The Ghosts in the Machine - Alexa turning off and on lights

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I switched over a Zwave switch from Home Seerer to Home Assistant (HA). It went well. I added two new Zwave switches to HA. I also added two new Govee (GV) Lights to my system, but only one to HA.

These new lights (and on Fan) would come on and off at random times (10+ times a day/night). It took me a long time to figure out what was doing it. I noticed That the GV light not in HA was turning on too. that and the logs lead me to Alexa as my ghost. I wrote an automation to turn off some of these when they turn on with no Presence detected. I also removed the GV lights from Alexa and that stopped them from random on/off.

So does anyone know why Alexa is doing this?

Also I have a lot of duplicates in Alexa. Example, some from GV, then duplicated from HA. Should I remove the ones added by Govee or delete the HA version? What is best practice for HA and Alexa (and Alexa skills)?

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Hello Jd,

By saying HS are meaning Homeseer?

If so this is the Home Assistant forum, and we will be of VERY little help with your problem.

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Alexa has a “Hunches” function that guesses what lights to turn on/off automatically based on your usage. Check if it is turned on whether you are talking about HA, HS, or even HE. I think it is on by default.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=G7F5F7K93GKSLC4F

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Oh, well that’s not creepy or anything.
No wonder I have never used it.
Bought a dot to use to program some blueprints, never have powered it up in what, like 5 years…

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I meant HA, old habits are hard to break. Thanks Sir

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SO I guess my first step is to remove the duplicates from Alexa. Should I delete the GV (or other lights not added by HA) version or the HA version?
Should I remove the “Skills” from Alexa related to products like GV, LIFX, and others (that are in HA and included back to Alexa) or should I remove the HA versions from Alexa?

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Your problem isn’t the duplicates. The actual problem is that Alexa is somehow controlling those devices outside of HA and causing confusion.

You’ll need to dig down into the Alexa app and remove all routines for those devices and check the “hunches” suggestion and disable it.

If you want to avoid a “wtf triggered my device” moment, you need a single source of truth. You can’t have both Alexa and HA controlling automations, so pick one and stick with it.