Alexa/Homey skill not discovering new Hue light – existing devices still work

Questions & Help
1

Hi all,

I’ve added a new Philips Hue colour bulb directly to my Homey Pro 2019 using the Philips Hue, without the bridge app (v2.1.0).

The bulb appears in Homey as Dining 1 and works correctly through the Homey app, including on/off, dimming and colour control. However, Alexa will not discover it through the official Homey skill.

I already have several other Hue lights and lighting groups that were established through Homey years ago. These still appear in Alexa and continue to work normally by voice. The problem appears to affect only this newly added light.

So far, I have:

  • Asked Alexa to discover devices several times
  • Disabled and re-enabled the Homey skill
  • Relinked my Homey account

Alexa still reports that no new devices have been found.

Has anyone experienced this issue, where existing Homey devices remain controllable but Alexa will not discover a newly added device?

Is there a way to force Homey to republish or fully resynchronise its device list with Alexa without removing all my existing Alexa devices, groups and routines?

Setup:

  • Homey Pro 2019
  • Homey OS 13.4.1
  • Philips Hue without bridge app v2.1.0
  • Region: UK

Thanks for any help.

2

Hi,

I have now created a native Homey Virtual Switch and classified “What’s plugged in?” as Light, specifically to test Alexa discovery. I gave it a simple, unique name and repeatedly ran Alexa device discovery, but Alexa cannot discover this device either.

This indicates that the problem is not specific to the new Hue bulb. My Homey Pro appears unable to publish any newly created supported device to Alexa, while all Homey devices discovered in previous years remain available and continue to work normally.

Would anyone with Homey and the official Alexa skill be willing to perform a quick comparison test?

  1. Create a temporary native Homey Virtual Switch.
  2. Set “What’s plugged in?” to Light.
  3. Give it a unique name such as Alexa Sync Test.
  4. Ask Alexa to discover devices.
  5. Report whether it appears, along with your Homey model and Homey OS version.

The temporary switch can be deleted afterwards. Results from any Homey version would be useful, but a test from another Homey Pro 2019 owner would be particularly helpful.

Alternatively, if you have recently added a real light or switch to Homey, please confirm whether Alexa discovered it successfully and which Homey model you use.

Thanks!

Hung

3

Would anyone here who already uses the official Homey Alexa skill, with existing Homey devices working through Alexa, be willing to carry out this quick comparison test?

For the test to match my situation, the Homey–Alexa integration should already be established before creating the new virtual device:

  1. Create a temporary native Homey Virtual Switch.
  2. Set “What’s plugged in?” to Light.
  3. Give it a unique name, such as Alexa Sync Test.
  4. Turn the virtual light on and off once within Homey.
  5. Ask Alexa to discover devices.
  6. Check whether the new virtual light appears in Alexa.

Please report:

  • Homey model:
  • Homey OS version:
  • Alexa country/region:
  • Virtual light discovered: Yes/No
  • Appeared automatically or following Discover Devices:

The temporary virtual switch can be deleted afterwards.

A result from another Homey Pro 2019 user would be particularly helpful, although results from any Homey model would help establish whether this works elsewhere.

It should only take a couple of minutes, and I would really appreciate the result as it would help determine whether the issue is specific to my Homey/account or affects the wider Homey–Alexa integration. I can then pass the findings to Athom Support to progress their investigation.

Thanks very much!

Hung

4

i would be happy to help but…in my last test which i made with the Homey Skill on Alexa was worst scenario ever, the reason was after i had installed the homey skill all devices from homey was imported and the chaos was perfekt…at the end i must over 100 devices manuel delete from the alexa App, device by device…since that action i only integrate my amazon devices with the Homey Community App from Stefan Schweiger and it works perfect for me and my tasks…sry for couldn’t help you, but good luck!
Ps.: maybe currently the homey skill behavior on Alexa works different (better) regarding the import function because my experience is approx. before 6 month.

5

Thanks very much for replying, @Rammstein. I completely understand why you would not want to reinstall the official Homey skill after having to delete more than 100 imported devices manually.

Just to clarify, my requirement is to expose Homey devices to Alexa so that I can control them using Alexa voice commands. As I understand it, the Stefan Schweiger community app mainly works in the opposite direction by bringing Alexa/Amazon devices into Homey. It may work very well for that purpose, but it does not replace the voice-control integration I currently need.

