Thanks for the quick reply… It’s working on my Alexa app, but still nothing on my physical devices (Echo and Dots). I disabled and re-enabled the skill (to relink it) and power cycling the devices, but still no playback.
I had given up on Alexa with Plex some months ago but thought I’d try it again today after recently migrating my home server to a new Windows 10 machine. Playing from the server to the Echo Dot itself + a line out to my AVR, it will play my CD rips (ALAC) but not my vinyl ripped to 24/192 .wav. Which doesn’t suprise me to the extent that the Echo won’t play those files, but why can’t Plex transcode them just like it would a bluray rip w/HD audio playing on a Roku? Second issue: when I tell Alexa to play anything (alac or wav) from the server to Plex Media Player running on the same HTPC it does (wav included) but seems to only want to play 2 or 3 songs in a row and then stops for no reason.
What I’d like to do if Plex with Alexa actually worked is to stick with my Plex music library of ~1000 recorded CDs + ~150 LPs in addition to what I can stream off Amazon Prime Music. However not being able to reliably play my own music with Alexa has me looking seriously at an upgrade to Amazon Music Unlimited, just to be able to have the voice controlled playback (at lesser quality) of the same albums I’ve already purchased at considerable expense.
On the plus side, at least now I’m no longer getting Alexa telling me she can’t find the album or artist I’m requesting on my Plex server (which used to be her response about half the time). But it’s still a long way off for me.
We should be transcoding. Can you DM me a sample file please? I’ll get the bug fixed so your files transcode appropriately.
Done. Thank you!
…And this morning Alexa is back to not being able to find albums on my Plex server again. Bummer.
I should share for anyone following, through messages with vanstinator yesterday he was able to get transcoding of the hi-res 24/192 .wav files working now and he also gave me command tips that seems to have fixed for now Alexa not finding albums in my library (namely to request them by album name only instead of album by artist). So great progress on both and thanks again to vanstinator for jumping on it.
Seem like Sonos Alexa is broken, as I can’t request the next song. I’m able to request an album or playlist, but it does allow me to ask for the next track and doesn’t play any of the other songs in the playlist or album. File format are MP3’s.
Reposting my post, since this thread is being updated frequently:
Any updates on this issue?
I have a proper setup of remote access of my plex music server, I can use sonos app to tap and play the desired music from my plex server, but whenever I ask alexa to play the same songs / music (i.e. Alexa, ask plex to play music by Adele) - no music is playing - i.e. Alexa gives a voice feedback that she’s playing music by Adele, and nothing happens afterwards. Alexa app is also showing that music is playing, but no sound is coming from my Sonos One speakers.
Should I setup anything additionally in my plex server settings or we should be waiting for a software update?
I recently decided to retry the Alexa Skill on my 1st Gen Echo. It seems to work well except that I am getting the Echo suddenly just stopping playback for no reason. This seems to happen on my long-form ambient albums (where one track = one album and the track length is up to an hour, or even longer). Reading this topic, it seems that there was a problem back in early 2018 (“Audio Streams abruptly stop”) which has been fixed? Clearly this hasn’t been fixed for me? Any suggestions?
Thanks
NigelS
Hey all-
After years long battle with the Google Home and the Phlex voice client not working I thought I would try Alexa voice command. Purchased the Echo and Firestick but alas this is no better that Phlex. Alexa seems to be able to parse the command and find the item to play and even report that it is playing but the Plex client on firestick never displays the video selected. Very dissapointed.
James
Hello. I stumbled across this thread as I was looking for clues on why my Alexa is now stopping playback with Plex after a few songs. This is new for me as of 2-3 days ago, before that it was near flawless.
Glad to entertain any tips.
Thanks!
My server is on a QNAP box. I updated to the latest revision of the server and the issue persists.
I’m also getting the issue where Plex will stop playing an album after a few tracks. The “now playing” display on the dashboard seems to lose track of the playing time of the currently playing track, then playback will stop shortly after. This is with direct play mp3s. On the latest version of PMS and presumably the latest skill version. Any update of a fix in the works?
Yes, same here.
