Echo stopped recognizing Wemo Lightswitch name

[Lbrown66]

 I have three WeMo light switches in my home. We call the one in our bedroom Doug. Have been using this switch since January, no issues. We have an Echo in our kitchen and a Dot in the bedroom, both were turning Doug on/off with no issues. Last week when asking to turn on/off both listened but nothing happened. I have reset the light switch,  deleted the Wemo app and reinstalled, forgot the device in Alexa app, rediscovered (which it is always seen but still will not turn it on and off).  If I go into WeMo app I can turn it on and off.  I renamed the light switch to "Bedroom" and now it works. After a few days I tried to change it back to Doug, forgot the device, discovered, Alexa app sees it but again it still will not respond.  Any suggestions?  I thought perhaps having the echo in the kitchen named Alexa and the Dot in the bedroom named Alexa was maybe causing the issue so I renamed the Echo to Dot. Didn't resolve the issue.

[vegasguy]

I've found that whenever my internet goes down, echo loses some of my Wemo devices. To get them back isn't always easy. So far I discovered that unplugging the echo usually will do the trick. But it doesn't fix it immediately. After plugging it in again just wait a few hours. The Wemo devices will show up eventually. Removing the Wemo app or making name changes to the Wemo switches is the worst thing you can do. It just confuses echo and extends the time that echo needs to come back to normal.


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[DParker]

I only have a single WeMo device (a smart plug controlling a small table lamp) but I have yet to lose access to it via my Echos, even following a couple of short internet outages.

[Lbrown66]

The echoes all see the device the issue is its non responsive when named "Doug". If I rename to "Bedroom" it will respond. It always worked being named Doug until last week.

[Notional]

I had similar issues. I found that if I renamed the wemo devices, then it worked. I gave up wasting time and left them with their new names. Glad you brought this topic up, because it bugs me why the original names didn't work. Maybe someone will have a logical answer.

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[bullfrog]

I'm facing this problem too. It's not specific to Wemo. I was using a Harmony bridge to control my Aircon.

Echo used to work fine with "Alexa, Turn On the Freeze" as well as "Alexa, Turn Off the Freeze"

Last month it started having problems with that name. It only responds to "Alexa, Turn On the Freeze". If I try to turn it off, it just goes quiet. No error nothing. A check on the Alexa's history shows it received the command correctly. I then changed the name to "Cold" and this works now.

As a test, I renamed one of my wemo switch to "Freeze" and tried using Alexa to control that. Same thing! It's able to turn on the Wemo switch but unable to turn it off. Alexa's History shows it got the command correct.

Can someone call their device "Freeze" and see if alexa is able to turn it off? I have a feeling that name just became a reserved word. I have two echo's at home and they both behave the same with that device name. A friend of mine also calls his aircon "Freeze" and started having problems the same time as me.. 

[renegade600]

I'm facing this problem too. It's not specific to Wemo. I was using a Harmony bridge to control my Aircon.

Echo used to work fine with "Alexa, Turn On the Freeze" as well as "Alexa, Turn Off the Freeze"

Last month it started having problems with that name. It only responds to "Alexa, Turn On the Freeze". If I try to turn it off, it just goes quiet. No error nothing. A check on the Alexa's history shows it received the command correctly. I then changed the name to "Cold" and this works now.

As a test, I renamed one of my wemo switch to "Freeze" and tried using Alexa to control that. Same thing! It's able to turn on the Wemo switch but unable to turn it off. Alexa's History shows it got the command correct.

Can someone call their device "Freeze" and see if alexa is able to turn it off? I have a feeling that name just became a reserved word. I have two echo's at home and they both behave the same with that device name. A friend of mine also calls his aircon "Freeze" and started having problems the same time as me..

try the command without "the"  say "Alexa. turn off Freeze"

[bullfrog]

Tried. Doesn't work. The blue light swirls once and stops. No sound from alexa acknowledging anything.

[renegade600]

Tried. Doesn't work. The blue light swirls once and stops. No sound from alexa acknowledging anything.

check the history (under settings) and see what it heard.  I know I had issues with names and ended up just changing them.