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.

[tjp2730]

I gave up on my Amazon/Alexa devices and switched to Google Home devices. 

The Google Home app is much better on my Android phone than the Alexa app - that was always SO slow to do anything.

Google  Home is not perfect. My Nest mini keeps loosing it's Bluetooth connection to my stereo and Google seems a little slower to respond to voice commands.

BUT, at least Google recognizes which Pandora stations I'm asking for!!

[Jwright823]

Same issue. Been a Pandora subscriber for for over 13 years. I have many Amazon Echo devices and feel like drop-kicking them across the room every time they say, "I can't find the station... on Jeffrey's Pandora". Is this a problem on Pandora's or Amazon's side? Will anyone be able to fix it? Do I need to cancel my Pandora subscription or start replacing my 9 Alexa/Echo devices? I am a software engineer, so I know when an issue is months old - either it can't be fixed or the engineers are choosing not to fix it. Which is it?

[berner08]

I've learned to live with just saying "Alexa, play Pandora" and have her play the last station I listened to on whatever device.  It is annoying to not be able to change stations via voice.  I hope Pandora and Amazon can fix this probably.  Even if they don't, I'm not ditching either of them.  Pandora's stations are far superior (so far) to the other streaming services I've tried (Amazon, Apple Music and Spotify).  I'm going to beam positive vibes to the support teams so they can find a solution soon.

[RickO]

I'm beginning to think this is a deliberate effort on Amazon's part to get
users to ditch Pandora and start using Amazon's music streaming service.
There is absolutely no reason a "fix" should be taking this long.

[Gar]

Here's my verbose theory:

The Software guys at Pandora architected their Amazon integration wrong. Other music apps (for example) can tell the app to play on external devices (from the app). Pandora not being able to do that has always been a big negative in my opinion.

Recently (like in the last 6 months), Amazon changed their architecture to keep track of musical "streams" if you will. You can have one stream playing to this group and another stream playing to a different group.

The idea of having different streams playing to different devices or groups of devices is a very good idea. But, in order to implement, Amazon changed the architecture. When they changed the architecture, they inadvertently broke some streaming services (like Pandora).

Because Pandora's architecture was bad form the get go, it made matters worse.

I suspect that the guys at Pandora are wondering how much longer Amazon will be the leader of the pack in multi-room music services. And what it will take to completely re-architect their client platform. Maybe it's already in process?

Since Amazon is losing $10 billion/year supporting Echo devices, you have to think the support is not going to last much longer.

If I'm Pandora, I am spending my money making the app more robust. If I can start playing my stations from the Pandora app and then tell the app to stream it to this group of "Echo", "Play-fi", "Airplay" or "Sonos" devices, I am much happier.

I'm not sure you want to invest in a system that says, "Now playing your smooth jazz station from Pandora" when you specifically requested, "Alexa, play my headbanging thrashmetal from hell station on Pandora".

It just doesn't make sense.

[LordGenesis]

Been having this exact issue as well. I have had certain radio stations as part of routines for YEARS. Now in the past week they are not launching. I've tried changing station names: no go.

The names are clearly typed in the routine like they have been for YEARS and now it tells me it can't find a station with that name. Tried calling the stations vocally and if doesn't create an unwanted stupid station it tells me it can't find it.

Please fix.

[jdb2]

An update : My problems with my Echo devices and Pandora have gotten even worse. Now when I ask one of my Echos to play one of my stations other than "Darkwave Radio", it's response is that it can't find it. The only station that I *can* play via voice request is "Darkwave Radio" and *only* if I phrase the voice request as "Play Darkwave Radio from [my name]'s Pandora." Also, when I leave Pandora paused on one of my Echos for a while and I ask it to "continue playback," it *always* plays my "New Age Electronica" station, irrespective that "Darkwave Radio" was playing previously.

jdb2

[nw62]

This entire thread and the length of time it has taken to address this issue are just absurd. Time to start cancelling subscriptions, people.

[SteveU]

I agree. Since it’s not clear which company - Amazon or Pandora - is at fault, I canceled both.

[CatherineBT]

I’m having the same issue. Please add me to the ticket. 

[wdwillett]

I'm having the same problem with all of my Alexa devices.  When will this be fixed?

[AndreaAK]

Adding so might help others. If I tell my echo to resume pandora, it’ll more often than not pick up where it last left off. Saves the hassle of having to do the workaround each time 

[tubalove]

Tuba Love here (aka Kevin), the person who initiated this conversation. Boy, compared to most other other peoples' problems mine was quite benign. I only lost one of my multiple stations, and when I created another one I got perfect response. I like the consideration that Amazon might be screwing with things, to get people to switch. I have no proof, just a matter worth considering.

[kmokmo]

Adding my name to the mix.  Exact same problem, custom stations not recognized, but instead, am taken to AMP radio which apparently I cannot uninstall.  Just started happening to me about three weeks ago, but reading back, it's been ongoing for some users since October with no resolution?  Wow. 

[bhhales]

Add my voice to the list of people having this problem. Ironically, I pay for Amazon prime music.  I confess to being a free Pandora user though.

The difference for me is, I am playing existing stations on Pandora, not custom created ones.  I have two, Hotel Costas Radio, and Christmas Choral Classics.  Suddenly, about a week ago, it stopped being able to find Hotel Kostas Radio. It tells me "I can't find Hotel Costas", where it used to say "playing Hotel Costas Radio on Pandora."  It's like the word "radio" in the name is confusing it somehow now. Christmas Choral Classics continues to be found and played when I ask for it.  My custom curated stations continue to be found, even ones with the word radio in their name.

this happens on all of my devices, which include an original echo, echo dot second and third generations.  So it is not specific device related.  This is a real shame, as this is the most common thing I do on the device.  I equate this to having my favorite dish at my favorite restaurant being taken off the menu. It's very frustrating.  Streaming off my phone is not a good substitute as I cannot say "Alexa, move my music here" when I move around the house.

I haven't tried any other suggestions in this thread, I will update my post if I find something that works.

[tubalove]

Hi all, Kevin Smith here. I'm the person who created the initial post about this problem. My most recent update is that as of yesterday 3 more of my self-created stations stopped working. In one instance Alexa says she can't find any stations by that name; on another, no song by that name; and lastly, just the station (as opposed to any stations). The feedback on this has been outstanding, but unfortunately nothing seems to be done about it.

[schmerlerb]

I had a station that I had been curating with thumbs for several years and played it this morning, but when I went back to it this afternoon it was gone. I tried to recreate it, but all of my thumbs were gone. Please help me get it back. 

[Davewert]

I am also having the same problem as everyone else.

I can't play my custom Pandora Stations through Alexa using the Pandora Skill. I can play other Pandora stations, just not my personal ones.

This problem started in October 2022. I am just finding this group and see that the problem is being addressed which gives me hope.

[AdamPandora]

@schmerlerb What is the name of the station you need help restoring?

Let me know.

[schmerlerb]

It was called Forever.  I was playing through Alexa yesterday and then stopped.  When I asked it to play again later in the day, it created Black Forever and renamed it Forever instead and I can't get to my original Forever Station (which I've had for more than 10 years).  I deleted the Black Forever that was renamed Forever but now when I ask Alexa to play Forever radio, it says that it doesn't exist.  On my desktop, I can find a very old version of my Forever station but not the one I was playing yesterday.  In fact, my account makes it look like I've had the Black Forever/Forever station since 2013! No idea how/why this happened...can you help?