Just last night, I tried to play songs by a particular artist for my kids at bedtime and it stopped after only a couple of songs. In my own room, I requested Alexa to have Plex play a specific album. It played exactly two songs and stopped.
It had been working previously, but for the last few weeks it will no longer continue to play any songs beyond two or so. It just stops without any warning. It makes Plex integration with Alexa pretty useless.
I not sure if there is something in the logs that might give me an idea of why it is doing this, but if someone wants to tell me where and what to look for, I’ll gladly report my findings.
Otherwise, this is very disappointing.
Just replying to myself to make sure the Plex team knows that playback using the Alexa skill on Echo devices really sucks.
Occasionally, it works ok, but mostly it does not. Invariably, the first time I try to use it for the day, it cannot connect and tells me it is having difficulty accessing my Plex skill, but when I repeat it then it connects. My server doesn’t sleep, but the behavior makes it seem like something has to wake up.
Once I finally get it to play something, it works sometimes. But more often than not it just stops playing after a few songs without warning. And oddly, it only seems to stop playing after a song ends…I guess I should be thankful it doesn’t just dropout mid-song.
Other times, you ask it to play something and it says “Ok, playing blah, blah, blah…” but then nothing happens. Last night I experienced all three of these scenarios in my one session of trying to listen to an album with Plex via Alexa. Rather than continue to argue with my Echo, I ended up listening to something on Amazon Music instead.
This is beyond frustrating. I have a large CD collection ripped and organized on Plex and I would love to be able to listen to it effortlessly, but the Plex Alexa skill barely works.
It seems it would have been better to not release it at all, then to release it in such a state that it creates ill-will toward Plex. I am a lifetime Plex-Pass member, but this has me contemplating looking for other solutions.
Is there a plan to get the Alexa skill working or should I start more seriously looking elsewhere?
4 Likes
Hi, I wanted to bump this thread because as of last week, my Plex music server no longer plays consistently over Alexa. Oftentimes Alexa has trouble accessing the Plex skill in the first place. In other instances Alexa will play one or two songs before ending abruptly mid-song.
I can’t tell you guys how many times I’ve told Alexa to play the same playlist trying to get it to work. I’ve also tried restarting my computer, restarting Plex, unplugging/resetting the Echo Dot, all to no avail.
I’m relieved that I’ve finally found this thread so I can avoid wasting any more time.
Hope this issue gets fixed soon as it’s easily my most-used Plex feature.
2 Likes
I am having similar problems with:
- The plex server randomly is no longer reachable by the Alexa plex skill. Usually, if I login to the local server interface, go into settings, then remote access, I can disable remote access and re-enable. That, for a while was briefly fixing it for a few hours or sometime a day or two. Now that no longer reliably works.
- When plex does work with Alexa, and I ask it to play an entire album, it randomly stops after a couple of songs. If I issue the “next” command to Alexa, it will usually play the next song and then stop again.
When it works, I love it, but I’m getting frustrated to the point that I’m starting to look for alternatives. I have a CD collection of about 5000 titles so I don’t want to subscribe to an online streaming service when I can just leverage my own content.
Running the latest version of Plex ( Version 1.15.6.1079) on an Intel NUC running Ubuntu 18.04, connected by ethernet to a Comcast cable modem.
When I experience the problem, I can still play music remotely with other Plex clients…just not the Alexa skill.
Best,
1 Like
Thanks for the reports. We’ve actively investigating issues related to music playback stopping after a few tracks. I’ll share more once we have an update.
We’ve rolled out a patch to our skill servers that should address many of the reports of music playback abruptly ending between songs. If any of you continue to experience frequent issues please respond and we’ll investigate further.
Hi vanstinator. I’m still having the problem of music playback crapping out between songs. I only really started noticing it a week or 2 ago but haven’t been able to play a full album since (usually just 2 or 3 songs before it stops). Running PMS 1.16.1.0.1226 on Windows 10 with an Echo Dot which I’ve tried rebooting but to no effect. Let me know if there’s something else I can try or it you need more info to help diagnose. Thanks.
