# Alexa 'On Device Activity' not working

**URL:** <https://discourse.nodered.org/t/alexa-on-device-activity-not-working/80901>\
**Category:** General\
**Created:** [30 August 2023 08:33 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/alexa-on-device-activity-not-working/80901 "2023-08-30T08:33:53Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 20\
**Page:** 5

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![franz](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/franz/32/71949_2.png) [@franz](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/franz)\
**Post date:** [1 October 2023 14:38 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/alexa-on-device-activity-not-working/80901/82 "2023-10-01T14:38:36Z")

</div>

I meant that Device Activity is not working ![Schermata del 2023-10-01 17.25.58](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/uploads/nodered/original/3X/4/7/476cbf3084afb6b0922e9c8b01407090d2889a3f.jpeg)

If I manually feed a message and then re-authenticate with Dave's flow, the activity on the device works for a few minutes

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![cymplecy](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/cymplecy/32/2773_2.png) [@cymplecy](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/cymplecy)\
**Post date:** [1 October 2023 15:57 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/alexa-on-device-activity-not-working/80901/83 "2023-10-01T15:57:15Z")

</div>

As an experiment, disable your trigger node and redeploy

Then stop/restart Node-RED

See if it works for more than 2 or 3 messages BUT DO NOT redeploy while you are testing

I currently believe that the fault only appears if it is initialised more than once after a Node-RED restart.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![dynamicdave](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/dynamicdave/32/96_2.png) [@dynamicdave](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/dynamicdave)\
**Post date:** [1 October 2023 16:11 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/alexa-on-device-activity-not-working/80901/84 "2023-10-01T16:11:40Z")

</div>

Just tried that - it only performs or responds to 3 Alexa commands before she stops reacting (hiss, boo).

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![cymplecy](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/cymplecy/32/2773_2.png) [@cymplecy](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/cymplecy)\
**Post date:** [1 October 2023 16:40 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/alexa-on-device-activity-not-working/80901/85 "2023-10-01T16:40:02Z")

</div>

OK  
How about disable your existing Init node

Add in another one - do not connect it to anything - make sure it's set to auto init

Deploy  
stop/restart Node-RED - DO NOT do any deploys while testing

What happens?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![cymplecy](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/cymplecy/32/2773_2.png) [@cymplecy](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/cymplecy)\
**Post date:** [1 October 2023 16:46 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/alexa-on-device-activity-not-working/80901/86 "2023-10-01T16:46:47Z")

</div>

At my end - I ran a test sequence of my automated Simon says 1 to 69 over 20 minute period

All worked prefectly - after message 53 - i re-initilised - it stopped working at message 58 and only restarted at message 63  
 ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/uploads/nodered/original/3X/8/e/8ee00ab9cae719c6eb10655d6492db56363b564d.png)

At my end, It definitely seems to work as long as I never re-initialise

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![dynamicdave](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/dynamicdave/32/96_2.png) [@dynamicdave](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/dynamicdave)\
**Post date:** [1 October 2023 16:47 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/alexa-on-device-activity-not-working/80901/87 "2023-10-01T16:47:02Z")

</div>

Hi Simon - I agree with your findings.  
It seems to be much more reliable when doing that - tried it over 10 times, all worked.

Note: My Alexa node is set to refresh every 3-days (which I think is the default).

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![cymplecy](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/cymplecy/32/2773_2.png) [@cymplecy](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/cymplecy)\
**Post date:** [1 October 2023 16:49 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/alexa-on-device-activity-not-working/80901/88 "2023-10-01T16:49:58Z")

</div>

I have mine set at 0

 ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/uploads/nodered/original/3X/1/b/1b1be1b454f5f8c4840cc3cf283f39bea445f5de.png)

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![dynamicdave](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/dynamicdave/32/96_2.png) [@dynamicdave](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/dynamicdave)\
**Post date:** [1 October 2023 16:51 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/alexa-on-device-activity-not-working/80901/89 "2023-10-01T16:51:49Z")

</div>

What does '0' mean - never do a refresh??  
Just changed my setting to '0' to see what happens.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![cymplecy](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/cymplecy/32/2773_2.png) [@cymplecy](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/cymplecy)\
**Post date:** [1 October 2023 16:57 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/alexa-on-device-activity-not-working/80901/90 "2023-10-01T16:57:20Z")

</div>

AFAIK 0 means never refresh.

Don't get me wrong - its still broken - but I think we might be zeroing in on what causes it to go into failure mode 🙂

before all this happend - I was like you - used to send an init in every few hours

And I think this explains why some people are having the issue and some people not

So I'm now running my Alexa node in a separate instance that only has one flow (which I'm locking) and I use MQTT to send received events off to my other NR instances that need the data.

