Plays fine in testing environment but not on device

[kgarner]

First off, just wanted to thank you for creating this. I have enough skill to implement code already created on a server, but wouldn't have the first clue hoe to actually develop something like this, so I appreciate your efforts to create and share this. I have the skill installed and everything works except for playback on device.

It's logged into the server (I can see the sessions in the stats) and the skill responds to commands to play books that I have in the library and acts like it playing, but nothing ever actually plays. In the stats, all playback sessions are 3 seconds long so I believe there is an error happening that kills the playback. I get a similar result when using the Alexa app on my phone (iOS). I thought I would use the server testing environment to test it and see if there is an error message, but it actually plays back perfectly on the computer.

I'm at a loss as to how to proceed. Is there some way to get an error log from an Echo device? I thought maybe it was a file format issue since some books are MP3s and some are M4Bs, but I get similar results for either format. Just wondering if you have any ideas of what might be happening (long shot, I know) or at least some advice on how to track down an error message or log or something to help me trace it. Thanks.

----- LOG ENTRIES FROM ABS -----

2025-04-05 09:55:27.752
DEBUG
[PlaybackSessionManager] startSessionRequest for device Echo SDK 1 / v1.0
2025-04-05 09:55:27.753
DEBUG
[PlaybackSessionManager] "alexa" starting direct play session for item "d70d308b-6257-44d2-b029-064ee9024702" with id c09689e4-ef67-4c95-9b52-7756ec95ea58 (Device: Echo SDK 1 / v1.0)
2025-04-05 09:55:31.970
DEBUG
[PlaybackSessionManager] syncSession "c09689e4-ef67-4c95-9b52-7756ec95ea58" (Device: Echo SDK 1 / v1.0) | Total Time Listened: 3.781
2025-04-05 09:55:31.975
DEBUG
[PlaybackSessionManager] closeSession "c09689e4-ef67-4c95-9b52-7756ec95ea58"
2025-04-05 09:55:31.976
DEBUG
[PlaybackSessionManager] Removed session "c09689e4-ef67-4c95-9b52-7756ec95ea58"
2025-04-05 09:55:31.987
DEBUG
[ApiCacheManager] Array.afterUpsert: Clearing cache

The logs for playing from the computer look identical, except that instead of appearing all at once it gets to the "starting direct play session…" line and starts playing until I say stop and then prints out the rest of the log entries with a longer Time Listened.

[sevenlayercookie]

Thanks for the nice message! Sorry to hear it's not quite working for you yet. Sounds like it's close though at least.

I've found the Alexa skills to be very difficult to debug, since many of the errors occur between the echo device and the Audiobookshelf server, and the echo device returns limited debug data (if any).

You can find messages from the Echo device as well as console logs from the Alexa skill on the Alexa Dev website where you installed the skill. On Alexa Dev Console website in the "Code" tab, click "CloudWatch Logs" and search the logs there for relevant information.

Things to try and look for:

• in the logs, find the url that the skill is sending to the device. should be something like: "INFO Playing: https://abs.yourdomain.tld/api/items/9b183932-bada-4e45-9b68-14aeefcfa408/file/37119952?token=your_api_key_should_show_here". try copying that whole url including the token into your browser and see if it plays there. if it does, then the skill is sending the device the right URL at least.
• look for any error messages

Many times the Alexa device just returns something like "MEDIA_PLAYBACK_ERROR" which is very unhelpful for debugging unfortunately...

For you, it could be a number of issues:

1. wrong URL is being passed to the device (unlikely, especially since it works fine on your mobile device and testing env)
2. authentication issue (it sounds like you were able to start and close sessions, so it sounds like that isn't the issue, unless the token isn't getting passed in the playback URL for some reason )
3. codec issue (perhaps the files you have tried just happen to be incompatible with the Alexa device? Also unlikely I would say since 95% of my audiobooks play on Echo Dot without any issue)
4. skill failure. any unhandled exceptions could cause the skill to crash on the Amazon server. It's possible there's just a bug in the skill that I haven't identified...

A few questions:

1. what version Audiobookshelf server are you running? The devs have been changing up the API a bit recently, so it's possible the API commands from the skill aren't matching your server.
2. which Echo devices have you tried it on? I've only tested on Echo Dot 3 and 4, Sonos speaker, and Alexa app on phone.
3. I still have errors playing certain files. I have a file that is 3.5 GB, 500 chapters, and 62 hours long. I haven't deduced yet whether it's the file size itself, the number of chapters, or the hour length that is overwhelming my echo device, but trying to stream that on my Echo Dot 4th gen causes it to reboot, though it plays fine on the computer. Make sure to try to play simple audiobook files <1gb and <60 chapters or so to test things out.
4. do you have any kind of extra protection in front of ABS? CloudFlare Access, Authelia, Authentik, etc.
5. which intent are you using to trigger playback? "Play", "Play audiobook", "Play The Fellowship of the Ring", etc.

[kgarner]

Thanks. I'll try some of these ideas and see what I can find.