Troubleshooting: Alexa Responds But No Music Plays

If Alexa acknowledges your request — saying something like "Playing music from your My Media collection" — but then nothing actually plays, the cause is almost always a connectivity issue between your Alexa device and the My Media server. This page walks through the most common reasons, starting with the most frequent.

1. Firewall on the My Media Computer

My Media streams music directly across your local network, which means your Alexa device needs to be able to make an inbound connection to the computer running My Media on TCP port 52050.

On Windows, the My Media installer automatically creates the necessary Windows Firewall rule. If you are using a third-party firewall (Norton, Avast, McAfee, etc.) you will need to add this rule manually. Guides for common products are available on the My Media website:

• Norton — mymediaalexa.com/home/mymedia_norton
• Avast — mymediaalexa.com/home/mymedia_avast
• McAfee — see McAfee's own support portal for creating an inbound rule on a specific port

When creating the rule, allow inbound TCP traffic on port 52050 from your local network only. You do not need to open any ports on your internet router for normal local streaming.

2. Alexa and My Media Are on Different Networks

For My Media to stream to your Alexa device, both must be reachable on the same IP subnet. If you have, for example, a separate guest Wi-Fi network and your Alexa device is connected to it while My Media is running on a wired computer or your main Wi-Fi, the two cannot communicate.

Move your Alexa device onto the same network as the My Media server.

3. The Alexa Device Does Not Support Local Streaming

Amazon Echo and Echo Dot devices are fully tested and supported. Some third-party Alexa-compatible smart speakers may not implement the full Amazon audio streaming API correctly. If you are using a non-Amazon device and experiencing silence, check with the device manufacturer — there may be a firmware update available.

4. Unsupported or Incompatible Audio Format

If Alexa can play some tracks but others are silent, the problem may be with specific file formats. Tracks encoded with Apple Lossless (ALAC) inside an .m4a container are a common cause.

To resolve this, install FFmpeg and enable transcoding support in Settings → Additional Audio File Formats. My Media will then convert problematic formats before sending them to Alexa.

5. Missing or Deleted Media Files

My Media rescans your library on a schedule (every 6 hours by default). If a track has been deleted from disk after My Media has started playing a playlist that includes it, playback may stop. In most cases My Media skips the missing track automatically, but a large number of missing files can cause the playlist to stop entirely.

Trigger a manual rescan from the Watch Folders screen to bring the index up to date.

6. VPN Software Running on the My Media Computer

If you have an active VPN connection on the computer running My Media, the VPN typically changes the computer's primary IP address. Alexa will then try to stream from the VPN's IP address, which is not routable from your local network.

• If you need to use a VPN, give your computer a static local IP address and set the Listening IP address override in Settings to that address. This forces My Media to advertise the correct local IP to Alexa regardless of what the VPN is doing.

7. Running My Media in Docker Using NAT Mode

When My Media runs inside a Docker container with NAT networking, the container only knows its own Docker-assigned IP address — not the host machine's IP that Alexa can reach.

1. Give the Docker host a static IP address on your local network.
2. Open the My Media web console, go to Settings, and enter that static IP address in the Listening IP address field.

My Media will then advertise the correct IP to Alexa.

8. Guest Wi-Fi Networks

If your Alexa device is on a guest Wi-Fi network and your My Media computer is on your main home network, the two networks are segregated and Alexa cannot reach the server. Move your Alexa to your main home network.

9. Wi-Fi Networks with Client Isolation

Some routers have an option to isolate Wi-Fi clients from each other (sometimes called AP isolation, client isolation, or wireless isolation). This prevents devices on the same Wi-Fi from communicating directly, which will stop Alexa from connecting to My Media.

Check your router's wireless settings and disable client/AP isolation if it is enabled.

10. Windows 10 Alexa App on the Same Computer as My Media

This scenario is blocked by default. Windows Store apps — including the Amazon Alexa app — have a loopback firewall restriction that prevents them from connecting to services on the same machine.

To lift this restriction, run the following command from an elevated Command Prompt (right-click Command Prompt in the Start Menu and select Run as administrator):

checknetisolation loopbackexempt -a -n=57540AMZNMobileLLC.AmazonAlexa_22t9g3sebte08

For more background on why this is necessary see Microsoft's documentation on loopback exemptions.

Testing Connectivity Directly

You can quickly confirm that your Alexa device can reach My Media by opening the following URL from a browser on a device other than the My Media server (e.g., your phone):

http://[your-server-ip]:52050/test

You should see "Connection test successful". If you see a timeout or connection error, work through the steps above until the test passes.