Routines & Automations Not Working – Smart Locks

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Your smart lock is supposed to be the most convenient part of your home, yet the moment it ignores a routine command, it becomes the most frustrating. Whether your door refuses to unlock at sunset or stays bolted when your morning “Goodbye” routine fires, you’re not dealing with a broken lock—you’re dealing with a broken conversation between your lock and your automation platform. This section cuts straight to the source of that silence, offering platform-specific fixes for the three biggest ecosystems: Alexa, Google Home, and Home Assistant. You’ll find targeted troubleshooting steps that address the usual suspects—stale battery readings, hub connection drops, and misconfigured device states—but also the less obvious culprits, like a routine that’s firing before the lock’s status update registers, or a skill permission that quietly expired after a firmware update. This is written for the hands-on troubleshooter who has already tried the basic “turn it off and on again” and needs a deeper playbook, though a patient beginner can follow along with the step-by-step logic. If you’re locked out of functionality on a specific platform, jump straight to the article that names your ecosystem and work through the checklist in order. If you’re managing multiple platforms or just bought a new lock and want to avoid common setup pitfalls, start with the Alexa guide to understand the universal routine-trigger mechanics, then move to the Home Assistant piece to see how local control differs from cloud-dependent routines. You’ll learn, for example, how to verify that your lock’s low-battery alert isn’t being misinterpreted as an offline signal by Alexa, and why Google Home might need a re-sync of your lock’s device traits after a network change. By the end, you’ll have a clear diagnostic path for every failed unlock, and you’ll know exactly where to look when the problem isn’t the lock at all, but the routine’s timing logic. Here are the three guides that will get your door moving on command again.