Bose Portable Home Speaker
US
FV 7.0.10-2278 7dac32d
App Version (not sure, but this is not an App problem)
Detailed description of the issue and steps to reproduce: Try to play any TuneIn station using Alexa. Works fine using the App or a Preset.
What environment do you experience the issue in? Normal home environment.
When did you start to experience the issue? Did it work correctly previously? Has worked perfectly until approximately 2/25/2021
Any troubleshooting steps you took I can play other Alexa music sources, just not TuneIn.
1) If I say "Alexa, play WVNE", Alexa will answer that no such station can be found.
2) If I say "Alexa, play WVNE from TuneIn", Alexa will successfully find the station, however cannot play (the station is unavailable at this time).
3) Playing any other music source (iHeart, etc.) works without issue.
4) The same TuneIn station can be played using the App and navigating to the station and playing it.
5) The same station can be played using a preset
4) An Echo device (on the same Amazon account) can play the same TuneIn station without incident.
Hey MirrorLakeSteve,
Thank you for your post and welcome to the Community!
I'm sorry to hear of the issues you are experiencing with TuneIn and Alexa, I'll do all I can to assist you!
I would recommend removing Alexa from your settings menu and then re-adding it.
Let me know if this improved your experience!
Hi ! Thank you for the suggestion.
I removed Alexa as the voice assistant, and re-added Alexa. Unfortunately, no change at all in the behavior. Still cannot play any TuneIn stations using Alexa.
I also logged into my Amazon account after removing the voice assistant, and de-registered a left-over instance of the device (there are two instances that appear in the Amazon account when the device is registered). When using the Bose Music App, and removing the voice assistant, there is a single device instance remaining. I deregistered this.
After re-enabling Alexa as the voice assistant, both instances appeared in the Amazon account (as is typical), and Alexa works with all music service that I have enabled (Pandora and iHeart), but does not work with TuneIn.
Regards, Steve
Here's some more information:
I just added a brand new Home Speaker 500 to the same account.
The same behavior is exhibited - cannot play TuneIn on the new speaker using Alexa, so it is an account-wide issue and not a device issue.
Another experiment: I have an Echo on the same account. If, using either Bose speaker, I issue the Alexa command "Alexa, play (any TuneIn Station) on Steve's Echo", it works as expected (the station is played on the Echo device).
When issuing the same command from any device in the account, and using either of the Bose speakers as the target rather than the Echo, TuneIn cannot be played. Alexa cannot find the station. This may be useful for debugging.
Again, using the Bose Music App and navigating to any TuneIn station and playing this on either Bose speaker works fine.
Issue: Using an Alexa command, Bose Smart Home devices cannot play TuneIn. The problem may be SYSTEMIC.
Before taking further measures with my equipment to try to rectify the problem, I contacted two of my friends who also have Bose Smart Home products, and who use Alexa with them, and asked them to try to play any station from TuneIn via an Alexa command. They all received the same error message as do I.
So, none of us can play any TuneIn source via an Alexa command. Due to the fact that the problem is happening with multiple people with different Bose and Alexa account, it stands to reason that this may be a wide ranging issue.
The problem began happening somewhere in the vicinity of Thursday Feb 25th or thereabouts. I can't remember the exact day.
More Information and Test scenarios:
1) Amazon Echo devices can play TuneIn sources without issue.
2) Bose devices can play TuneIn by using the Bose Music App (or a preset).
3) The following Alexa command yields the following error message: "Alexa, play <station call sign or name> from TuneIn". Alexa voice response: "The Station <station call letters here> is currently unavailable on TuneIn".
4) This form of the Alexa command yields a different error message: "Alexa, play <station call sign>" (notice, I did not specify TuneIn as the source). Alexa voice response: "Sorry, I can't find the station you requested" (the station exists, and can be played via an Echo device).
I hope this helps. The problem is affecting multiple people (perhaps everyone using Smart Home products with Alexa), and should be treated (IMHO) as a high priority problem.
Thanks!
, thanks so much for all the information, it certainly helps. Before we take this further, please can you try the steps here for me and let me know if they help? Thanks!
