What causes "Error connecting: {error}" in home-assistant/core?

Check general internet connectivity from the Home Assistant host (curl https://alexa.amazon.com)

home-assistant/core · error · HomeAssistantError

cannot_connect_with_error

cannot_connect_with_error

Error message

Error connecting: {error}

What it means

Raised as a HomeAssistantError (translation key alexa_devices/cannot_connect_with_error) when alexapy raises CannotConnect inside the alexa_api_call context manager. It indicates a transport-level failure reaching Amazon's Alexa cloud endpoints (DNS, TCP, TLS, HTTP 5xx). The coordinator is marked unsuccessful so the UI reflects the outage.

Source

Thrown at homeassistant/components/alexa_devices/coordinator.py:61

@asynccontextmanager
async def alexa_api_call(
    coordinator: DataUpdateCoordinator | None = None,
) -> AsyncGenerator[None]:
    """Handle common Alexa API exceptions as HomeAssistantError."""
    try:
        yield
    except CannotAuthenticate as err:
        if coordinator:
            coordinator.last_update_success = False
        raise HomeAssistantError(
            translation_domain=DOMAIN,
            translation_key="invalid_auth",
            translation_placeholders={"error": repr(err)},
        ) from err
    except CannotConnect as err:
        if coordinator:
            coordinator.last_update_success = False
        raise HomeAssistantError(
            translation_domain=DOMAIN,
            translation_key="cannot_connect_with_error",
            translation_placeholders={"error": repr(err)},
        ) from err
    except (CannotRetrieveData, ValueError) as err:
        if coordinator:
            coordinator.last_update_success = False
        raise HomeAssistantError(
            translation_domain=DOMAIN,
            translation_key="cannot_retrieve_data_with_error",
            translation_placeholders={"error": repr(err)},
        ) from err


@asynccontextmanager
async def alexa_config_entry_errors() -> AsyncGenerator[None]:
    """Handle common Alexa API exceptions as ConfigEntry errors."""
    try:

View on GitHub (pinned to 58a3fdb3ea)

Solutions

Check general internet connectivity from the Home Assistant host (curl https://alexa.amazon.com)
Verify DNS resolution and that no proxy/firewall blocks Amazon endpoints
Check Amazon/AWS status pages for an ongoing incident and retry later
If persistent, reload the alexa_devices integration after connectivity is restored

Defensive patterns

Strategy: retry

Try / catch

try:
    async with alexa_api_call():
        await coordinator.api.some_call(...)
except HomeAssistantError as err:
    if err.translation_key == "cannot_connect_with_error":
        await asyncio.sleep(BACKOFF)  # or schedule retry
        # retry once; give up after N attempts

Prevention

Ensure reliable DNS and outbound HTTPS to amazon.com on the HA host
Wrap one-shot automations with retry logic since transient network blips are common
Monitor the coordinator's last_update_success instead of assuming success

When it happens

Trigger: Any wrapped Alexa API call (e.g. coordinator.api.call_alexa_sound, get_devices_data via entity/service paths using alexa_api_call) when the HTTP request to amazon.com/alexa endpoints fails to connect, times out at the socket level, or Amazon returns a server error mapped to CannotConnect.

Common situations: Local internet outage, firewall/proxy blocking amazon.com, Amazon AWS incidents, IPv6 misconfiguration, or DNS resolver failures on the host running Home Assistant.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of home-assistant/core@58a3fdb3ea (2026-08-14). Data as JSON: /api/errors/576464056f9a1d44. Report an issue: GitHub.