Trouble With Alexa & X1X’s Volume Controls

Good news! I got Alexa control working again on the Xbox. Since Alexa sends the signal to the Xbox to turn the volume up/down on the TV, I went to TV control settings in the Xbox settings. Someone had played around with these settings and turned off TV control.
Now Alexa can control the Xbox/TV volume again.

Unfortunately, the problem with the Xbox app connecting to my Xbox continues. Any advice on this would be appreciated! Thank you for the responses so far!

You can only have one linked to it at a time Set up Alexa with Xbox One

Note Xbox Skill for Alexa may not be available in all locales.

Setup

To set up the Xbox Skill for Alexa:

1. Sign in to your Xbox.
2. Say “Alexa, open Xbox” and open the Alexa app, or search for Xbox in the Skills section of the Alexa app.
3. Select the Xbox Skill and sign in with your Microsoft account.
4. Follow the instructions to discover your console and pair it to your Alexa device(s).

If multiple people will be signing in on the same Xbox, see Use Alexa with multiple Xbox profiles.

Alexa commands for Xbox

Standard commands

For access to all the commands available for the Xbox Skill on Alexa, use the standard command structure, like this:

• “Alexa, tell Xbox to pause”
• “Alexa, tell Xbox to resume”
• “Alexa, tell Xbox to turn up volume”
• “Alexa, tell Xbox to turn volume down 5”
• “Alexa, tell Xbox to turn off”
• “Alexa, tell Xbox to launch Rocket League”
• “Alexa, tell Xbox to launch Netflix”
• “Alexa, tell Xbox to start broadcasting”
• “Alexa, ask Xbox what I can say”

Both “Tell Xbox” and “Ask Xbox” work for standard commands.

Smart home commands

Alexa smart home commands work for power, volume, and media controls. With smart home commands, you can drop the “Tell Xbox” or “Ask Xbox” portion, as in these examples:

• “Alexa, pause Xbox”
• “Alexa, resume on Xbox”
• “Alexa, turn the Xbox volume up”
• “Alexa, turn the volume down on Xbox”
• “Alexa, turn off Xbox”

The default device name in the Alexa app’s Smart Home Devices section is “Xbox,” but smart home commands will work if you change the name to something else – “Living Room Xbox” or “Zach’s Xbox,” for example. This becomes especially important if you want
to use Alexa with more than one Xbox. You can change the device name for your Xbox under Smart Home > Devices in the Alexa mobile app.

If you’ve recently used your Xbox One and there aren’t any other smart home devices paired with Alexa, you can drop the device name altogether, like this:

• “Alexa, pause”
• “Alexa, play”
• “Alexa, resume”
• “Alexa, skip forward”

You could connect your alexa device with your xbox. Works pretty good for me.

Here is how it works:

Setup

To set up the Xbox Skill for Alexa:

1. Sign in to your Xbox.
2. Say “Alexa, open Xbox” and open the Alexa app, or search for Xbox in the Skills section of the Alexa app.
   
3. Select the Xbox Skill and sign in with your Microsoft account.
4. Follow the instructions to discover your console and pair it to your Alexa device(s).

If multiple people will be signing in on the same Xbox, see
Use Alexa with multiple Xbox profiles.

Alexa commands for Xbox

Standard commands

For access to all the commands available for the Xbox Skill on Alexa, use the standard command structure, like this:

• “Alexa, tell Xbox to pause”
• “Alexa, tell Xbox to resume”
• “Alexa, tell Xbox to turn up volume”
• “Alexa, tell Xbox to turn volume down 5”
• “Alexa, tell Xbox to turn off”
• “Alexa, tell Xbox to launch Rocket League”
• “Alexa, tell Xbox to launch Netflix”
• “Alexa, tell Xbox to start broadcasting”
• “Alexa, ask Xbox what I can say”

Both “Tell Xbox” and “Ask Xbox” work for standard commands.

Smart home commands

Alexa smart home commands work for power, volume, and media controls. With smart home commands, you can drop the “Tell Xbox” or “Ask Xbox” portion, as in these examples:

• “Alexa, pause Xbox”
• “Alexa, resume on Xbox”
• “Alexa, turn the Xbox volume up”
• “Alexa, turn the volume down on Xbox”
• “Alexa, turn off Xbox”

The default device name in the Alexa app’s Smart Home Devices section is “Xbox,” but smart home commands will work if you change the name to something else – “Living Room Xbox” or “Zach’s Xbox,” for example. This becomes especially important if you want
to use Alexa with more than one Xbox. You can change the device name for your Xbox under
Smart Home > Devices in the Alexa mobile app.

If you’ve recently used your Xbox One and there aren’t any other smart home devices paired with Alexa, you can drop the device name altogether, like this:

• “Alexa, pause”
• “Alexa, play”
• “Alexa, resume”
• “Alexa, skip forward”

And if needed to set it up for more than one Xbox:

Connecting and using Alexa with more than one Xbox involves some extra steps. Those steps depend on the type of commands you’re using.

To connect your first Xbox, see Set up Alexa as a digital assistant for Xbox One.
To connect a second Xbox to Alexa:

1. Sign in on the Xbox you want to control. The Xbox you’re signed in to will automatically be linked (you can also enable it on your console under
   System > Settings > Kinect & devices > Digital assistants).
2. Say “Alexa, tell Xbox to pair” to the Alexa device you plan on using to control the signed-in Xbox.
3. Open the Alexa app, then go to Smart Home, select Add Device, and choose device type Other.
4. Once your Xbox is discovered, change the default name “Xbox” to something else if your first console is also named “Xbox.” This is the device name you’ll use for smart home commands.

Standard commands

Standard commands begin with the phrase “Alexa, tell Xbox to…” and target the Xbox you’re currently signed in to. If you want another Xbox to interact with Alexa, sign in to that console and say “Alexa, tell Xbox to pair.” Alexa will
then start sending commands from that Alexa device to that Xbox.

Smart home commands

Smart home commands, such as “Alexa, turn off Xbox” can work with more than one console if they have different names.

By default, Alexa gives the first discovered console the name “Xbox.” Additional consoles are given default names of “Xbox [####]” to tell them apart, but you can change the console name in the Alexa app to something friendlier, like
“Upstairs Xbox” or “Josie’s Xbox.” This will enable commands like “Alexa, turn down the volume on Upstairs Xbox.”

Another option is to change the system name of one or more consoles in
System > Settings > System > Console info to something like “DENXBOX,” for example. Alexa will then identify the Xbox by that name.

You can control the volume via Xbox App or through a virtual assistant such as Alexa. I use my Amazon Echo the most to change the volume.

https://support.xbox.com/en-US/browse/xbox-one/voice-and-digital-assistants/Digital assistants

XBox team, please update Alexa instructions with this step. I've spent several hours trying to troubleshoot why Alexa cannot control XBox.

@EdwardFolmer, thank you for posting solution.