Depending on your Homey model, there may now be a way to avoid the uncontrolled import you previously experienced. Athom currently provides the following setting on supported newer Homey models:

More → Settings → Amazon Alexa → Excluded Devices

This allows users to choose which Homey devices are exposed to Alexa. Unfortunately, Athom Support has confirmed that this feature is not available on my Homey Pro (Early 2019). Further information is available here: Exclude devices from Amazon Alexa.

If you have a supported newer Homey model and the Excluded Devices option is available, it may allow you to exclude everything except a single temporary virtual light before enabling the official skill. If you are able and comfortable carrying out this narrow, filtered test, I would greatly appreciate the result, as it would provide a valuable comparison for Athom Support. However, please only proceed if you can configure the exclusions beforehand and are confident that doing so will not disrupt your existing working setup.

The test would be:

  1. Create a temporary native Homey Virtual Switch.
  2. Set “What’s plugged in?” to Light.
  3. Exclude every other Homey device from Alexa.
  4. Leave only the temporary virtual light available.
  5. Enable the official Homey Alexa skill.
  6. Confirm whether Alexa discovers the virtual light.

Could you also confirm which Homey model and Homey OS version you currently use? That would establish whether the Excluded Devices option is available to you.

For anyone else following this thread who already uses the official Homey Alexa skill and currently controls Homey devices through Alexa voice commands, the comparison test is even simpler and would not require any skill changes. You would only need to create a temporary virtual switch classified as a light, run Alexa discovery and report whether it appears, together with your Homey model and OS version.

Thanks again for responding and sharing your experience.

6

Just tried it, but it also didn’t sync devices here either. Homey Pro 2019

7

fine…i dont know till now from this option…when i had time i will test it if it is still neccessary for you because @smarthomesven delivered already his test result on Homey Pro 2019…my current device is a HomeyPro 2026

8

Thank you very much — that is really helpful and appears to match my experience.

Just to confirm: do you already have the official Homey Alexa skill working, with existing Homey devices controllable through Alexa voice commands?

And was your test a newly created native Homey Virtual Switch with “What’s plugged in?” set to Light, which Alexa then failed to discover?

If so, that directly matches my situation. It is a particularly interesting finding because it suggests there may be an issue with Homey exposing or publishing newly created devices to Alexa, rather than a fault specific to my Hue bulb or Alexa account.

It is not yet clear whether this is limited to certain Homey Pro 2019 installations or is a wider issue. I am currently in contact with Athom Support, so your result will be very useful to relay as part of their investigation.

Thanks again for taking the time to test it.

9

Thanks very much. Yes, if you are able to test it when you have time, your result would still be extremely useful precisely because you have a Homey Pro 2026.

The Homey Pro 2019 result shows that the issue is not limited to my individual Homey or Alexa account, but it does not tell us whether the problem is specific to the 2019 model or affects the wider Homey–Alexa integration.

  • If the virtual light is discovered successfully on your 2026 model, that may point towards a Homey Pro 2019-specific issue.
  • If it also fails on your 2026 model, that would indicate a potentially wider publishing or discovery problem.

Using Excluded Devices to expose only the temporary virtual light should make this a narrow, controlled test without importing your other Homey devices.

I would greatly appreciate the result when you have time, as I can pass both comparisons to Athom Support.

Thanks again for offering to help.

10

It doesn’t appear to sync any devices now. I had it linked before so I unlinked and linked again but not a single device shows up. Strange, might be a bug.
I used a real light (spare E27) that I added to the Homey

11

Same for me no new devices will get discovered via Alexa anymore? I still have existing devices setup under Alexa in the past and these still continue to work, hence why i was curious if you had any existing devices exposed under Alexa that are still operating? - I’ve tried new physical hue bulbs E27 (no joy); i’ve tried groups of lights using group app which dont get discovered either; and lastly i tried a virtual switch configured as a light which again doesnt get discovered. So looks like potential bug - thats effecting wider set of users.

12

Support update – escalated to engineering

Athom Support has reviewed my diagnostic report and confirmed that my Homey itself appears healthy, with no relevant local errors involving the Hue app, the <group> app or the device list.

