Alexa Device Issues?

Technology Technology: Chat / Discussions
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I,now, have about 5 Alexa devices in my abode. They are sprad around the rooms.

They are clearly seen as a good Xmas present so I will not be surprised to get some more!

Anyway, here is an Alexa problem which I am trying to solve.

I want to get all of these devices into sync, so that as we wander from room to room, we’re not hearing the words or Music catching up from the room before.

There is a Alexa feature called “Everywhere”.

If I shout “Alexa, play BBC World Service, everywhere”, sure enough I get all the alexas synced perfectly and the language is English.

However, If I want to try the same thing with BBC Radio 2 (for example) they sync OK but spoken language comes out as Welsh! No amount of fumbling with the languages, in the Alexa App, fixes this.

Someone might have solved this?

Note, all my Alexas are on the same WiFi.

:cool:

1 Like
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You should worry Ted … :lol:

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Do you start the ‘everywhere’ function from the same device or does the problem manifest itself when launching from another device?

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:shock:

You could ask Matron.

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Delete… (why can’t you just delete something full stop?)

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I start it from whatever room I’m in.

If I tell it !Alexa, play BBC Radio 4, everywhere" it works correctly & in sync. English is used correctly.

If I tell the same, asking for BBC radio 2 everywhere, it does the same, except that the spoken words are all in what sounds like welsh (including the words in any songs!)
It replies positively, in English, saying what I said, and then they all play, in full sync, no delays, but using the Welsh (?) as said above. Looks to be coming from a different source.

If I go into settings, there is no setting which lets me change the languauge back to English!

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Once you’ve posted it keezoy, it has to say something. I often have second thoughts about a post and abort it before posting by just X’ing out or clicking on ‘Home’…

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Sorry Ted I can’t help, but why can’t we have a Alex and use a blokes voice. I’m sick of women that are smarter than me…:frowning:
Even the bird on my sat nav knows more about geography than me…:confused:

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Have you tried asking Alexa? I’m serious, might be worth a try.

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No Alexa’s crap at navigation…:009:

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Yeah thanks OGF. I’ll make a note of that. It just puzzles me why it has to say something. Seems odd that “delete” is acceptable but nothing isn’t?..C’est…no never mind though. :slight_smile:

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Just discovered that everywhere works fine on virgin radio. In English!

So it’s just bbc radio 2 that’s no good in “everywhere”

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Sat Navs are rubbish - can’t beat a map and a compass!:smiley:

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Ladies are not famous for navigating.

:cool::cool:

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You can. Just delete everything and type 5 full stops.

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Ted, I dunno why you are getting the sync problem. I got my first two Alexas this Christmas and found out about “Everywhere” which works great with music as you say. If I say play BBC Radio 4 everywhere it says “Sorry I can’t find the station you requested” - how are you getting Radio 4? Are you linked to another service? I gave up but if you’ve solved it I’d love to copy :slight_smile:

Also - has anyone worked out a way to have Alexa play music that sits on your home PC? I have 100s CDs downloaded to my PC and my previous dumb wireless speaker would give me full access. However since Amazon music and Google Play Music have both stopped users from linking their own music, it looks like this may no longer be possible, as they want to charge me for music i already own :frowning: Anyone found a way around this?

Thanks, Mike

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Use Plex.
:wink:

Comprehensive instructions here:

I have to admit though that for a “smart” system, things like this show us just how restricted Alexa really is.

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As regards R4, you may need to use the BBC sounds app using an Alexa skill. I haven’t had any problems with playing R2 or R4.

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Well that was an interesting 3 hours onto Alexa support, who were no help in the end. The short version is this … my login details for amazon.com and amazon.co.uk are the same. Amazon randomly decided my Alexa account was therefore a US one (despite the UK address and location). Therefore the BBC was not offered as a choice. Support realigned my account to the UK and then I undid all the alexa account and unregistered the devices, changed my login details for amazon.co.uk and set up my alexa account all over again and reset the echos and plugs and started all over again. Now it all works and I even set up PLEX and can play my own music on the echos. Interestingly when I changed my username for amazon.co.uk, the password mysteriously changed to the amazon.com one! Yikes that’s a bit of a breach! :cry:

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It, certainly, appears to be all down to where Amazon gets it’s input from.

By that, I mean that the Welsh (if it is Welsh) spoken in my Amazon BBC Radio 2 everywhere request probably means that, here in Berkshire, the input to Amazon, or Virgin (I’m on Virgin Broadband) is via a connection which is closer to Wales than England.

I haven’t, yet, figured out where their input comes from.

Thinking back, though, to my pre Virgin Media days setting up a TV aerial, in my loft, there were various sources from which I could pick the strongest, but that came with news, etc., from different zones.

I think something similar must apply to Alexa.

Virgin Media doesn’t come down an aerial, as such, it’s high speed cable. But where from?

Note, Alexa won’t tell me where the souces are.

I do like problem solving, though, and will find a way!