Alexa integration doesn't work 50% of the time

Whenever my doorbell is pressed theres about a 50/50 chance that the Alexas in my house will go off. This issue started at the same time as the chimes stopped working (Chime Pro 1st gen and Chime no sound when doorbell pressed - #107), and either all devices (all 4 echo devices and chime) would go off at the same time or none would, so it seems pretty clear the issues are linked. As per that thread the chime issue was fixed, however the Alexa integration is still broken. Several of us still had the issues with the Alexa integration in that thread, but unfortunately that thread was closed.

I have tried every possible troubleshooting step, including full resets of all devices, power cycles, relinking etc. Ring support don’t have an idea of the cause and say to contact amazon, amazon say to contact ring. Could we please acknowledge this obvious bug, and be informed as to when it is fixed?

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So, just recived the same email.

Didnt reboot or reset anything and did a quick test (3 times).

Walked infront of Ring Pro so motion dectection notification was sent to my phone and anounced by Alexa (as usual)

Waited about 1 minute and pressed door bell and I am very pleased to report that the chimes now sounded on each test!!!

But…Alexa is still not anouncing the doorbell push if not pressed straight away.

Alexa is anouncing motion dection ok (as usual) and if the doorbell is pressed without first detecting movement (or very quick after detecting movment) then Alexa announces door bell press ok, but still not after approx 30+ seconds of motion detection (Which is the same fault that was affecting the chimes)

So Ring, you are 90% there!!! but i am sorry to say not 100%

The main thing though, which is obviously the most important, is that the chimes now seem to work 100% of the time again which is the main thing.

Would be nice if you could now also fix the Alexa integration as well (preferably without breaking the chimes again!!) and not take another 2-3 months in doing so!!!

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Does the behavior still persist if you turn off motion alerts announcements from Alexa? Sounds like it might be trying to not send you too many notifications via Alexa (which is stupid because why would ever not want to hear a doorbell press but what can you do). Other thing to try might be to try to reduce your recording time (if its set to 1 minute) to see if that is any better, either way a shame this isn’t fully fixed just yet.

Hi user21614,

Nah, It still dosnt anounce a doorbell press even if the motion anounments are turned off.

Tbh, i think this has been a problem for longer than the chimes not sounding.

I fitted a Ring Pro about a year ago now at my parents house and it hardly ever anounces door bell pushes and they have movement anounments perminantly turned off.

This is a shame as they have an Echo show and i wanted anybody at thier door to be automatically displayed on the screen before they open the door.

Their Ring Pro faces a main road and is offten recording passing cars/people (which is what we want)

A friend also has Ring Pro but theirs sees very little movement and only sees people at thier front door shortly before the door bell is normaly pushed and thier Alexa always seems to anounce it.

Mine is somewhere in between with it sometimes anouncing and sometimes not, but if i test not pressing the door bell for at least 30 seconds after movment detection then it definitely dose not anounce.

This Alexa problem, just like the chimes, is definitely linked to if the doorbell is recording motion, its just Ring have had to address the Chime issue as it is all thier product, i suspect the Alexa issue will just be blamed on an issue with the Alexa and not the Ring product even though i suspected the two issues are linked.

Thats a shame, I have motion alerts on my phone but only want doorbell presses on chime / Alexa devices, so was hoping that would still work. I’m also on a busy road and get lots of movement notifications / recordings, so will test and see what happens. Yeah thats my concern as well, was hoping the issues were linked so they would fix both but appears from your testing that isn’t the case :frowning:

I’m experiencing exactly the same issue:

After setting up the Ring with the Echo Show 5, all works well – the Amazon and Ring accounts are paired, alerts come through straight away, no issues…

The only problem is it doesn’t last! Within a matter of hours, the Echo no longer sounds or shows anything on screen when the doorbell is pressed. I can still use voice commands to answer the door, so it’s not a connectivity issue or a matter of the Ring skill being disabled. No other settings are changed in the interim, do not disturb mode is disabled, and it is definitely set to announce on this device.

Has there been any progress on this at all? I only have the doorbell alerts activated, no motion control.

Hi @Caitlyn_Ring

Would it be possible to get an update on this issue? Is it something your teams are aware of / working on?

Hi neighbors. I do appreciate the information that you have provided. Additionally, when you notice your Alexa device does not notify you when someone rings your Doorbell and you check your Event History in the Ring app, does that event show up as a motion event or as a ring? If it is showing up as a motion event, temporarily disable Motion Detection and let me know if that results in having your Alexa device notify you correctly when you test ringing the Doorbell yourself a few times. This extra information will help me look into this further. I also want to thank you for your time and patience.

Hi Justin,

Thanks for getting back to us on this.

