Overnight, it seems my Amazon Echo setup has gone completely haywire. For a long time, I’ve been relying on Alexa to control my smart home devices, specifically integrated with SmartThings. Like many users, I appreciate the convenience of voice commands to manage my home. However, recently I encountered a very strange issue that has me questioning What Is Wrong With Alexa and the reliability of smart home integrations.
The setup I have is fairly common for smart home enthusiasts. I use SmartThings, and I also have access to my parents’ SmartThings hub through the app for occasional tech support. They also use an Amazon Echo connected to their account. Crucially, my own Amazon Echo is connected only to my account and my devices. This has worked flawlessly for a long time, allowing me to control my lights and appliances with simple voice commands.
Then, suddenly, things went wrong. When I tried to turn on my living room lights this morning, Alexa responded with, “I don’t know what living room is.” That was definitely odd. I immediately checked the Alexa app and discovered that most of my devices were listed as “offline.” My integrations that bypass SmartThings and connect directly to Harmony Hub for my entertainment system seemed unaffected, thankfully.
Thinking a simple refresh might solve the problem, I tried the standard troubleshooting step: “discover devices” in the Alexa app. I assumed this would resync everything and resolve the “offline” status. Unfortunately, it made absolutely no difference. The devices remained offline.
Next, I decided to disable and then relink the SmartThings Alexa skill. During the relinking process, I carefully confirmed that the correct devices were granted access – specifically, my devices. Again, after relinking, there was no change. My devices were still stubbornly showing as offline in the Alexa app.
Then, I noticed something truly bizarre. The only devices that were not offline were devices belonging to my parents! These are devices that have never been connected to my Amazon account. Out of sheer curiosity and a bit of disbelief, I tried to interact with them. To my astonishment, Alexa complied! I could turn my parents’ devices on and off from my Alexa account in my house. I even called my parents to confirm – yes, I was indeed controlling their devices.
At this point, I felt like I was in a smart home horror movie. As a last resort, a kind of nuclear option to try and fix what is wrong with Alexa, I decided to completely reset everything. I removed the SmartThings skill, removed the SmartApp within SmartThings, told Alexa to forget all devices and groups, and then started the entire linking and discovery process from scratch.
After this drastic reset, the situation became even stranger. Now, my devices are not listed in Alexa at all. The only devices showing up in my Alexa device list are still my parents’ devices. It’s as if my Alexa is now permanently linked to their SmartThings setup and completely ignoring mine.
There is one potential complication, although it seems unlikely to be the cause of what is wrong with Alexa in this case. Just the day before this issue arose, I had experimented with setting up AskAlexa, following instructions from a guide (http://thingsthataresmart.wiki/index.php?title=Ask_Alexa). However, AskAlexa was only installed on my hub, not my parents’, and none of their devices were involved in that setup. To be absolutely sure it wasn’t related, I even disabled the AskAlexa skill in the Alexa app, but that also made no difference to the device control issue.
This whole situation raises a serious question: Is this a security vulnerability? How is it possible that my Alexa is controlling devices that I have not explicitly granted it access to, and worse, devices that are linked to a completely separate SmartThings account? This incident highlights a potentially significant flaw in how Alexa and SmartThings integrations are managed and definitely makes me wonder what is wrong with Alexa‘s security protocols. It’s unsettling to realize that my smart home system might be vulnerable to such unexpected and unauthorized device control.
