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Amazon Alexa: Won't Play Requested Station

gprayback
Opening Act

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.

Labels (1)
227 Replies

PODE
Local Performer

Looks like I figured out on my own through no help from Pandora or Alexa ... that Alexa can no longer find more than 25 stations.  And it also appears to be finding them in chronological sequence meaning the oldest stations are found first and the newest stations are not coming up. 

 

If you delete all stations in excess of 25 it should solve the issue.

 

If you want to keep more stations you may need to throw Alexa in the garbage.

 

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789gbkj
Underground

That can’t be it as I only have 18 stations. 

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gprayback
Opening Act

Thanks for posting that. That doesn't align with what I'm seeing, maybe they are different issues. For me it seems totally random which stations the Pandora Alexa skill can find and which it can't. The only pattern I've seen is that if I ever rename a station, the skill won't ever be able to find it again.

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dustm17
Local Performer

It is ridiculous that this is still an issue for so many people. The Alexa app doesn't see my account either. The only way I can play my Pandora stations is basically using my Alexa devices as a Bluetooth speaker. From the posts, this issue has been going on since October. When is there going to be a fix Amazon/Pandora?

Rhysalius
Underground
I was having the same issue where Alexa app was not able to see my pandora
account. It kept telling me I needed to enable it but I had already done
so in the app. After talking extensively (hours) across multiple
representatives, I was finally able to correct it by logging into the alexa
website and then enabling there. I was then able to play to my device from
alexa app. I would also suggest turning on autoplay so it doesn't stop
after every song.

I am going to try it tonight to see if voice command works now. Someone
had suggested it could be an issue with how many stations I had on my
account (apparently 25 stations plus is too many). So I deleted all the
ones I didn't use and will try it tonight.
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mjames757
Local Performer

I am having the same issue.  It's incredibly frustrating!  I have a Holiday collection that I have been curating for years and now Alexa (defiantly) will not play it.  When I ask her to play it, she just picks a default Pandora station that has one of the same keywords in it.  She is supposed to be getting smarter, right?  Anyway - I am going to try not to smash my Echo Show in hopes that someone figures out what happened.   Thanks to all for weighing in here.  

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Rhysalius
Underground
Try playing it from your phone app and selecting device you want to play it
on. It is a pain but a work around until they get their heads on straight.
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Jp144
Local Performer

Same problem for me. As far as I can tell, the Alexa skill on Pandora seems to be searching their vast database of artists and public playlists before it searches the linked-account playlists.

In the end I finally renamed my station to something that apparently nobody else has named their station too.  And now Alexa can find the station.

Pandora & Amazon need to come together and fix this for sure.  It should search the account playlists before it searches anything else.

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terry2227
Local Performer

I am having the same issue. I have an Echo that was new in 2017. I have a custom Pandora station called "treehouse tunes" that Alexa has played fine until today (I've been listening to other stations for the last month, so I don't know when it started to be a problem). 

This morning when I asked to hear "treehouse tunes", Alexa played "treehouse radio", which is definitely not what I want. I tried changing the name of my station to several other things, but it was never found. Other, canned, stations don't seem to be having the problem. Very frustrating.

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AndreaAK
Underground

Am also having this problem. Able to play my thumbprint radio but really want my curated personal station. Hope a solution is found soon. Am frustrated this has been going on for months without any communication or acknowledgment of an issue from either Amazon or pandora 

Jasong222
Local Performer

Same issue here.  Bought an Echo recently, 5th gen.  I have a Pandora that is highly curated and exactly how I want it.  Alexa just. won't. find.it.  I've tried several different station names.  I've tried creating a routine.  Nothing works. 

 

Maybe the Pandora skill can be updated to assign a certain number of stations a special designation.  Then when you invoke Alexa, you can use a special code (ideally that's editable). Like "Play Home Station #1" (Or ideally, again, some name that I program myself).  Anyway, would love for this to work.  This is really 1 of only 4 uses that I bought the Echo for.  I can haz fix for this?

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msmith717
Local Performer

Same problem

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Mandrews
Local Performer

Sake problem. **ahem**. 

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SteveU
Underground

Actually, if you have enough sake, it’s not a problem. 😉

jdb2
Underground

Sake is good, but I prefer plum wine 😋

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Rmk
Local Performer

I have a station called Dinner Party Radio. Alexa has always played it fine. Now when I ask for that station, it starts playing “Terrance Martin, Robert Blaspher, ninth wonder, and Kamasi Washington Radio” (sp?). I check to see what Alexa heard and it shows Dinner Party Radio. How do I fix this?

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goladay5
Underground

@TannerPandora 

@Pandora 

We are cancelling our subscription since you fail to acknowledge the issue or offer any help.  Moving over to Apple Music.

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Adelisa
Underground

Ive been using Pandora Premium to play music at my job's sound system via an Echo dot. 

Routines trigger Alexa to play my custom pandora station. However, now any name i use for the custom station doesnt work. 

If i choose NBC (the company name) it plays No Blood Corporations (a hardcore agressive rock band), if I put my name its not recognizied, if i use numbers and giberish that doesnt work. 

This worked in the past and now its something Pandora needs to get working again. 

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Gar
Underground

Since Pandora will hopefully have to fix this anyway, I'd like to add that it is very irritating that when Alexa plays some random crazy station that has nothing to do with the exact station I wanted to play, that Pandora also adds this station to my account! I'd like to "at least" have an option to not create stations from Alexa.

Today, I said, "Play my Hooligan Favorites station from Pandora". Alexa said, "Playing Hooligan's Radio". Then, when I launch my Pandora App on my phone, Hooligan's Radio has been added to my account.

So, first, they should fix the Alexa interface. Second, they should not add Alexa's invented stations to my account.

Thanks! And try to get it done by the end of the week. It's just software.

mjames757
Local Performer

I finally got mine working again.  I deleted the Alexa and Pandora apps from my phone.  I reinstalled the Alexa app but not the Pandora app (yet).  Then I went back through the Alexa to Pandora connection process from the Alexa app.  Instead of it trying to bring up the Pandora app, it had to go to the web version of Pandora for permissions.  Once I added it from the web version, I reinstalled the Pandora app on my phone.  I was inches away from cancelling my Pandora account before figuring this out.  It was, indeed, a frustrating mess!  I truly hope that this helps someone else with this same problem.  Alexa can be a cruel mistress. I love being able to play music throughout my home.  I love being able to ask it/her simple questions, but don't get me started on how often it/she misunderstands me, and makes me angry! 

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