Can’t speak for the others but in my case the doorbell presses show up in the ring app history as a doorbell press event, they also notify my phone (which always worked) and set off my chime (which broke as described in the other thread but is back working now).

I only have alexa/chime notify me for rings, and my phone notifies me for rings and motion. Currently we are still having the issue where when the doorbell is pressed it will only sometimes alert alexa, chime + phone notifications are working normally.

In my brief testing of enabling motion alerts on the alexa they seem to go off every time, but this is only something I’ve tested for a few hours this morning. Some other people have commented it appears to be something to do with if there is motion well before the doorbell press (so the camera is recording / sends a motion alert) the alexa doorbell press notification won’t go off, but haven’t tested this out myself yet. If its of any use I can try and start keeping a log of doorbell presses and whether Alexa went off or not, which should hopefully be useful in identifying a pattern?

If there is any further testing I can do on my side to help you figure this out please do let me know, thanks :slight_smile:

Hi neighbors. If your concern consists of your Rings sometimes showing up as Motions in your Event History causing your Alexa device to not notify you, our team is investigating and working to resolve the issue as soon as possible. I will be marking this as a temporary solution so others are aware of it. We appreciate your time and patience.

If your Rings are showing up as Rings in the Ring app and your Alexa device is not notifying you of those Rings consistently, then that is going to be a different concern. If you have tried the basic troubleshooting steps, which can be found here, to resolve it and are still having the same concern, it is best to reach out to our support team to further investigate. Our support team will have access to beneficial data that cannot be gathered here in the Community. Give our support team a call at one of the numbers available here. If you are outside of the US, please visit here to see how to contact support.

@user21614. Thank you for confirming that information for me. If your Rings are showing up as Rings in your Event History when Alexa is not notifying you, then your concern is going to be different and would require further investigation. This will be done by our support team since, in the Community, we cannot collect certain beneficial data. Also, the information you log when your Alexa device does not notify you of a Ring will be helpful to our support team. Give our support team a call at one of the numbers available here. If you are outside of the US, please visit here to see how to contact support.

Hi Justin,

I have previously called support with this issue, but they said the issue wasn’t on rings side and to contact amazon support. Amazon support said it wasn’t on their side and to contact ring. Any advice on how I should proceed?

Hi @Justin_Ring

Many thanks for replying on this thread but why mark as a solution when what you refer to is not what has been reported on this thread?

I, personally, have never had an instance where a doorbell press is not logged as a Ring event (unless there is a problem with the internet connection) and i havnt seen anybody else reporting that this is the case when thier Alexa fails to anounce a doorbell press (or previously when the chimes failed to sound)

My expirance is the same as others have stated, in various threads now, in that the Alexa will fail to anounce under EXSACLY the same conditions as the chimes previously failed to sound (of which the chimes issue has now been resolved).

The doorbell press is always logged as a Ring event, BUT if the event STARTED as a motion/person detected event around 30 seconds or more previous, then the Alexa will fail to anounce the doorbell press. (exsacly the same condtions as the chimes failed to sound)

I personaly dont think the conditions of evertime the Alexa fails to announce need logging as I think you will find they are exsacly how I have explained above (a number of times on different threads)

Are you saying that you are aware and investigating a problem where the doorbell press’s sometimes do not show as a Ring event, but you are not aware of any problems with Alexa not anouncing under the above conditions?

Can you not just test this for yourself and see what you find!!!

I personaly have tested this on 3 Ring Pro systems and they all behave exsacly how I expain above!!

@Justin_Ring

Would it be possible to get an update / response to this? The issue is still happening.

Hi @user21614. We don’t have any additional information to share. Currently, it is best for neighbors experiencing issues with their Doorbell Announcements on Alexa to contact our support team so the concern can be escalated to the correct team. Since the Community is a public forum, we can’t obtain the necessary information to fully troubleshoot.

Hi @Caitlyn_Ring,

As mentioned previously I have contacted the support team, who told me to contact amazon as it was an Alexa issue, not an issue with Ring. Amazon support told told me it was a ring issue and to contact Ring support. Others have had the same experience. Thats why myself and others are still commenting on here, as otherwise we just seem to go in circles!

As mentioned previously it is certainly an issues on rings side, not the consumers, as this affected all of us at the same time, the same time the issue with the chimes occurred.

Could you please advise what we should do in this situation?

@Caitlyn_Ring @Justin_Ring

Posting here again so the post doesn’t get auto closed. I understand the advice from yourselves has been to contact support, but support insist it is an amazon issue, and amazon insist it is a ring issue. Can you please advise what we should do here?

Any update on this Ring?

Or are you just going to continue to ignore this problem and just hope this thread auto closes???!!!

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