Alexa and Plex issue -- I need help from users of this combo

[mike27oct]

For many months I have been asking Alexa to, "Ask Plex to play some music"  (from my media server NAS) and it has worked perfectly every time.  But, since yesterday it will not play.  Alexa says, "I am having trouble accessing your Plex skill."  So, I decided to disable the Plex skill and eventually un-install and reinstall the Plex skill in Alexa app.  That did not fix things although now Alexa responds with "There is a problem; I have alerted the Plex Team."

Is anyone else who use these two having this issue, or am I alone here?  Echo support was clueless. 

[renegade600]

For many months I have been asking Alexa to, "Ask Plex to play some music"  (from my media server NAS) and it has worked perfectly every time.  But, since yesterday it will not play.  Alexa says, "I am having trouble accessing your Plex skill."  So, I decided to disable the Plex skill and eventually un-install and reinstall the Plex skill in Alexa app.  That did not fix things although now Alexa responds with "There is a problem; I have alerted the Plex Team."

Is anyone else who use these two having this issue, or am I alone here?  Echo support was clueless. 

you could be alone  :-)  I use mymedia. 

are you still able to use plexi to play your media without alexa?

[dragon123]

Same here. "Uh, oh, something went wrong, I've alerted the plex team to take a look"

Seems like an update somewhere broke someting 

[mike27oct]

Apparently I am not alone.  I can play from Plex in all the ways I can except via the Alexa skill; it seems to be hosed.  The ways I can play is via my Plex home page through browser on Win  laptop, via Roku to TV, and to iOS phone and iPad.

I even checked out the latest Plex app installed in my WD NAS and reverted back to the previous version.  No luck. 

BTW, the mymedia app has some drawbacks -- it requires a PC running the app to be on, whereas Plex is running on a network connected WD My Cloud NAS which is always running and accessible to ALL devices on the network.  Plus, Plex has many handy features.

I just need to get Amazon to fix the darn Plex skill at this point!

[renegade600]

Apparently I am not alone.  I can play from Plex in all the ways I can except via the Alexa skill; it seems to be hosed.  The ways I can play is via my Plex home page through browser on Win  laptop, via Roku to TV, and to iOS phone and iPad.

I even checked out the latest Plex app installed in my WD NAS and reverted back to the previous version.  No luck. 

BTW, the mymedia app has some drawbacks -- it requires a PC running the app to be on, whereas Plex is running on a network connected WD My Cloud NAS which is always running and accessible to ALL devices on the network.  Plus, Plex has many handy features.

I just need to get Amazon to fix the darn Plex skill at this point!

skills are the responsibility of the developer, not amazon.  most likely at the bottom of the skill there is a link where you can get help. 

yea, there are some difference between my media and plexi,  but you can install mymedia on nas.   

[mike27oct]

I just received a phone call from Echo Support and spoke with a supervisor.  He is submitting a support ticket to Amazon engineers for a resolution from either them or Plex.  He will call me back within a week or less with a solution.  Meanwhile, I will periodically try my devices.

[mike27oct]

The Alexa/Plex problem IS FIXED!  In some ways, better than ever.

I was notified by the Echo support supervisor by phone message this morning.  There was still some issues I had to fix myself, e.g., some of my previous settings were deleted like the default server (my My Cloud NAS) so I had to reset it for every Alexa device.  I even got it to work via the Alexa app voice button on the iPhone app. Right now, I am listening to Plex play music on iPhone via the Alexa button and listening to phone through Bluetooth headphones.

This is a very cool way to enjoy using Alexa to control Plex functions. 
If you want to do same, see this Plex weblink:
https://support.plex.tv/articles/115000320808-getting-started-with-alexa-voice-control/
 

[renegade600]

The Alexa/Plex problem IS FIXED!  In some ways, better than ever.

I was notified by the Echo support supervisor by phone message this morning.  There was still some issues I had to fix myself, e.g., some of my previous settings were deleted like the default server (my My Cloud NAS) so I had to reset it for every Alexa device.  I even got it to work via the Alexa app voice button on the iPhone app. Right now, I am listening to Plex play music on iPhone via the Alexa button and listening to phone through Bluetooth headphones.

This is a very cool way to enjoy using Alexa to control Plex functions. 
If you want to do same, see this Plex weblink:
https://support.plex.tv/articles/115000320808-getting-started-with-alexa-voice-control/
 

did they say what caused the problem to begin with?  bad update maybe?   glad you got it going again :-)

[mike27oct]

The supervisor did not say in his phone message what caused the problem, but that he would call back.  I called back, but reaching a specific person in Echo support is like finding a needle in the haystack.  I am impressed their support got on the problem ASAP.  Kudos to them.  It does pay to lean on support when necessary.  It is all still working fine a few hours later.

It is so cool I have the mobility and portability of playing it all via the Alexa iPhone app now, too.

[mike27oct]

The supervisor called back to tell me the issue was resolved with an update of Plex at Amazon's end.

It all has worked well again until this past week.  TWO Echo devices (both are Gen 1 Echos) have not been working using Alexa and Plex to play music, although they do any other Alexa task I ask of them including play from TuneIn or Amazon music.  These two gen1 Echos cannot play now when I ask, "Alexa, ask Plex to play some music" (from my Plex media server.) 

Since I now only have gen2 Echos that can do this, I have set up one of them feeding the Echo audio to the stereo.  Hope it continues to work.  It appears I need to contact Echo Support again to see if there is a problem with the gen1 Echos that is related to Alexa/Plex combo.

[mike27oct]

SOLUTION FOUND!
In desperation, I decided to once again, disable the Alexa Plex skill on the Alexa app and not re-enable it for 15 minutes or so.  Then when i asked each device to play I received the comment that my Plex server was not online and when I put it back online, all was well -- even with the two Dots that were hosed.  So if this ever happens again I know what to try.  Amazon must have been messing with the skill again since things were earlier fixed.