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Alexa Playback [Logging] Advice/Support

ginjaninja

By ginjaninja
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ginjaninja

ginjaninja 606

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My Alexa music playback went from generally working to never working a month or so ago.

From requesting the song from the skill  to Alexa saying "playing song X by artist Y" the debug log shows 

2026-06-03 14:13:39.482 Info SessionsService-0HNM0S8DL8KOI:00000001: http/1.1 POST https://‌‍‍xxx.xxx.xxx/emby/Sessions/Capabilities/Full?api_key=‌c6ea5baa81464df9a1e5c812c8ca3934‌&Id=ad1c44f22e3d5840c633250ab9e307c0. Source Ip: ‌‍‍18.205.59.136‌, UserAgent: node-fetch/1.0 (+https://github.com/bitinn/node-fetch)
2026-06-03 14:13:39.483 Debug AuthenticationRepository: UpdateCapabilities id: 177
2026-06-03 14:13:39.483 Info SessionsService-0HNM0S8DL8KOI:00000001: http/1.1 Response 204 to ‌‍‍18.205.59.136‌. Time: 1ms. POST https://‌‍‍xxx.xxx.xxx/emby/Sessions/Capabilities/Full?api_key=‌c6ea5baa81464df9a1e5c812c8ca3934‌&Id=ad1c44f22e3d5840c633250ab9e307c0. 
2026-06-03 14:13:50.891 Info SessionsService-0HNM0S8DL8KOJ:00000001: http/1.1 POST https://‌‍‍xxx.xxx.xxx/emby/Sessions/Capabilities/Full?api_key=‌c6ea5baa81464df9a1e5c812c8ca3934‌&Id=ad1c44f22e3d5840c633250ab9e307c0. Source Ip: ‌‍‍18.205.59.136‌, UserAgent: node-fetch/1.0 (+https://github.com/bitinn/node-fetch)
2026-06-03 14:13:50.892 Debug AuthenticationRepository: UpdateCapabilities id: 177
2026-06-03 14:13:50.892 Info SessionsService-0HNM0S8DL8KOJ:00000001: http/1.1 Response 204 to ‌‍‍18.205.59.136‌. Time: 1ms. POST https://‌‍‍xxx.xxx.xxx/emby/Sessions/Capabilities/Full?api_key=‌c6ea5baa81464df9a1e5c812c8ca3934‌&Id=ad1c44f22e3d5840c633250ab9e307c0. 
2026-06-03 14:13:50.972 Debug ItemsService-0HNM0S8DL8KOJ:00000002: http/1.1 GET https://‌‍‍xxx.xxx.xxx/emby/Users/6cc6d0fa039849af8147592f5da46188/Items?api_key=‌c6ea5baa81464df9a1e5c812c8ca3934‌&Fields=Id,Name,AlbumArtist,MediaType&SortBy=Random&IncludeItemTypes=Audio&Recursive=true&GenreIds=&ArtistIds=&ParentId=&Limit=400&EnableTotalRecordCount=false&EnableImages=false&EnableUserData=false. Source Ip: ‌‍‍18.205.59.136‌, UserAgent: node-fetch/1.0 (+https://github.com/bitinn/node-fetch)
2026-06-03 14:13:51.589 Debug ItemsService-0HNM0S8DL8KOJ:00000002: http/1.1 Response 200 to ‌‍‍18.205.59.136‌. Time: 617ms. GET https://‌‍‍xxx.xxx.xxx/emby/Users/6cc6d0fa039849af8147592f5da46188/Items?api_key=‌c6ea5baa81464df9a1e5c812c8ca3934‌&Fields=Id,Name,AlbumArtist,MediaType&SortBy=Random&IncludeItemTypes=Audio&Recursive=true&GenreIds=&ArtistIds=&ParentId=&Limit=400&EnableTotalRecordCount=false&EnableImages=false&EnableUserData=false. 
2026-06-03 14:13:56.493 Info SessionsService-0HNM0S8DL8KOJ:00000003: http/1.1 POST https://‌‍‍xxx.xxx.xxx/emby/Sessions/Capabilities/Full?api_key=‌c6ea5baa81464df9a1e5c812c8ca3934‌&Id=ad1c44f22e3d5840c633250ab9e307c0. Source Ip: ‌‍‍18.205.59.136‌, UserAgent: node-fetch/1.0 (+https://github.com/bitinn/node-fetch)
2026-06-03 14:13:56.493 Debug AuthenticationRepository: UpdateCapabilities id: 177
2026-06-03 14:13:56.493 Info SessionsService-0HNM0S8DL8KOJ:00000003: http/1.1 Response 204 to ‌‍‍18.205.59.136‌. Time: 1ms. POST https://‌‍‍xxx.xxx.xxx/emby/Sessions/Capabilities/Full?api_key=‌c6ea5baa81464df9a1e5c812c8ca3934‌&Id=ad1c44f22e3d5840c633250ab9e307c0. 
2026-06-03 14:13:57.042 Info SessionsService-0HNM0S8DL8KOJ:00000004: http/1.1 POST https://‌‍‍xxx.xxx.xxx/emby/Sessions/Capabilities/Full?api_key=‌c6ea5baa81464df9a1e5c812c8ca3934‌&Id=ad1c44f22e3d5840c633250ab9e307c0. Source Ip: ‌‍‍18.205.59.136‌, UserAgent: node-fetch/1.0 (+https://github.com/bitinn/node-fetch)
2026-06-03 14:13:57.042 Debug AuthenticationRepository: UpdateCapabilities id: 177
2026-06-03 14:13:57.042 Info SessionsService-0HNM0S8DL8KOJ:00000004: http/1.1 Response 204 to ‌‍‍18.205.59.136‌. Time: 0ms. POST https://‌‍‍xxx.xxx.xxx/emby/Sessions/Capabilities/Full?api_key=‌c6ea5baa81464df9a1e5c812c8ca3934‌&Id=ad1c44f22e3d5840c633250ab9e307c0.

