Good morning everyone.
I hope I’m in the right category.
Since mid-December, Alexa has been a problem with Zigbee light bulbs, not Sonoff switches.
Everything has always worked (me: Alexa turn on the light) (Alexa: OK)
Since mid-December, however, Alexa executes the command but immediately afterward says: “Um, light isn’t responding, check the power.”
It works properly when the command is: Alexa turn off the light.
It’s as if it’s trying to reach the light first (which is turned off by the Sonoff Zigbee device), and then it also gives the command to the Sonoff device.
When I want to turn off the light, everything works fine because Alexa finds the light bulb is on.
I’ve already deleted the devices and then reconnected them, and the Sonoff devices are updated.
The Sonoff Zigbee hub is: model ZBBridge-P - firmware name SN-NG-ZBP-01
Sorry, I want to confirm your issue with you. Do you mean that you are using the ZBBridge-P as a gateway, adding Zigbee sub-devices to the ZBBridge-P gateway, then linking your Alexa account in the eWeLink app to sync the Zigbee devices to Alexa, and when you use Alexa voice control for the light added to the ZBBridge-P, it can only be turned off but cannot be turned on properly? Is that correct?
Everything is almost correct. But when I ask Alexa to turn on the light, Alexa turns it on. But immediately afterward, it says the light isn’t responding and to check the manual switch.
This has only been happening since mid-December. Thank you for your interest.
“Everything is almost correct” - as is usually the case with Alexa
This is quite typical Alexa behavior. For as long as I can remember, similar issues have appeared, disappeared, and returned in various configurations and intensities. In your case, the main cause is that the ZBBridge‑P with eWeLink sends the status confirmation back to Amazon’s cloud too slowly. The ‘turn on the light’ command works, but the status arrives late, so Alexa assumes the device isn’t responding even though it actually is.
The simplest fixes are: refreshing the device in Alexa (e.g., renaming it or rediscovering it), reconnecting or reinstalling the eWeLink skill, and - maybe - improving the Zigbee network quality, for example by adding a Zigbee router or moving the ZBBridge‑P away from Wi‑Fi interference.
Thanks for your help!
I’ve done everything you suggested, but the problem persists.
The Zigbee lights connected to Sonoff turn on one by one, with intervals of about 2 seconds between them, while the lights connected only to Alexa turn on together.
The problem also occurs if I ask Alexa to turn on just one light bulb that’s connected to Sonoff.
To the best of my knowledge, the problem is not with Sonoff or Zigbee — it’s a bug in Alexa introduced in the December update.
Since mid‑December, Alexa has started to:
check the state of the Zigbee bulb before executing the command,
try to connect to it directly,
and only afterwards send the command to the Sonoff Bridge.
If the bulb is physically powered off (e.g., by a Sonoff Switch), Alexa cannot “query” it and reports:
“Light isn’t responding”
…even though the bulb turns on a moment later.
This is a bug in Alexa’s logic, not in Sonoff. I don’t see this behavior on my setup, but I don’t have any bulbs in eWeLink. Mine talk to Alexa through the HUE integration in Home Assistant. However, all Sonoff switches work correctly with Alexa.
Maybe someone else has run into the same issue as you and can suggest a solution. You can also wait a week or two for an Alexa update.
Thank you so much, it’s definitely true.
I’ll wait for an Alexa update, hoping someone will report it!
Now I’ll look for where I can report it.
Thank you so much and big hugs!
