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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)
237 Replies

TedMan
Underground

Same exact problem here - started this month. Occurs on all of my Echos (Dots, Studio, Plus, Show). I always get a “…can’t find that station”, yet all my Apple products have no problem, including iPhone, HomePod, CarPlay. Once I completely renamed the channel, Echoes could find them, I change it back, lost again. Also, Echoes will play on the last played Echo device instead of on the one being spoken to. 

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marknoell
Opening Act

Keep us updated, Larry_B, please!

marknoell
Opening Act

Anything on this?? @Pandora 

marknoell
Opening Act

Heard anything??? @support @Pandora 

Larry_B
Underground

I haven't heard anything from Pandora support regarding my case.

dufuf5
Underground

My Echo Dot stopped playing Pandora stations correctly about mid October. When I ask for a specific station, it starts shuffling all my stations. Everything Amazon support told me to try hasn't helped and they told me to contact Pandora.

marknoell
Opening Act

I emailed Pandora support and heard nothing. Is Pandora going away? I have had my subscription for at least 15 years, paying an annual fee which renews in February 2023. I am suspecting this service may be discontinuing?? No one at Pandora seems to want to help the problem and offers no phone support. I contacted Amazon and they were helpful in trying to fix the problem, but ultimately I think Pandora will have to resolve this with Amazon.

gprayback
Opening Act

Screenshot_20221126_234724_Amazon Alexa.jpg

Screenshot_20221126_234650_Amazon Alexa.jpg

Just in case anyone from Pandora is monitoring this, here are two screenshots showing the problem. This is the Alexa voice history and then a screenshot from the Alexa app. Clearly Alexa understands what I'm saying, clearly the station exists, clearly it has the same name as what I said, but Alexa is unable to find it from Pandora.

dustm17
Local Performer

Same issue here with all my alexa devices (echo, dot, etc.). It started a couple weeks ago. It defaults to thumbprint radio for everything.

apb29
Underground

There is one thing I've learned since this problem emerged weeks ago: Spotify is a far superior service. I've stuck with Pandora as long as I have because I have 10+ years of carefully curated playlists. But those don't do me much good when I can't play my music on my Alexa speakers. Surely I'm not the only one checking out the competition now. Are you listening, Pandora?

TedMan
Underground

At least yours is “thumbprint” mine always says “Thumb Up My Butt Radio”! 😳

I’m thinking this may be an Alexa problem, not Pandora, since my Echos almost never reply correctly anymore…

Buzios
Local Performer

This is so frustrating. Pandora mods are not even bothering to chime in. After 15+ years with Pandora it seems I have no choice but to look elsewhere.

Larry_B
Underground

On November 26th, I sent a message to Pandora User Support asking whether there is an update. Here's my message to them and their reply:

MY MESSAGE TO PANDORA USER SUPPORT

There is an active topic about this issue on the Pandora Community site. (Pandora Community Support / Other Devices / Amazon Alexa: Won't Play Requested Station) (https://community.pandora.com/t5/Other-Devices/Amazon-Alexa-Won-t-Play-Requested-Station/m-p/111153#...) Judging by the number of posts, this problem seems to be affecting a lot of people.

I posted about having this case open and have since been asked by several people whether there are any updates. Does Pandora Support have any updates I can pass along to the group?

Thank you for any information you can provide.

REPLY FROM PANDOAR USER SUPPORT

Hi Larry,

Thanks for reaching back out.

This particular issue is still being evaluated at this time. Please feel free to check back in with us at a later time for an update. I'll be happy to provide one if possible.

Thanks for your patience in the meantime!

Emiliano
Support Specialist
Pandora

marknoell
Opening Act

Larry_B

I have not. I too received a case# and received the same canned response from Pandora, but no resolution nor any other response.

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gprayback
Opening Act

The second Tidal starts to offer stations that work as well as Pandora's I am absolutely switching. Pandora keeps pulling me back in because the Music Genome Project really does populate stations with almost magical prescience. All the other services really just have (badly) curated playlists and call them "stations." Every time I try another service out, I end up back at Pandora because, it turns out, what I listen to most, by far, is real stations algorithmically generated from songs or artists I like. Pandora is so far superior to every other service in that realm that I end up dissatisfied every time I try to switch. But in every other way it is inferior in my opinion, as evidenced by this baffling inability to play anything I want it to via Alexa devices. I'll switch instantly if any other service figures out how to do real stations.

By the way, there are lots of services that will migrate playlists from Pandora to Spotify and Tidal. It doesn't do stations (because Stations are generated algorithmically on Pandora), but they do playlists really well. The one I used is this:
https://soundiiz.com/

dufuf5
Underground

I have had an issue with my Alexa Echo Dot Gen 3 for about 2 months. Whenever I ask for a specific station, it shuffles all my pandora stations. I have done all the possible troubleshooting steps with Amazon Support and they told me to contact Pandora. When I look at the reviews for the Pandora app for the Amazon Alexa, I see many people reporting the same problems. So what is going on? The Alexa app also tells me the app is enabled on one screen and disabled on another.

berner08
Underground

Well said! Like you, I primarily use stations on Pandora. Hopefully Pandora and Amazon will fix the issue.

Rhysalius
Underground

I am having the same issue. This is pissing me off. Alexa cant figure it out and pandora support doesnt even respond. Is this how you treat pandora one customers?!?

apb29
Underground

Sadly, Alexa understands everything else I ask her for, including playing music on Apple or Spotify, so it definitely feels like a problem somewhere in Alexa / Pandora digital handshake.

 

bbells
Local Performer

Same problem. When using the app it will act like it is starting the chosen Pandora station, but switches to shuffling stations. When using voice Alexa opens up a completely different station than I am asking for. I have a feeling it is Alexa. The record on my Gen 5 shows she heard me right, but after that it shows she responds with (although she didn't) "Audio was not intended for this device." Then starts some unknown artist.

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