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.

[JBSR]

My station was working fine until today and now it won't find it on Pandora. I tried this solution and it worked as long as I did not turn off my echo dot. Once I turned it off, it would not find my station again

[AdamPandora]

@JBSR I've enabled a trace on your account to help us better understand what's happening.

For this trace to be useful, we'll need you to reproduce this issue on your end, and then provide us with the following information:

• What is the utterance you are saying? 
• What is the name of the expected station that should play? 
• What date and time did you make the request? 

Thanks for working with us on this.

[JBSR]

<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />

At 7:05 p.m. just now, I said "Alexa, play Secret Garden radio from Pandora. "

She said, " I can't find the station Secret Garden radio from Pandora. "

[AdamPandora]

@JBSR I've passed your feedback along to our engineering team so they can further investigate.

Thanks for your patience in the meantime!

[blancap]

This problem is not fixed. I just started getting this today.  I tried multiple stations, and Alexa couldn't find them.  Even simple random genres and decades.

@TannerPandora my utterances are what I am saying.  Alexa is just not able to find the stations.

And to all of the people who keep commenting about how they don't use voice commands, you are not moving the conversation forward.  Nobody cares that you don't and you're just making more things for people to read through.

[AdamPandora]

@blancap I definitely understand your frustration.

I've enabled a trace on your account to help us better understand what's happening.

For this trace to be useful, we'll need you to reproduce this issue on your end, and then provide us with specific examples of the following:

• What is the utterance you are saying? 
• What is the name of the expected station that should play? 
• What date and time did you make the request? 

Thanks for working with us on this.

[789gbkj]

If you have not reproduced the issue at this point with all of these complaints, then there’s really no hope in getting this issue fixed. How disappointing that this is still going on almost a year later.

[378018]

I am having similar issues with Herb Alpert & TJB Radio. When I have a subscription, I expect better. Get it together.

[bbells]

Well, I have been trying to change the changed names back to the original and the original names still do not work even though the changed name does. Ex: James Taylor radio not found.Renamed New james taylor Radio. Works for awhile. Changed back to original James taylor radio and it is no longer found. Interesting quirk.

[kevingeorgw8 · Accepted solution]

So, as a bit of resolution — after some experimentation, I have found this works ok: I renamed the custom stations that were giving me trouble to something very specific. Ie, if my name were Joe Smith, i named it “Joe Smith’s Favorite Shuffle”, instead of just “Favorite Shuffle”. Then I ask for “Alexa play Joe Smith’s Favorite Shuffle on Pandora.” And now it plays 

[Debrannen]

I am not sure how I did this exactly or why it works...but by doing the following I can now play all my Pandora stations on Alexa, even the ones that stopped a few months ago.

I deleted the Alexea App from my phone

Then I reinstalled the Alexa app.

I believe it was the Alexa app that asked me if I wanted to use Pandora Skill to link my Pandora account to Alexa. I was hesitant to do so since the Pandora Skill got poor reviews, but at this point I was desperate. After connecting Pandora Skill to Alexa my Pandora stations are ALL now succcessfully being played on Pandora. 

 It has been working now for over a month.  I would say try this solution, it's a lot easier than renaming stations. 

[terridan]

Same problem here. Started about a month ago (it worked perfectly before that).

I did exactly the same thing, but it didn't work. I ask for my custom-named station "Terri's folk music," and it plays "60s folk hits," and adds that station to my collection! Same with several other stations that I renamed. I checked the utterance report, and Alexa heard my words perfectly. 

Moderator Edit: Merged posts

[cranman007]

Log into your pandora account directly. Rename the station to whatever you want. Tell alexa to play whatever you named it to.

It worked for me. I have no idea why I just now know it worked. 🙂

[terridan]

Thanks for your reply. I already tried that, renaming the stations with unique names.
And I checked the Alexa statements to make sure it was hearing me correctly when I said those names, which it was.
Still didn't work.

[378018]

I created a Station Linda Ronstadt radio and ended up deleting it because Alexa "can't find it.."

[Braden_Reeves]

dam

i feel your pain

[Fr1nklyFr1nkl2n]

I've been experiencing similar issues with many echo devices (pair is 3rd Gen and a 4th, and 2 shows both 3rd gen)

I can say this, the utterance is irrelevant because I have been using routines that end in playing music. I know I said the right thing because the routine are working up to the last line. 

Example: I say "Alexa, Sleepy Time" and my bedroom lights change from daylight to soft white and slowly fade out over 15 minutes. As soon as the lights change Alexa gives me one of the random "good night" responses like "I hope you count fewer than 10 sheep before falling asleep tonight", then she says "I can't find the station Yoshida Brothers Radio on Franklin's Pandora".

I changed the station name to Super Yoshida Brothers in my Pandora app, and in my routine and it's working again.

[Jim66]

I have the same problem. On my Alexa view, I can ask her to “show” me the station that she can’t find and then it appears. I can then manually select it from the screen and it plays 

[378018]

Agreed If Pandora doesn't get their act together I will cancel my subscription. I am not paying 4.99 a month for Alexa not to play my stations. Get it together, Pandora!

Moderator Edit: Format

[378018]

I cancelled Pandora Plus because I wasn't getting my money's worth. Constant problems with Alexa. Let me know when you and Amazon get your acts together.