First wake word doesn't work

We have 4 voice assistants - 3 working totally fine. They all have the same settings with two wake words. The fourth module won't respond when the first wake word is used - it just flashes all of the red led lights. If the second wake word is used, the module usually responds property. The module does respond to HA automations and makes requested announcements.

I've reset the voice module, switched it's location with a perfectly functioning module, changed wake words but nothing I do gets the first wake word to work.

Firmware: 2026.3.0 (2026-03-20 15:55:36 +0000)
Each voice module has a humidity, pressure and temperature grove port sensor.

Do you have any suggestions on how to fix this?

Since no one has any solutions for this problem, might I have a faulty voice module?

Are these all the HA Voice Preview Edition ?

Did you purchase at the same time ? Do they all have the same version of firmware ? The same configuration ?


I have added a second language and wake word to my Voice PE and found that if I use "Okay Nabu" to trigger the Italian assistant it still recognises my English command and the response is English words with an Italian accent. Not the same problem as yours.

In my case i have a later firmware


with

@donburch888: don't think it's about the VPE

@PortugalPeace: maybe not bad to clarify which device you are talking about.

That's what i thought ... then I remembered that VPE has a Grove connector, and it makes sense to add a temp sensor ... so definitely want to check which voice device we are talking about

They are all VPE and purchased on the same order. Here is the Device information for all four of them:

Office
Device info
esp32-s3-devkitc-1
by Espressif
Firmware: 2026.3.0 (2026-03-20 19:17:01 +0000)

Living rm
Device info
esp32-s3-devkitc-1
by Espressif
Firmware: 2026.3.0 (2026-03-20 17:56:24 +0000)

Kitchen (problem)
Device info
esp32-s3-devkitc-1
by Espressif
Firmware: 2026.3.0 (2026-03-20 15:55:36 +0000)

Exercise rm
Device info
esp32-s3-devkitc-1
by Espressif
Firmware: 2026.3.0 (2026-03-20 21:29:10 +0000)

Your kitchen device has the first Assistant as "Home Assistant" but the others are all "Home Assistant Cloud". Small but important difference easy to not notice :wink:

I guess that you have both in the Settings > Voice Assistant page with slight differences as you were configuring them.

Thanks for catching that @donburch888. I will fix that but to me that shouldn't affect the first wake word should it?

I guess that you have both "Home Assistant" and "Home Assistant Cloud" in the Settings > Voice Assistant page, as you were trying things ... and the "Home Assistant" version has some difference which is not working correctly.

This did fix the problem. I was amazed. Thank you!

Good that it got solved!

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Thanks @Nick4. I clicked the heart button instead of the solution button. Fixed now.