They have also confirmed that, although Excluded Devices is unavailable on Homey Pro (Early 2019), the failure to publish newly added supported devices to Alexa is not being treated as an intended limitation of the 2019 model. Athom’s documentation states that newly added supported devices should be discovered automatically.

The actual publication of Homey’s device endpoints to Alexa occurs through Athom’s cloud, so it is not visible within the local Homey diagnostic report. The remaining question is whether Dining 1, Dining Lights and the virtual light Switchy are present in the endpoint list being published for my account.

Thank you @smarthomesven for independently reproducing the same virtual-light discovery failure on another Homey Pro 2019. Combined with a similar report involving a newer Homey model identified by Support, this has provided sufficient evidence for the issue to be escalated to Athom’s engineering team as a genuine potential synchronisation or publication fault.

If the offered Homey Pro 2026 comparison test becomes available, that should help establish whether the problem is model-specific or more widespread.

I will continue updating this thread with any confirmed findings and, hopefully, Athom’s eventual resolution.

13

Would anyone with a Homey Pro (Early 2026) who already uses the official Homey Alexa skill be willing to perform one quick comparison test?

  1. Create a temporary native Homey Virtual Switch.
  2. Set “What’s plugged in?” to Light.
  3. Make sure the virtual light is not selected under Amazon Alexa → Excluded Devices.
  4. Run Discover Devices in Alexa.
  5. Confirm whether the new virtual light appears in Alexa.

There is no need to disable or relink the Homey skill, change any existing Alexa devices or alter your working setup. The temporary virtual switch can be deleted afterwards.

Please report only:

  • Whether the virtual light was discovered by Alexa
  • Your Homey OS version

Athom Support has now escalated this issue to engineering. This comparison would help establish whether the failure affects Homey Pro Early 2019 specifically or whether newly created devices are also failing to publish from the Early 2026 model as well.

Thank you to anyone able to help with this quick test.

14

Update: similar Alexa discovery reports across multiple Homey models and years

While investigating this further, I have found several earlier community reports describing similar problems with Alexa failing to receive newly added Homey devices.

October 2023 – Homey Pro Early 2023

A Homey Pro 2023 user reported that Alexa initially imported their Homey devices correctly, but devices added afterwards were not published automatically. Disabling and re-enabling the skill temporarily restored the missing devices, but the problem subsequently returned:

The same thread also contains a report from a Homey Pro 2019 user in April 2024. Their new devices sometimes took between 24 and 48 hours to appear, while another discovery attempt took more than three days.

March–May 2025 – Homey Pro Early 2019

In March and April 2025, @RogoGames reported that new devices were no longer being recognised by Alexa. Old Alexa scenes continued working, but new devices and scenes were ignored despite restarting Homey, restarting the Alexa skill and repeatedly running discovery:

In a later post, the same user confirmed that they were using a Homey Pro 2019 and that the issue remained unresolved after being reported to Athom:

Current reproductions

The current failure has now been reproduced independently on:

In both cases, existing Homey devices remain operational through Alexa, but newly created supported devices—including a native Homey Virtual Switch classified as a light—are not discovered.

These historical reports do not necessarily prove that every case has the same technical cause. However, they show that similar Homey–Alexa publication failures have been reported intermittently from at least October 2023 onwards, affecting both Early 2019 and Early 2023 units.

Athom Support has now escalated my case to engineering. To help establish the current scope, I would be grateful for comparison results from anyone who already uses the official Homey Alexa skill, particularly users of Homey Pro Early 2023 or Early 2026.

The quick test is:

  1. Create a temporary native Homey Virtual Switch.
  2. Set “What’s plugged in?” to Light.
  3. On supported newer models, ensure it is not selected under Amazon Alexa → Excluded Devices.
  4. Run Discover Devices in Alexa.
  5. Check whether the virtual light appears.

There is no need to disable or relink the Homey skill or change any existing Alexa devices.

Please report:

  • Homey model:
  • Homey OS version:
  • Alexa country/region:
  • Existing Homey devices working through Alexa: Yes/No
  • New virtual light discovered: Yes/No

Successful results are just as valuable as failed ones. I will summarise the findings and pass them to Athom as part of the current engineering investigation.

