Harman Kardon Invoke Cortana Speaker

Anonymous
2020-03-04T03:48:09+00:00

Okay, I made the mistake of buying 4 Invokes for $50 at the Microsoft Store. I first bought two and really like them and then bought two more.  I have two of them set up.

I love the sound quality (it's better than the Echo Dots and Google Homes that I also have) and I've been pretty happy with them. I use them for listening to the radio (via TuneIn), setting timers, and as my alarm clock.

I have also set up reminders and they showed up in my Windows PC as a notification. That's something that I don't think Alexa or Google Home can do.  Really neat!  I also like Cortana's personality.

But I made the mistake of waiting too long before setting the other two up. I have been trying since December 2019 to set them up using both my Windows 10 PC and an Android phone. The setup app can connect to the speakers and then have the speakers connect to my WiFi network. Everything seems to be going well but the set up process never finishes.

After connecting to WiFi, the speaker tells me it needs to update the system software/firmware and to please wait. Eventually, the speakers tells me that something went wrong and that I should start the setup process over again.

I keep repeating the setup process and the same thing happens. It seems like it is trying to update the software/firmware to the latest version but a server is down or something so it can never finish the set up process.

Can someone from Microsoft please tell me if it is still possible to setup my two remaining Harmon Kardon Invoke speakers?  Is the server responsible for setting up and updating the Invoke still operating?

If not, is there any way I can manually update the firmware on the Invokes to the latest? There is a USB port on the Invoke that is supposed to be used for "service". Can this be used to update the firmware?  Is there a firmware file available for download?

If the server is down, can Microsoft put the server back up again so I can set up my remaining two Invokes?  I received no warning that this would happen.  Perhaps you host the server on your Azure Cloud services?  That would seem like the perfect place to do it.  It shouldn't take up too much resources as it would just spin up when needed.  Please restore the server even if it's only for a limited time.  Just give us a warning when it will go down so we would have time to set up our speakers before its too late.

I tried emailing Harman Kardon but I can tell they won't be of much help.  Any help or information would be greatly appreciated.  These are brand new speakers and I would just hate for them to be useless right out of the box.  And I wish that Microsoft wouldn't give up on Cortana like this.

Windows for home | Windows 10 | Cortana and search

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  1. Anonymous
    2020-05-05T07:10:48+00:00

    Its taking like 10-15 minutes to connect to my wifi and start. Tried setting up and reset. Nothing.

    But once it connects it work perfect.

    Also the cortana sounds are not working even after toggling in cortana app, and the music tab of cortana app will show the device is offline even when music is playing on it via spotify.

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  2. Anonymous
    2020-04-28T02:14:55+00:00

    She is up and down like a yoyo, so inconsistent from one day to the next.

    Amazingly Microsoft have finally fixed the ongoing issue (been over 2 years) with Cortana on Invoke not responding to weather requests by default in Celsius for countries that don't use imperial (ie the entire world outside USA) or for people that have their settings set to metric. It's crazy, finally I can have it default to Celsius without having to ask every time.

    BTW my voice controlled lighting with Lifx is working OK, sometimes I need to reconnect if I update lights etc, but it's working and has continued to do so for the past few years. She will sometimes carry on with 'I couldn't do what you were asking' but she still actions lighting requests fine if a little slow sometimes. She was once faster at working on this. She also often misheard the instruction. 

    There are many things that work poorly and fail and one is the connection with my Xbox, that will work on occasion but will also fail quite often, it won't always respond to the same commands and what she wants me to say chops and changes which I find strange. One day she will want me to simply say 'Cortana Xbox on' and other days will only resonds to 'Cortana can you ask Xbox to turn on'

    I feel the action words and phrases she wants to hear are simply not all encompassing enough and inconsistent. She should be able to hear instructions in multiple ways and act accordingly. 

    And where the hell are the Cortana sounds, they don't work and I need them back. I want to hear when she is listening or thinking. It really tough to use when she sits there and you are not sure if she in listening or working on something for me. This is a recent fault and it simply needs to be sorted ASAP.

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  3. Anonymous
    2020-04-11T22:26:05+00:00

    "and or they would have to mention something on their website" 

    Maybe, maybe not, communication is not their strong point. It's sad but there is a pattern here. They progressively gut all functionality, leaving the service to limp on just like they did to frustrated windows phone, zune, band, xbox OneGuide, and kinect users.

    Their pulling out of mobile destroyed many of their consumer ambitions, it will forever be a huge mistake we all have to live with.

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  4. Anonymous
    2020-04-09T15:20:23+00:00

    I was able to get past the update by inserting a pin into the tiny hole on the back until I feel the button inside depress and holding it in for ~30 seconds.

    This was a brand new HK Invoke I just opened.

    SDK Build:  2.0.3.3b4d6b8.cortanasdk-harman-main

    OTA Image: Barracuda_libre-2.1729.2

    My older HK Invoke has:

    SDK Build: 2.0.4.067aa17.vs-ssh-main

    OTA Image: Barracuda_libre-11.1842.0

    It would be great if there was a way to get the updates manually.

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  5. Anonymous
    2020-04-04T19:33:36+00:00

    Here my new invoke is very very old compared with the others. When I click on settings in the Cortana app in iOS for my Invoke, I see:

    SDK build: 2.0.3.3b4d6b8.cortanasdk-harman-main

    OTA image: Barracuda_libre-2.1729.2

    The other ones working great and updated I see:

    SDK build: 2.0.4.067aa17.vs-ssh-main

    OTA image: Barracuda_libre-11.1842.0

    I already tried everything below a lot of times on different times during the day.

    • Reset from mic button
    • Reset using paper clip

    I still need to fool my Invoke because it never gets the update.

    Very frustrating!!

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