one and it worked fine.

But when I say "Alexa Turn On Apple TV Downstairs" or Alexa Turn On Blu Ray downstairs

she tells me

"I cant control the apple TV downstairs because the skill is disabled. You can find the skill and enable it again with the Alexa App"

This just started yesterday sometime.

I know I have the ISY skill in Alexa but I didn't want to touch anything before I talked to people that know far more than I in situations like this.

Any thoughts would be great.

I think she is trying to use the apple skill not associated with the isy skill. In my case I installed the Samsung skill on Alexa in order to turn on/off my Samsung TV.

I’m not sure that would work with my set up.

Upstairs I have a Samsung tv but in the entertainment closet the Apple TV, and a receiver also turns on (and off)

Downstairs the receiver, projector, and Apple TV turn on or off.

I also have separate programs for a blu ray upstairs and down and a firestick upstairs and down.

If anyone has another idea I’m open. I’m wondering if they reprogrammed something on their end and now it doesn’t work for me. I have noticed sometime last year I couldn’t tell Alexa to pause or play Apple TV anymore when I used to be able to previously

Would disabling and re-enabling the ISY skill do anything?

Edited Saturday at 02:42 AM5 days by andrew77

I decided not to re-enable the ISY skill as the lighting commands and timers were all working just fine.

I checked the Harmony Skill and it had disappeared (how does that happen?)

I re-enabled it and now everything seems okay (knocking on wood here).

I'll link to a Coffee Shop post I made a while ago just for conversation.

The EISY (and all the ISY's I've owned previously) have pretty much been rock solid. Any issues I've had were user error or network/internet issues.

I sincerely hope I can run the house lighting, A/V equipment, and other random things all with the EISY. I know it seems like an 'eggs in one basket' scenario but I'm not looking forward to the day when gear is obsolete and no other company has come up with a better product. I go to friend's houses and they have 'automation' but nothing like the EISY and Insteon etc. People seem happy to tell Alexa to turn on a soundbar and tv and thats automation.

Having the lights react to perfect percentages, turn on a bunch of gear and set all devices to the right settings is something I've become reticent to lose.

Any other tech doing the job of a Harmony Hub out there?

On 7/24/2026 at 2:19 PM, andrew77 said:

But when I say "Alexa Turn On Apple TV Downstairs" or Alexa Turn On Blu Ray downstairs

My question would be how to you have Alexa trying to control the Apple TV? I've never tried to connect the Apple TV to Alexa. As far as I know there isn't a way to connect the AppleTV to IoX so it wouldn't be a portal device.

7 hours ago, andrew77 said:

I checked the Harmony Skill and it had disappeared (how does that happen?)

On the Echo? Probably a developer issue and it might have gone away or become disabled at some point and after a while might not be "active" on your account. I've had a few skills suddenly not be available (Honeywell is the main one...suddenly I couldn't arm my alarm system through voice commands. It's a hazard of having a cloud system with multiple "skills" that might randomly drop/reset. They're all okay until they aren't.

Glad you got things working again.

16 minutes ago, Geddy said:

My question would be how to you have Alexa trying to control the Apple TV? I've never tried to connect the Apple TV to Alexa. As far as I know there isn't a way to connect the AppleTV to IoX so it wouldn't be a portal device.

I have a Harmony Hub that takes the voice commands from the Alexa units. It then sends the signals through the IR set up I put together (IR receivers and blasters hooked up to all the gear in the 'closet'). If you want I can upload pix somewhere and link them to this post if I cant upload all the photos here.

16 minutes ago, Geddy said:

On the Echo? Probably a developer issue and it might have gone away or become disabled at some point and after a while might not be "active" on your account. I've had a few skills suddenly not be available (Honeywell is the main one...suddenly I couldn't arm my alarm system through voice commands. It's a hazard of having a cloud system with multiple "skills" that might randomly drop/reset. They're all okay until they aren't.

Glad you got things working again.

Funny you mention honeywell. I have a Carrier my infinity thermostat for my heat pump and it used to accept voice commands and hasn't for over a year now.