Hi Vicky,
I did all of those steps, actually, more than once !! That's always the first thing to do - remove the voice assistant, and then re-enable and test. No change? Then remove the device completely and re-added it to the Bose account. Furthermore, I added another brand new Home Speaker 500, and the same problem showed up there as well.
I was about to try a different Amazon account, and if that did nothing, create a new Bose account and try that, however before I went though all of that, I contacted a couple of friends who have Bose Home Speakers, and use them with Alexa. So, I had them issue the same Alexa command using their equipment, and indeed, they experienced exactly the same issue.
I am a fairly seasoned user of Alexa products and Bose Home Speaker and also SoundTouch products and have a reasonable degree of technical experience (I am a software engineer), so if you need me to do things or provide information, I can probably do that. And I live in New England (New Hampshire), so am somewhat local to many Bose people, if some sort of on-site or in person visit became necessary. Having done similar things in my career as a software developer, I understand that occasionally, this can be helpful.
However, I would imagine that you or someone at Bose might be able to reproduce the problem, since it does clearly occur outside of my setup.
Let me know if you would like me to try any further tests or experiments.
Regards, Steve
Oh, when reproducing the problem, you must use a specific radio station, either by name (Example, Zoomer Radio) or by callsign (Example, WVNE, WMEX, etc.).
Thanks ! Steve
Hi Steve,
Thanks for trying that and letting us know! It's interesting your friends are also unable to play TuneIn stations through Alexa, as I've been trying this on my smart speakers and they've been playing the stations on my systems and it is working correctly for me.
One thing that would be worth trying with your speakers is doing what we call an "Alexa Cleanse" with your account. This includes removing any associated Bose Skills within the Amazon Alexa app, and removing the associating/memory for the Bose products within the Alexa app under "devices" by removing the product. I know you have performed some of these steps already, but it is important to do all of these steps and to be sure to follow each step in order:
-
Remove Amazon Alexa from the speaker within the Bose Music app (do this for both speakers)
- Disable the "Bose (not for SoundTouch) skill in the Alexa app, through the Skills and Games menu
- Delete, remove, or de-authorize the Bose speakers in the Alexa app
-
Enable the Amazon Alexa connection within the Bose Music app once again
Let me know how you get on with this! If the stations are still not working after performing the cleanse, I'll drop you a private message so we can gather some more information to look into this further with you!
Hi Keith,
Ok, I will do that again - no problem.
Question: Were you able to play the specific stations that I mentioned (WVNE, or WMEX or Zoomer Radio) ? There are many others that fail. Those are three that I know for a fact.
A friend of mine discovered that SOME TuneIn stations play, but they are really not stations per-se. They are "providers". For instance, he told me that "Play Fox News from TuneIn" works. Indeed it does with my equipment as well. However, he cannot play any stations that are addressed by call sign (just like me).
But I have not found any "regular" stations that do work, nor has anyone with whom I have been in contact.
Let me know what stations you were able to make work with TuneIn and Alexa, and I will try them. It may be that there are specific stations (or groups of stations) that do and do not work. It we can close in on a pattern, it will greatly aid in getting a solution.
Thanks !!
Regards, Steve
Hey MirrorLakeSteve,
Thank you for coming back to us!
Let us know how you get on with the Alexa Cleanse.
In the meantime, I will get in contact with the team and see if they can replicate your issue.
I look forward to hearing from you!
Hey MirrorLakeSteve,
I have heard back from the team and they would love to look into this further with you!
You will receive an email from the Community Admin shortly.
We look forward to hearing from you!
Hey MirrorLakeSteve,
Thank you for reaching out to us!
The team would love to look into this further for you. They would love to get some system logs from your product. We have included the instructions for this HERE.
Once complete, please email these over to Log_Submissions@bose.com.
Thank you for your assistance.
Community Admin.
The problem is FIXED as of this morning (3/5/2021).
It was definitely not a device or account problem.
I finally contacted a friend who works in the Alexa development group and reported the problem, and he was able to immediately reproduce the issue. My friend's assessment was also that the problem was most likely a cloud, or possibly a contractual / legal issue.
I do not yet know any details of the solution, however if I find out more, I will report it here.
Thank you to everyone who responded to my query and attempted to help me solve the issue. It's nice to know the community is here, and is responsive to queries and problem reports.
Regards, Steve