Amazon Alexa: Won't Play Requested Station

[gprayback]

Recently stations that have always worked with the Pandora skill on an Alexa device have stopped working. I'll say something like "tell Pandora to play the station calm yoga music." Until recently, it would play  my station which matches that name. But recently it has stopped finding some stations. And once it loses it, it will never find it again. It feels like there's a cache or something that's storing names of recently played stations and if it isn't in the cache, the Pandora skill won't find it from the Alexa device. It's quite frustrating because this is the only way I listen to my music and I have to keep going to the Alexa app and finding my Pandora stations there. I don't understand why the Pandora skill can't find them.

[TannerPandora]

Hi @gprayback Welcome to community! Sorry to hear you're having trouble with Alexa. Can you tell me a little more about your experience?

• Which Alexa model and generation do you have?
• What phrase(s) did you say to Alexa? (Please be as specific as possible.)
• To clarify, when you request the station, does Alexa confirm the station name and won't play or does Alexa say it can't find the station?

In the meantime, you can log into your Amazon account to view what Alexa thinks you said, in order to report feedback to Amazon directly. This is referred to as your "Utterance History report."

To view your utterance history report, click this link from a computer and log into your Alexa account. Or from a mobile device launch the Alexa app, tap the Menu icon, select Activity and then More under Pandora activity.

From here you'll be able to view what Alexa thought she heard, as well as listen to a recording of what you said. If she didn't do what you wanted, be sure to let Amazon know by selecting No.

Please send over a screenshot showing your utterance history report. I'll be sure to pass this along to our engineering team as well.

[goladay5]

I am also having this problem.  I am getting none of my stations to play at all.  Something is going on, either on the Pandora side or the Alexa side.

[gprayback]

I am using Echo Dot 3rd generation devices. I have tried various phrases, none of which work for the stations that aren't working. The two I use the most (using "Calm Yoga Music" as an example, assume this is a station which actually does exist and this is the correct name for it), which work for most stations but mysteriously stop working, apparently at random, for stations are:
"Alexa play 'Calm Yoga Music' on Pandora"
"Alexa tell Pandora to play the station 'Calm Yoga Music'"

What Alexa does when the skill can't find the station actually varies, as in the system non-deterministically responds to the same command with different responses. Some examples are:
"Sorry, I don't know that"
"Hmmm, I don't know that one"
"I can't find the station 'Calm Yoga Music' on Pandora"
etc.

Looking at the Utterance History report, Alexa is absolutely correctly hearing what I am saying, but the skill isn't finding certain stations, stations that it used to find correctly. 
   

[goladay5]

My issues are very similar. I have tried to be very specific by naming my station something like Dave’s Custom Rock Playlist or Dave’s Custom Punk Playlist. It seems like once it doesn’t correctly understand, it won’t even try to hear it again.

[heymondo]

I am also experiencing this issue, with some of my stations playing just fine but none of the devices in my house, of varying generations, playing some of my stations. I am indeed pronouncing it properly and the device is hearing me properly, but the devices keep telling me it can't find my stations on Pandora. I don't know if it's on Amazon's or Pandora's end, but as someone who used to code, this feels like a bug.

[goladay5]

@TannerPandora can Pandora offer us some suggestions on how to name our stations and what to say to the Echo devices to make them play a station?  I am at the point of dropping my pandora sub and going with another service.

[mattgardine]

Sorry, I hit the wrong Reply button. I wish I had an answer to this. I'm experiencing it too!

[mattgardine]

Yep. I'm having same problem on my Echo. The problem just started in October 2022. Alexa used to recognize my spoken ID for the station. For instance, I might say "Alexa: Play 'Christmas, Party Variety' on Pandora," and it would immediately play that specific curated station. All of a sudden, Alexa refuses to even recognize the verbal ID for any of my curated stations.

[volpushonit]

I am having the same issue as the posters above. Sometime in the last few weeks, early October 2022, Alexa devices (tried on an Echo, Echo Dot, Echo Show 5 and the big **ahem** Echo Show; and using two different Pandora accounts) will not recognize Pandora station requests. 

[Larry_B]

Same issue here. Started in October 2022 on all Echo/Alexa devices. 

[Larry_B]

I noticed today that when I ask Alexa to play "Pandora Shuffle" that it plays my shuffled stations correctly. Specific stations do not play, however. From the Alexa app on my phone, I can see and select my individual stations and have them play on whichever device I choose. Just cannot use voice commands to select them on any of my Echo devices. The behavior is the same even non-Amazon branded devices that support Alexa. 

I've tried disabling and re-enabling the Pandora skill twice. No luck. 

[Bill1]

I am having the same problem. Appears to have just started recently. Pandora doesn't recognize certain stations of mine that I have used for years.

Oh, and the problem isn't the phrasing because Alexa repeats back the exact name I've issued and says "I can't find the station [my station name] on Pandora."

mod edit: merged comments

[Bill1]

Oh, and the problem isn't the phrasing because Alexa repeats back the exact name I've issued and says "I can't find the station [my station name] on Pandora."

[mattgardine]

Same here.

[789gbkj]

Same issue here. Big new bug in either pandora or Alexa but it stinks. 

[789gbkj]

Oddly, I can play the correct station from the Alex app if I find it in history. It’s just the spoken request she can no longer find. 

[Adelisa]

Same issue as everyone else. I have a custom station that I play via Alexa at my place of work and it just stopped working. I tried all sorts of names including my cell phone number and nothing. Doesn’t recognize custom names. 
Alexa also isn’t recognizing some artists on pandora either like U2. 
**ahem** is goin on and how do we fix?

[Larry_B]

I had a chat session with Amazon support. The first level tech brought in another tech who reviewed the issue. They asked specific questions and seemed interested in the case. They did not see that anyone reported this issue before. While neither tech had a solution, I was told they were escalating the issue to the "concern team" whatever that is. 

Maybe if others report the issue, it would get additional attention within Amazon. Here's a link to their chat page: https://www.amazon.com/clicktochat

[kjs]

The reviews on Alexa are loaded with folks experiencing the same issue. I've disabled and re-linked Pandora so many times. Nothing works. Verbal commands to play the same station, the same way I've been saying it for years -- don't work. I can use the iPhone alexa app to select the station and get it to play on the device I want. So it IS linked...it's just the parser was changed or something. So many people are complaining, I'm amazed at one of the replies that says Amazon Alex tech hasn't had too many complaints yet. You can scroll for pages and pages about people complaining about the very same thing.  

[kjs]

This gives me hope for me, though -- I can amend shuffle to play only the one station I most want it to play and maybe that command will work!  I mean, it's like a very good workaround at all, but it will work for my immediate situation! Thanks for posting.