Previously I had purchased an Amazon Echo Spot and six Philips Hue smart bulbs. During initial setup I discovered I was able to only connect to 5 of 6 smart bulbs. I tried swapped two bulbs, to see if the 6th smart bulb was defective, but was able to connect to it and not the swapped in “good” bulb now located in the backyard patio light. Later I started experiencing connectivity issues with two other smart bulbs located outside (front door and over garage). I tried to resolve the issue by removing them from the Alexa app devices and then trying to add them back… only now they were gone. Alexa couldn’t locate them, even though I could manually turn on the lights using the light switches. So now 3 of 6 Philips Hue smart bulbs couldn’t be located by Alexa.
I inquired online and was informed I should purchase a Philips Hue Bridge, as that would solve my connectivity problems. So I did. But things did not work out as I had hoped. Here are the steps I took after unboxing the Philips Hue Bridge (which I will simply refer to as “bridge” from this point onwards):
- Plugged bridge into outlet and wireless router (same router Alexa is connected to)
- Bridge lights (all 3) illuminated
- Downloaded Philips Hue app onto iPhone
- Logged into Philips website, located bridge, downloaded software update, pressed big button on bridge… “Connected”
- Launched Alexa app and installed Philips Hue skill, connecting Alexa to bridge (shows my named bridge “Waszczuk Home”) and selected “Grant permission” button
- Received message in Alexa app, “Hue has been successfully linked”, and email informing me: “Your Amazon account has been linked with the Philips Hue skill from PHILIPS.”
- Clicked “Next” button > Alexa is looking for devices to connect to…" and it found nothing and was suggested to locate devices another way, so clicked “Next” button
- Question: “Is your device turned on?”. Turned on backyard patio light and selected “Yes”
- Question: “Can you control your device using the device manufacturer’s app?”. Um nope, so I selected “No”. (see below, with regards to using Philips Hue app)
- Informed to “Remove your device from the device manufacturer’s app, the add it back in”, with only “Next” button available. Hate to say it but the Philips Hue app couldn’t find anything, so impossible to remove nothing and add back nothing.
- Alexa searched again…
- Question: “Can you control your device using the device manufacturer’s app?” Oh boy… a loop! I selected “No”.
- Informed to contact device manufacturer support for help, then it closed/ended the attempt. So much for Alex/Philips Hue Bridge connectivity skill.
Now, my first question: Should the bridge appear among my Devices on the Alexa app? I ask because it doesn’t appear there, unlike the three Philips Hue smart bulbs I do have connected to Alexa. But now let’s revisit Step 9 & 10, but from the Philips Hue app…
- Launched Philips Hue app
- Presented “Home” screen and the option to “Add lights”
- Clicked “Add lights” button
- Presented 2 options: “Use serial number” or “Search”, started off by clicking “Search”
- Searching for lights… so I waited
- Informed “No lights found”. Just to be clear, I own a Philips Hue A19 smart bulb and if I tell Alexa to turn it on or off, she does without issue. So uh, the Philips Hue bridge can’t seem to find the same bulb Alexa can locate
- Plan B, I clicked “Use serial number” and was prompted to enter its 6-character serial number
At this stage I had to turn off the light, unscrew the bulb (hot!), and located the serial number next to a QR code. I then screwed the bulb back in, turned the light back on, and entered the serial number! Nope, it still couldn’t locate it using the bulb’s serial number.
Now I bought the bridge JUST because it was supposed to help Alexa locate the 3 missing smart lightbulbs… and here it couldn’t even find the ones Alexa could locate. So my questions is… am I doing something wrong? Is it a bad bridge (hardware)? Please let me know what you recommend I try.