15

Hello,

Ah I find a post of my problem so far homey towards alexa worked very well, but recently I wanted to integrate the shutters and the Alexa does not discover a shutter at all, and yet the shutters in the right class, and capacity. I really think there is a bug on the homey side to Alexa, I follow the post to see.

16

Hi @Olivier67,

Thank you—this sounds very similar and is particularly useful because your problem involves shutters rather than lights.

Could you please confirm:

  • Which Homey model you are using
  • Your Homey OS version
  • Whether your previously established Homey devices still work through Alexa, with only the newly added shutters failing to appear

If you are willing, could you also try this quick controlled test?

  1. Create a temporary native Homey Virtual Switch.
  2. Set “What’s plugged in?” to Light.
  3. If your Homey has Amazon Alexa → Excluded Devices, make sure the virtual light is not excluded.
  4. Run Discover Devices in Alexa and confirm whether the virtual light appears.

There is no need to disable or relink the Homey skill or change any existing Alexa devices.

Athom Support is currently investigating this through engineering, so I will add your findings to the evidence already provided. Thank you for helping.

17

Support clarification and current status

I would like to correct and clarify the support status described in my earlier updates.

I previously said that Athom had escalated the issue to engineering. Athom’s first-line support has since clarified exactly what this means in practice.

The issue has been recorded on Athom’s internal problem board since 28 August, with my test evidence, screenshots and the independent reproduction attached. First-line support has also applied a high-priority tag.

However:

  • The priority tag is not an engineering-reviewed severity classification.

  • Development has not yet picked up the case.

  • Engineering has not yet reviewed or confirmed the technical findings.

  • There is currently no engineering-triage date or investigation milestone.

  • First-line support has advised that it cannot initiate a separate management, product-owner or service-owner review.

Therefore, for accuracy, this issue has been recorded and prioritised by first-line support, but it has not yet entered active engineering investigation.

The earlier posts in this thread already document:

  • Two current reproductions on separate Homey Pro Early 2019 systems.

  • Similar historical reports involving Homey Pro Early 2019 and Early 2023, including a closely matching failure reported to Athom support in early 2025 without a known resolution.

  • The controlled Virtual Switch test and the evidence supplied to Athom.

I am currently awaiting confirmation of the model and OS associated with @Olivier67’s recent shutters report.

I also still need one comparison result from a Homey Pro (2026). If anyone with that model already uses the official Homey Alexa skill, please try the short test described in post 13: create a temporary native Virtual Switch classified as a light, ensure it is not excluded from Alexa, run discovery and report whether it appears. A successful result is just as valuable as a failure.

Alternatively, if you have recently added any physical or virtual Homey device that Alexa either did or did not discover, that result would also be useful. Please include your Homey model, Homey OS version, Alexa region and whether your previously established Homey devices continue to work through Alexa.

I appreciate the assistance provided by Athom’s first-line support and recognise that it has taken the actions available within its process. My continuing concern is with what happens afterwards.

This affects an important official Homey integration rather than a community-maintained third-party app. Affected users cannot add newly installed or replacement Homey devices to Alexa, and no supported, non-destructive workaround has been identified. Despite that impact, the case currently has no active engineering owner or defined review date and could remain in the internal queue for an indefinite period.

I work as an IT Solutions Architect and have experience across development and technical-support environments. I fully appreciate that engineering teams have competing priorities and that identifying and resolving a fault can take time. What I find difficult to understand is the apparent absence of a time-bound triage or ownership mechanism after first-line support has identified a reproducible failure affecting official product functionality.

In comparable support environments, I would expect such a failure to receive a service-impact assessment, a reviewed priority and a scheduled engineering-triage point, even if a resolution date could not yet be provided. My concern is not with the assistance provided by first-line support, but with the apparent process gap after the issue enters the internal development board.

If an Athom representative—or anyone familiar with Athom’s support process—knows the appropriate route for requesting a product-owner, service-owner or management priority review in these circumstances, I would appreciate that guidance.

I am not asking for an immediate permanent resolution. However, I believe an official integration failure with no supported workaround should receive engineering triage, a priority assessment and a defined next-review date rather than remaining without any timescale.

Thanks,

Hung

18

Action requested: affected users, please report this through Homey Support and ask for correlation with ticket #154164

Tagging @smarthomesven , @Olivier67 , @GregD and @RogoGames because you have each reported the same or closely similar Alexa discovery behaviour.

