Currently it seems Connection problems in between Giving Philips Hue and Amazon Alexa. The reports are piling up that devices are unreachable and that too Set up account linking causes problems. Here is a short guide on how to solve the problem between Amazon Alexa and Philips Hue bulbs.
Philips Hue devices cannot be reached – Alexa Skill cannot be set up – here’s how it works anyway!
Some users of Philips Hue lamps are currently seeing the message in the Alexa app that Devices unreachable are. These devices cannot be addressed by voice commands either. So it makes sense to start a new device search via Amazon Alexa. Far from it, because this does not remedy the situation, since the devices are already known to Amazon Alexa via an internal ID. But the (de-)reactivating of the Amazon Alexa skill gives you another problem, because the account link of the Philips Hue Alexa skill also seems to be disrupted and acknowledges the service with an error message.
So if you disable the skill and then enable it again, you’ll have to re-enter your account information, and then you’ll get an error message “Couldn’t pair with Hue this time. Please try again later.” in the Alexa app.
This is how you can activate the Philips Hue Alexa Skill despite an error message!
There is a small workaround to successfully activate Philips Hue’s Alexa Skill anyway. The easiest way to do this is on the PC, because here you can simply go to the Alexa website and activate the skill. This website is a little more limited than the Alexa app on smartphones, but you can activate skills here. Simply go to https://alexa.amazon.de.
The whole thing is a bit trickier on the smartphone. Here you have to “persuade” the website to display the real website. I have an iPhone and when I call up the above URL in Safari, I only get the message to install and use the Alexa app. Here you simply have to tap on the “aA” in the address bar on the left in order to then select in the menu to display the desktop website. Unfortunately, I can’t say how this works on an Android phone because I don’t have a smartphone, but it’s certainly similar.
The website will open and you can navigate to the Alexa Skills in the menu and reactivate your Philips Hue Skill and link it to your account. All devices should then be accessible again via voice and the Alexa app.
If you too have problems with the Philips Hue Skill and the problems cannot be solved with the above tip, please write us here on the website in the comments. Maybe we can help you with your problem too. Otherwise visit us in our Facebook group for smart speakersthere are several thousand users here who will be happy to help you and provide you with advice and assistance!