Hopefully, this will act as a working workaround until a proper solution is found by the wizards 🙂

Of course, I think I've found a solution about 10 times in the past few weeks so I'm probably wrong about this one as well 🙂

But it currently matches up with cause and effect 🙂

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![dynamicdave](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/dynamicdave/32/96_2.png) [@dynamicdave](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/dynamicdave)\
**Post date:** [1 October 2023 17:04 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/alexa-on-device-activity-not-working/80901/91 "2023-10-01T17:04:57Z")

</div>

Well it certainly seems more reliable if I don't 'init' it again.  
Certainly need to stop/start Node-RED.  
Performed over 24 successful commands at the time of writing this post.

EDIT: Over 1hr and 60+ commands and the 'OnDevAct' is still working.

EDIT: Just noticed an update for the node has been posted.  
 ![alexa_0.53](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/uploads/nodered/original/3X/6/f/6fbef9f95fabc4db892bdba42f1296b31296712a.png)  
EDIT: 2 hrs and still working fine.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![cymplecy](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/cymplecy/32/2773_2.png) [@cymplecy](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/cymplecy)\
**Post date:** [1 October 2023 18:23 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/alexa-on-device-activity-not-working/80901/92 "2023-10-01T18:23:01Z")

</div>

Watching last night's strickly at the moment but will test later

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![franz](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/franz/32/71949_2.png) [@franz](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/franz)\
**Post date:** [1 October 2023 19:40 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/alexa-on-device-activity-not-working/80901/93 "2023-10-01T19:40:27Z")

</div>

1. removed Alexa event node and links

2. recreated another Alexa event node,connected to each switch node like the previous one,

3. disabled refresh with 0 in alexa account,

4. restarted NODE-red

and everything has been working correctly for about an hour.  
😱

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![cymplecy](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/cymplecy/32/2773_2.png) [@cymplecy](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/cymplecy)\
**Post date:** [1 October 2023 20:19 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/alexa-on-device-activity-not-working/80901/94 "2023-10-01T20:19:33Z")

</div>

See my comment on GitHub

> <https://github.com/bbindreiter/node-red-contrib-alexa-remote2-applestrudel/issues/142#issuecomment-1742189263>
>
> https://discourse.nodered.org/t/alexa-on-device-activity-not-working/80901/1

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Sean-McG](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/sean-mcg/32/54677_2.png) [@Sean-McG](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/Sean-McG)\
**Post date:** [2 October 2023 02:29 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/alexa-on-device-activity-not-working/80901/95 "2023-10-02T02:29:51Z")

</div>

Disabled refresh and installed latest version - so far so good 😉

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![dynamicdave](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/dynamicdave/32/96_2.png) [@dynamicdave](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/dynamicdave)\
**Post date:** [2 October 2023 06:21 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/alexa-on-device-activity-not-working/80901/96 "2023-10-02T06:21:04Z")

</div>

Just checked this morning - 'OnDevAct' is still working. That's over 13 hrs of use.  
So it would seem that performing an 'init' is in some way related to the instability problem.

Edit: Just checked again - still working - that's nearly 18 hrs.

Edit: Nearly a whole day (24 hrs) of use in my NR flow - still working.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![franz](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/franz/32/71949_2.png) [@franz](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/franz)\
**Post date:** [2 October 2023 12:29 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/alexa-on-device-activity-not-working/80901/97 "2023-10-02T12:29:35Z")

</div>

I also for about 9 hours ,everything works smoothly.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![franz](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/franz/32/71949_2.png) [@franz](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/franz)\
**Post date:** [12 October 2023 16:04 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/alexa-on-device-activity-not-working/80901/98 "2023-10-12T16:04:51Z")

</div>

I have the same problems again 🤯

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![dynamicdave](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/dynamicdave/32/96_2.png) [@dynamicdave](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/dynamicdave)\
**Post date:** [12 October 2023 16:35 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/alexa-on-device-activity-not-working/80901/99 "2023-10-12T16:35:57Z")

</div>

Same here - my 'OnDevAct' has stopped working this afternoon !!!!

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![cymplecy](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/cymplecy/32/2773_2.png) [@cymplecy](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/cymplecy)\
**Post date:** [12 October 2023 17:27 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/alexa-on-device-activity-not-working/80901/100 "2023-10-12T17:27:29Z")

</div>

Yep - confirmed -stopped in past few hours

Reported it on Github

> <https://github.com/bbindreiter/node-red-contrib-alexa-remote2-applestrudel/issues/152>
>
> Several of us on the Node-RED forum have noticed that events are not being recei…ved
> From my own logs - this started after 14:33 GMT
> 
> Stopping/starting NR doesn't make it work again :(

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Sean-McG](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/discourse.nodered.org/sean-mcg/32/54677_2.png) [@Sean-McG](https://discourse.nodered.org/u/Sean-McG)\
**Post date:** [12 October 2023 17:28 UTC](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/alexa-on-device-activity-not-working/80901/101 "2023-10-12T17:28:32Z")

</div>

Just to jump on the bandwagon - also not working here 🙄

[Previous page](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/alexa-on-device-activity-not-working/80901.md?page=4)

[Next page](https://discourse.nodered.org/t/alexa-on-device-activity-not-working/80901.md?page=6)