Randomly get "Unable to find service notify.alexa_media_last_called"

[dpgh947]

I have just set up alexa_media_player in order to make announcements using tts, and it broadly works, but I keep getting random failures with

"Unable to find service notify.alexa_media_last_called"

I have found a few other references to this error message but no definitive explanation or complete solution.

I have an automation which responds to alexa via the turning on of a dummy bulb (via emulated hue), this automation can report via tts various status such as my garage doors, solar panel output etc. For example, "Alexa is the garage open?"

The automation calls alexa_media.update_last_called in order for the tts response to come from the device I speak to.

for example:

action:

• service: alexa_media.update_last_called
• delay:
  seconds: 2
• service: notify.alexa_media_last_called
  data:
  message: (etc.....)

I have found, by putting the notify service in to the developer tools services screen (which works if I call it) and then simply watching the screen, that the call to

service alexa_media.update_last_called

is randomly, not every time, making the notify service "disappear" for a few (2-4) seconds. When this happens, the call to the service then fails with the "unable to find..." error.

I cannot reproduce this problem at will, I can have the automation I am using work several times in a row, and at other times fail several times in a row. Increasing the delay timer after the update_last_called alleviates the problem (I have had to go as high as 5 to avoid the problem completely), but it is far from an ideal solution, it makes responses to queries annoyingly slow.

So my question is, why is the call to update_last_called randomly making the notify.alexa_media_last_called service (and possibly all of the other notify services, I haven't checked) disappear for a few seconds and then come back? Is this a bug, or am I doing something wrong?