Having problems getting Alexa to control Plex through ROKU. Here’s my configuration
Plex Media Server version - 1.21.1.3876
Amazon Dot 3rd gen
Remote support enabled
I am following the Plex document for connecting Alexa and Plex. I run into problems when telling Alexa to find my Plex Player. My Plex clients are all on ROKU devices. I have 3 in my house connected to different TVs. The ROKUs show up as authorized devices in my Plex Media Server.
I downloaded the Alexa app to my iPhone and linked Alexa to Plex. The app required I enter my Plex creds, and that made sense. My creds uniquely identify my account. When things didn’t work, I contacted Amazon support. They told me to unlink Amazon and Plex, and then to re-link. Unlinking/relinking now doesn’t require my creds. I guess the app on my phone remembers the creds I put in the first time. I’m just wondering if I’m connecting to the correct Plex Server. Amazon also confirmed that I have installed the latest Alexa app that’s on the Apple Store.
With linking done, I next try to get Alexa to “change my Plex Server”. Alexa doesn’t report an error, but she also doesn’t say something like … “found your server”. I’m assuming this is working.
Now it’s time to find your Plex Player, and here’s the problem. I tell Alexa … “change my Plex Player”. Alexa responds … “you have two … a ROKU and Microsoft Edge”. WRONG!! I have 3 ROKUs and I do use Microsoft Edge. If I tell Alexa to use the one ROKU she’s found, I get an error and she says she’s reporting the error. The fact that she only tells me about 1 ROKU makes me wonder if Amazon is linked to the correct Plex account? All 3 of my ROKUs work so in my mind they should be connected to the Plex account. My question … why doesn’t Alexa report all 3?
What does Alexa say when you ask it to select the server? If you leave out the server name (and you only have one server on your account), when you ask Alexa Ask Plex to change my server Alexa responds with “I can only find a single server connected, so it is set automatically. Your server is [SERVER NAME].” If Alexa responds with the proper server name, then you are on the correct account.
And, of course, make sure that your Alexa account you logged into in the phone app is the same one your echo is logged into. If you have separate accounts, it won’t configure the right echos. I’m sure you didn’t miss this part, but I figured I’d cover the possibility.
As for the players that Alexa lists, it should only be able to control the ones that are on and active. If you have a ROKU player, but it is turned off at the moment, Alexa will not be able to detect that and control it. It might not even be able to see it to list it for you to find.
Don’t ask me why it didn’t work last night, but today it just started working.
Last night I was texting with Amazon and we unlinked and relinked the Alexa to Plex. That’s it. Nothing else changed. It wasn’t working last night.
Then today I asked Alexa to find my Plex Server and it did, and it responded by naming my server correctly. Once that worked, I turned on the TV, switched the input to make the Plex app on my ROKU active. Then I was able to launch movies with voice commands.
Go figure. Maybe the “gremlins” were working overtime last night.
At least I can tell you that it works.
And for those of you who are thinking about this, it is pretty cool … provided you know the title of what you want to watch. If you’re not sure and if you have to use your ROKU remote to scan through your library, you’re probably better off just using the ROKU reomte to find the movie and clicking the play button to start it. BUT … if you know the name of what you want to watch, you can avoid the time to hunt for the movie. I have a lot of movies and knowing the movie name saves me a lot of time scrolling through the library.
Bottomline, it is pretty cool just to be able to say … “Alexa tell Plex to play …” … followed by the name of your movie … such as “Air Force One”, or “The Wrath of Kahn”.
Enjoy everyone … it does work!!
