TuneIn station issue on 1 dot, works OK on the other. any advice?

[babaganoosh]

I have 2 echo dots V3 - 1 in kitchen, 1 in my office.

Both are near wireless access points. I listen to Bloomberg Radio (from TuneIn) most of the day.

In the office, it will stop working once in a while.  If I say 'alexa, play bloomberg radio', sometimes it starts up again.  Sometimes it says 'bloomberg radio on tune in live is not available'.  And the ring is lit blue / green, not red as it talks.

But other stations on tunein and other tasks work fine on that dot.  AND I went to the kitchen and bloomberg was playing, I could stop then have it start again.

I just rebooted the office dot and now it's playing bloomberg radio. (so maybe a reboot might have solved it?).

Any recommendation on how to get the office Dot to keep playing that 1 station : ) ??

I've factory reset it and added it back to my account previously but problem persists.

[renegade600]

sometimes it just takes a reboot.  if it is working now, then I would not worry about it unless it happens again.   usually when a station don't play on one device, it is beyond the users ability to fix other than reboot the echo device, reboot the router or move the device.

[babaganoosh]

Thanks for the reply!  Yeah, this is a pretty regular issue now (1 - 2 times every other or so day).  Not a big deal, more a nuisance.

After sending this, I had the problem again. I swapped the dots.  The office dot was the one with the problem.  Brought the kitchen one upstairs, powered it on (and changed their names in the alexa IOS app).  Soon after, the previously kitchen dot now in my office had the issue (audio stops, and alexa says bloomberg radio isn't available!  While the office one moved down to kitchen is still streaming bloomberg radio hours later.

So power supply issue (didn't swap them), wifi connection!? (there's access points near each one, so they have a (too strong?) signal and are connecting to different model access points)

Or 'computer room' name for a dot is an easter egg for amazon to give the person a hard time : )

gotta see if the problem stays up here or moves to the kitchen.

Both are on a countertop, not covered with papers / no airflow issues (so not overheating issues).  and weird that it's just bloomberg radio. I can ask for other tune in stations.  AND bloomberg is working in the kitchen, so it's not like bloomberg isn't sending the stream to tune in...

[renegade600]

it sounds like a wifi issue since the problem is sill in the same room but different dots.   where is the access point located?  In the same room or outside?   If outside, try moving the dot to in front of the door - if it is not. 

[babaganoosh]

Thanks.  The access point in the computer room / office is an older Unifi UAP-LR.  Just does 2.4GHz.

It's about 3' from the dot.

As much as I would think that if it's a wifi issue, then other stations wouldn't be available, alexa wouldn't work, etc....  I'm here looking to experts for help.  So I'll gladly defer to you : )   and yeah, if the dot that was working, now has the problem up in this room, it's gotta be something other than the dot itself.

And being unifi wireless, there's a control panel to see things about the access points, devices connecting to them, signal quality, etc.  I'll check that when / if problem happens again.  And I'll learn about unifi, something I'm weak with too.

take care!

[renegade600]

do you have any other electronic devices around the dot?  or the access point. 

[jwlv]

In my personal experience, whenever streaming audio stops after a while, it's always caused by poor WiFi signal or a brief temporary loss of internet service (DSL, Cable, etc.)

When using a mesh WiFi network, many devices will not automatically connect to the strongest or closest access point.

Imagine this: Power goes out at your home and then comes back on. Everything turns on and all of your WiFi devices are scanning the air for your network. The base router (main access point) will come up first since it's connected to your modem. All of your devices will see it and connect to it. Then one by one, your other mesh access points come online. All this happens in just a fraction of a second.

Even if one of these other access points has a stronger signal or if it's just a few feet away, your WiFi devices has already connected to the base router and will not switch to any other access point. Some newer devices have the ability to see a better connection is available and connect to it. So far, the only devices that I know of that are smart enough to do this are current model Apple iPhone and Samsung Galaxy phones.

How did I find this out? I use the Google WiFi mesh system and via the app I can see which device connects to which access point. A few months ago I noticed that just about everything was connecting to the main base unit even though I have several other access points scattered throughout the house.