Amazon Alexa users are having trouble controlling their lights (Updated: Fixed)

Update: December 12, 2023 (10:29 PM ET): Amazon has replied to our email about Alexa’s inability to recognize commands related to light controls. The company says the problem is now fixed. You can read the complete statement from an Amazon spokesperson below.

Yesterday, we had a brief issue that impacted some Alexa customers’ ability to interact with the service. The Alexa service is now operating normally.

Original article: December 12, 2023 (5:28 AM ET): People who use Amazon’s Echo speakers and smart displays are suddenly unable to control their lights using Alexa voice commands. There are several complaints on Reddit about the strange phenomenon, and users can’t seem to figure out what’s wrong or broken.

Usually, saying something like “Alexa, turn on/off the lights” would result in any connected smart lights switching on or off. However, many users are now getting a weird response from Alexa when they give such a command.

“Sorry, I didn’t find a device or group named lights,” Alexa responds in most cases. Users are also getting responses like — “A few things share the name lights, which do you mean,” “This room doesn’t support that,” “Server is not responsive,” and “Device is not responding.”

Meanwhile, some Alexa users say they are able to turn on individual lights but are unable to control lights in a group.

For a couple of users, rebooting their smart lights fixed the issue. For some, it resolved automatically. Users also suggest dropping the word “light” out of the voice command and simply saying, “Alexa, turn on/off [insert room group].” However, from what we could glean through the comments on Reddit, it seems there is no definite fix for the issue.

It’s possible Alexa is experiencing a bug, or Amazon is testing a new update. We’ll reach out to the company and report back if we hear from it.