Alexa Skills Not Working? 12 Best Ways to Fix it

Alexa is the smartest voice assistant that you can rely on!  It is capable of doing wonders and making your life much easier than ever. The device is revolutionising each day and offers a great experience to make things better for you. There are tonnes of additions now. But, undoubtedly, after so many beautiful things, a device is still a machine, it may face some issues at certain times. What if your Alexa skills are not working? Don’t worry! This problem can be resolved easily with our troubleshooting guide on how to fix Alexa Skills Not Working issue.

Let`s dive in!

First of all, let us see what are Alexa’s skills?

Alexa incorporates more than 100,000 skills and is a powerful platform. These skills are applications that allow you to add more abilities and make Alexa smarter. These skills are not pre-installed in Alexa, so you must install them to reap the benefits. You can even create your own skills by signing up for an Amazon account. Download the ones you like and add them to your account.

But there are a few times when Alexa skills are not working well. The server might be getting into trouble, or there may be an issue with a particular skill. If you find Alexa skills not working as intended, here are a few fixes to fix it:

Easy Ways to fix Alexa Skills Not Working Issue 

• Ensure that your Alexa is Connected to WiFi – Make sure your echo device is connected to the wifi network because the alexa device needs active wifi to function properly. If your device is not connected to an internet connection, Alexa skills may not work. They will not process your voice commands.

• Use the correct phrase – Alexa skills have wake-up phrases that are specific. If you find the Alexa skills are not working as they are expected to, make sure you are using the correct wake-up phrase. For instance, the cooking ability is activated by saying, “Alexa, show my saved recipes from Food Network.”
• Check that if skill requires parental permissions : Some skills are not activated without parental permission. So, if you’re using a skill that requires parental approval, you’ll need to activate it from the home screen. This happens most often with child-centered skills.
• Check For the Compatibility : There are several various versions of Alexa available, as well as a wide range of devices. If the skill you’re trying to install isn’t working, it’s possible that you’re using the wrong version. So make sure your Amazon device supports Alexa and your version of Alexa also supports this skill. After you’ve confirmed that, you’ll need to double-check the skill you’re installing and see if it’s compatible with the device you’re using.
• Activate the skill- In some cases. the Skill might have been disabled. When this happens, you’ll need to re-enable the Skill from within the Skills menu.
• Reinstall the skill- If you have a Skill that has worked for the most part but suddenly stopped working, an error may have occurred which can be fixed by disabling and re-enabling it again. When you disable a Skill, it unlinks it from your account. Enable the Skill and re-link it. Doing this should correct most of skills issues.
• Check if your device in on the correct profile– You can make multiple profiles in your Amazon account and each profile uses different skills. So if you find a device that is not responding, try to activate the skill by using the correct profile attached to it.
• Reactivate the device- Alexa skills may not be working because most of them are tied up with specific devices. If any skill is unresponsive, you can correct it by going to the Devices menu in your Alexa app and reactivating the affected device.
• Reinstall the device- If disabling the device fails, delete it from your account completely.To do so, open the device settings and tap on trash in the top right corner of the screen. Now that you have removed the device, you have to add it back to your account. A new installation can often correct glitches that arise.
• Force the device firmware update- To fix Alexa skills not working, you have to check the availability of the latest firmware version.  See if your device is using the updated software, you can also force a firmware update to bring your Alexa device in line. To do so,
  • Press mute on your Alexa device.
  • It may take a few minutes to as long as half an hour, but the device will announce if it needs an update or not.
  • Once the update is completed, after this the hardware will reboot and your device will no longer be muted.

  Note: This will only work if firmware updates are available.

• Make sure that you complete the skill: Alexa skills are customised and it is possible to create a skill without updating your account or adding it to your list. So if your skill is made and is not working, make sure to complete it in the system.
• Set up a voice profile : Some people face Alexa not working problems because Alexa may not seem to understand their voice commands. You have to train Alexa to recognise your voice. For this, go to configurations and then account settings. Now click on “recognised voices” and manage your profile. Here you can also choose to customise your skills or delete your voice profile. Press “Match” voice profiles to say phrases so that Alexa can understand you better.

Conclusion

The Alexa Skills are not as complex as they seem. The vast library gives you access to so much, and the easy-to-use skills include unlimited creativity to control your smart home and life. We hope this fix Alexa Skills Not Working guide helps you and solves your issues. Try these 11 tricks and still, if you are not able to get them back on track call the official Alexa experts at +1-872-888-1589. Or you can directly ask your query in the chat box and get your answers immediately.

FAQs

• What devices can customers use Alexa skills on?

Alexa skills can be used on  Fire TV Cube, Echo, Echo Dot, Echo Show, Echo Buds, and Echo Auto, or any third-party devices that are Alexa enabled. People purchase hundreds of them and build Alexa skills to expand their reach.

• How do Alexa skills work?

Alexa skill is an interaction model based on the voice user interface. When there is interaction with a skill, Alexa processes the context and determines the request. It uses artificial intelligence (AI) technology, natural language understanding (NLU), and automatic speech recognition (ASR).

• We are experiencing a problem connecting with the skill to link your account

You can use account linking to connect your Amazon account. First of all, check the authorization server logo. After that check AcceptGrant Response. Test to see if your authorization server can successfully refresh this access.

• How to enable Alexa skills without the app

You do not need to enable Alexa skills manually to use them. Just tell Alexa to open a new skill and you can easily enable it with a single voice command.

• Alexa skill unresponsive Kasa

Reboot the smart device and re-discover Alexa. Double-check if the Kasa App is controlling the device or not. If not, check your internet connection and remote control settings.

• Customer is not authorized to enable this skill error

If you are using Amazon Household profiles, make sure that your device is set on the correct profile. Check if the particular skill requires account linking. If yes, grant permission in the Alexa app.

• Alexa says sorry I’m having trouble accessing your skill right now

This error may occur when the Echo device has trouble contacting the Amazon server. And that is why it is unable to understand your voice commands. It could be due to lost wireless connection, or the internet service is down.