For people that its working for.. do you see more in the logs like a playbackstream url? I am trying to ascertain what URL is being provided to the alexa to initiate playback. But all i see in the logs is the skill successfully querying the Emby Webservice for the content.

@hatharrydo you have access to more [skill] logging please to help me ascertain where things are failing over?

 

Windows 11, Amazon Echo, Emby 4.10.0.13.

Chat GPT Musings

 

Spoiler

What your log proves

1. Alexa successfully reaches Emby

You have:

  • Sessions/Capabilities/Full ✔
  • Items?IncludeItemTypes=Audio ✔

So:

  • DNS works
  • TLS works
  • Authentication works
  • The Alexa skill can talk to Emby normally

No issue so far.

2. Alexa successfully retrieves a music list

This line is key: 

 
  
GET /emby/Users/.../Items?...IncludeItemTypes=Audio
Response 200
 

So Alexa:

  • authenticated
  • queried your music library
  • received results

Again: fully healthy.

3. Then… nothing

After that, the log ends.

There is:

❌ no /Audio/.../stream
❌ no /Items/{id}/PlaybackInfo
❌ no /stream
❌ no /hls
❌ no /master.m3u8
❌ no transcoding session
❌ no playback session creation

That is the smoking gun.

What this actually means

Alexa is stopping before playback is even requested from Emby.

So your system is in this state: 

 
  
Alexa Skill
  ✔ talks to Emby
  ✔ gets music list
  ✔ selects a song
  ❌ NEVER requests playback stream
 

This is why:

  • Emby never logs a stream URL
  • Emby never logs playback attempts
  • You still hear “Playing Songname” (Alexa says this locally after skill response)

That phrase is misleading—it does NOT mean audio started.

So the problem is NOT:

❌ Not certificate

Because Alexa already authenticated and queried data

❌ Not DNS

Same reason

❌ Not stream URL rejection

Because the stream URL is never even requested

The real failure point

This is now almost certainly one of these:

1. Alexa skill returns “success” but without valid playback directive

Meaning:

  • Emby responds to Alexa skill
  • but does NOT return a valid audioItem.stream.url

So Alexa thinks:

“OK I will say 'Playing Songname'”

…but has nothing to play.

2. Emby is not generating a playback URL for Alexa at all

This is common when:

  • client profile mismatch occurs
  • Alexa is detected as a “browse-only” device
  • media type is returned but not playable format

3. Alexa skill integration bug / change

This is VERY plausible because:

  • everything up to library browsing works
  • only playback initiation is missing
  • no network errors occur

This pattern strongly matches:

Amazon-side Alexa music skill regression or compatibility change

The key insight

If this were:

  • TLS problem → you'd see nothing at all
  • DNS problem → you'd see nothing at all
  • stream blocking → you'd see playback request attempts

But you see:

browsing works perfectly, playback stage never starts

That narrows it dramatically.

 

 

 

 

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