I have now raised this matter directly with Marc Wagner, Homey’s Head of Operations. Regarding the similar reports from other users, Marc advised:

“You refer to a number of other users that had similar issues, but unfortunately I cannot find their support request. Having multiple users report the same issue will help identify the cause sooner and help us prioritize the resolution.”

I would therefore greatly appreciate your help. If you are currently experiencing the same problem—existing Homey devices remain controllable through Alexa, but Alexa does not discover newly added or replacement Homey devices—please submit or update your own report through official Homey Support.

When reporting it, please:

  • Explain that existing Alexa endpoints continue working but newly added Homey devices are not discovered.

  • Include your Homey model, Homey OS version, Alexa region and the types of devices affected.

  • Mention any troubleshooting already attempted.

  • Ask Support to correlate your report with ticket #154164 and the existing internal problem record concerning Alexa discovery.

  • Include a diagnostic reference if one is available or Support requests one.

  • Link to this community investigation:

    Alexa/Homey skill not discovering new Hue light – existing devices still work

If you previously reported this problem but your ticket was closed or left unresolved, please consider updating that ticket or submitting a new report and asking for it to be correlated with #154164.

Once reported, it would be helpful if you could confirm here that you have contacted Support. You do not need to publish your support-ticket number publicly; it can be provided directly to Homey through your support request.

These confirmations will create a clear record that the same behaviour has been reported independently by multiple users. They should also help ensure that the cases are correlated consistently and avoid any future uncertainty about whether other affected users have formally reported the problem.

This request is only for users who are genuinely experiencing the issue. Independent reports from different Homey models and environments should help Homey determine its scope, distinguish it from an individual configuration problem and prioritise an engineering investigation.

19

Important update: Alexa discovery has unexpectedly started working again

I have an important and unexpected update to this investigation.

This evening, 2 October, I opened the Alexa app and noticed that several recently created Homey devices—which had previously failed to appear—were now present. These included newly installed physical Kitchen bulbs and recently created light groups.

Earlier today, I had installed Homey OS 13.5.1 and restarted Homey. However, I did not check Alexa immediately before installing the update. I therefore cannot determine whether the recovery resulted from:

  • Homey OS 13.5.1 or the associated restart

  • An Athom backend or Homey–Alexa synchronisation change

  • An internal technical intervention

  • A delayed or spontaneous resynchronisation

The published 13.5.1 notes do not identify an Alexa-related change, so I do not want to attribute the recovery to that update without confirmation.

After noticing the newly appearing devices, I performed several controlled tests:

  • The previously undiscovered Homey Virtual Switch Switchy, classified as a light, was now present in Alexa.

  • I renamed Switchy within Homey and the updated name propagated automatically to Alexa. This had not happened during my earlier controlled rename test.

  • I created another new native Virtual Switch named Test, also classified as a light.

  • I ran Alexa discovery and Alexa successfully found Test.

  • Alexa voice commands successfully switched Test on and off.

  • I created a replacement blended Downstair Lights group, which was discovered and can also be controlled successfully through Alexa.

I did not unlink or relink the Homey skill, reset the integration or change either account association as part of this recovery.

I have provided Athom Support with a new diagnostic taken immediately after the successful discovery test and asked that ticket #154164 remain open while the recovery is monitored. I have also asked Athom to confirm whether any backend, engineering or other internal action was taken and whether the 13.5.1 update or restart could have triggered a fresh synchronisation.

At present, the publication and discovery pipeline appears to be working again, but I am treating this as an unexpected recovery under observation, not yet as a confirmed permanent resolution.

@smarthomesven, @Olivier67 and @GregD: if possible, could you please repeat Alexa discovery and report:

  • Your Homey model and current Homey OS version

  • Whether you have installed Homey OS 13.5.1

  • Whether previously missing devices have now appeared

  • Whether Alexa discovers a newly created native Virtual Switch classified as a light

  • Whether a Homey-side rename now propagates to Alexa

If your issue remains, please continue to report it through Homey Support and ask for your case to be correlated with ticket #154164. Comparison results from other affected systems may help establish whether this was a wider service recovery or something specific to my Homey.

20

That’s good news.

Still not working here but I am on Europe servers. This could explain the delay. However I submitted a new ticket (155697).