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May 15, 2022 Post a Comment

5 Common Error Letters for Custom Alexa Skills and How to Troubleshoot Them

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When developing your starting time Alexa skill, issues can arise in areas that you don't wait. For developers who are just starting out and trying to test their first Hullo World skill, you may non exist able to tell if the issue is with your ain code or if there's something missing in your configuration.

Luckily, many of the bug that new skill developers face boil down to some uncomplicated misconfigurations that are relatively like shooting fish in a barrel to resolve. Beneath, we outline five of the well-nigh common problems that developers run into when testing their skills, using the test simulator with the developer console; the reason why they occur; and how to resolve the effect before submitting your skill for certification.

1. Alexa: "There was a problem with the requested skill'due south response."

At present that y'all take finished building out a crude skill and you want to exam it out, you can test information technology either in developer console or your Alexa device. When you lot invoke your skill by saying your launch phrase, you might see the situation described below.

Customer: "Alexa, launch/open <skill's invocation name>."
Alexa: "There was a trouble with the requested skill's response."

You might also run into this mistake message while you lot are testing other intents, not just LaunchRequest as well.

So, what does that error message mean? When you launched your skill, your skill sent back a response to LaunchRequest or another intent request; yet, in that location was an effect with the response your skill sent dorsum which caused the skill to end the session. This means that the response JSON your skill sent back was malformed.

How to Troubleshoot:

In lodge to have a closer expect at your response JSON, be certain to log your response JSON to improve your power to debug. This helps y'all to see what your skill is sending back. If yous are using an AWS Lambda part as your skill's backend, making use of test issue could aid.

2. Alexa: "Unable to reach the requested skill"

Customer: "Alexa, launch/open <skill'south invocation name>."
Alexa: "Unable to reach the requested skill."

This response may occur when you lot employ an endpoint that is not an AWS Lambda function. Alexa will try to reach your endpoint; but, due to incorrect SSL settings, Alexa is unable to hit your endpoint and returns this mistake message.

How to Troubleshoot:

Depending on the SSL certificate that your custom spider web service is using, y'all volition want to select the relevant setting within your endpoint. Make sure that your endpoint complies with the requirement listed in Host a Custom Skill equally a Spider web Service.

3. Alexa: "Hmm I don't know that"

When you lot exam your skill in the simulator inside the programmer console, you are able to invoke your skill correctly; yet, when you exam your skill on a device, y'all run into this error. This issue normally occurs if y'all are using Household Profiles on Alexa devices, where the account that is signed into the Alexa device might non be the account that you are using to develop your skill.

How to Troubleshoot:

You can check the profile that you lot are currently using for the device by asking "Alexa, which account is this?". If the business relationship mentioned is non the developer account that you are using to create your skill, you can so switch profile to the one that has your skill enabled past saying "Switch accounts".

4. Alexa: <Audio only> audio or earcon audio or earcon

When you test your newly built skill inside the examination simulator on the programmer panel, you lot might run into the following message:

Client: "Alexa, <utterance> "
Alexa: " <error tone> "

This response occurs when Alexa cannot match what you but said to an utterance in your interaction model. Alexa will effort to match what you say to her, just sometimes there are values that just do not match to whatsoever valid utterances, resulting in a depression confidence response from Alexa. When this happens, Alexa will return the response, signifying that she was non able to confidently lucifer what you lot just said to what you have divers in your interaction model.

How to troubleshoot:

Use the Utterance Profiler in the developer panel to test the different utterances that are not working by examining how your utterances are being mapped to your defined intents. This will let you see what intents Alexa is trying to map your utterance to. It volition also requite you an idea of which utterances are working improve for your skill, as well as which utterances are non correctly entering the intents.

5. Alexa: <No response>

When trying to examination your skill inside exam simulator, you lot might not receive a response, or your utterance never finishes loading. This is commonly due to your browser and environment non being compatible with the Alexa test simulator.

Alternatively, when you are developing a skill for a locale that is unlike from the locale your developer account is associated with, you might encounter this issue. An instance is that you are developing a skill that has an en-GB language model, but you are based in the Usa. During the procedure of testing your skill, you try to launch your skill on a device. Simply no response is returned from Alexa. This issue could occur if you have not correctly set the country and region settings.

How to troubleshoot:

Browser issues
- Use Chrome/Firefox for testing
- Disable whatsoever extensions or plugins you may take installed
- Run your browser in private/incognito modes
- Clear your browser enshroud
Local environment issues
- Check your antivirus software and firewalls that could potentially block the test simulator and ports accessed by your browser.
- Check your local network settings that could potentially block the exam simulator and ports accessed by your browser
Update your device land settings

At present that you have learned about 5 of the most common error responses that Alexa gives and of what they mean, hopefully debugging your skill is much easier to handle. If you take whatever questions along your skill building adventure, you lot can mail questions and hash out with other fellow Alexa skill builders on our developer forum.