Alexa returns "Sorry, I'm having trouble accessing your Emby skill right now"

[bardx 1]

Hi,

I've set up my Emby server, and connected with Emby Connect. After activating the Alexa skill and connected the account, I tried to ask Emby (through an Amazon Echo device) to play some music. It always returns "Sorry, I'm having trouble accessing your Emby skill right now" (in Italian, "In questo momento non riesco ad accedere alla skill Emby").
How do I troubleshoot this?
Thanks.

[visproduction 315]

Apparently this recording starts when the Internet connection to Alexa is not receiving data.  Check your connection.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9hocw8Qqxg&t=54s

 

[bardx 1]

Alexa doesn't say "Sorry, I can't understand you now". It says it can't access the skill. Moreover, the connectivity works just fine (all the other Alexa skills are working great).

[hatharry 113]

could you please try saying:

Alexa, chiedi a m. b. casa di riprodurre alcuni brani

[bardx 1]

15 minutes ago, hatharry said:

could you please try saying:

Alexa, chiedi a m. b. casa di riprodurre alcuni brani

Yes, that's what I was trying. I tried again even now. It takes a few seconds, then gives the "Sorry, I'm having trouble accessing your Emby skill right now" message.

[hatharry 113]

does the same happen when you talk to the alexa app on your phone?

[hatharry 113]

Alexa is timing out when connecting to your server. 

To be able to play music on your alexa you will need a external domain name not just an ip address. A https certificate and port 8920 open on your router.

Once all that is setup and the correct Remote (WAN) access address is showing in the emby dashboard. The Alexa Skill will need to be un-linked and linked again 

Edited January 7 by hatharry

[bardx 1]

16 hours ago, hatharry said:

Alexa is timing out when connecting to your server. 

To be able to play music on your alexa you will need a external domain name not just an ip address. A https certificate and port 8920 open on your router.

Once all that is setup and the correct Remote (WAN) access address is showing in the emby dashboard. The Alexa Skill will need to be un-linked and linked again 

I did all of the above (and even more, since I'm behind a Carrier-Grade NAT, so I had to configure Cloudflare to make the server reachable). I checked that I can correctly reach the server from the internet with the browser (using the external address shown on the dashboard), but Alexa still gives the same error. Note: from the browser everything works like a charm. I can listen to music and everything else. It's just Alexa the one that gives issues (tried both, from a local Amazon Echo device though the LAN, and from the Alexa app on the phone though Internet).

This is how the things are configured:

• A cloudflare tunnel (reachable from the internet on the HTTPS 443 port) is connected to my server.
• Behind the tunnel, the Emby server is reached locally on the HTTP 8096 port.
• I configured the certificate (importing on the server the one issued from Cloudflare, and configuring it in Emby).

What I don't know is how to troubleshoot what's going wrong. The issue is always the same: after some time, Alexa says it can't reach the Emby skill.

Edited January 7 by bardx

[bardx 1]

I finally managed to make it work! There are a lot of parameters that have to be aligned correctly. After that, I restarted the server and reconnected the skill.
These are the parameters:

• Public HTTPS port number: 443 (because the Cloudflare tunnel exposes that one)
• Custom SSL certificate path: the path to the certificate (taken from the one issued from Cloudflare and converted to the PKCS #12 format). Note: provide also the certificate password, if the certificate has one.
• Secure connection mode: Preferred, but not required (at least, I used this, and it worked; not sure if it would work with the other options that are not "Disabled")

[Luke 42077]

Thanks for following up !