Home assistant voice preview edition is red-ringing forever

[manic dagger]

I recently got a home assistant voice preview edition and it’s flat out not working at all. I’ve installed various firmwares and flashed various packages, changed yaml left right and centre and while I can see it in ESPHome, it seems like the link to the voice pipeline (which works fine with my pc) is broken.

The device is at least responding to a button press so the hardware isn’t broken. The volume control and mute control both seem to work too but it’s not accepting any wake words and the led ring is constantly circling red.

Any suggestions?

I’m using HA core.

[arctic herald]

ok so lets start by flashing it back to stock firmware with no modifications so we have a known starting point. You should do that with THIS TOOL

unless you have a reason to do so you should not be messing with the firmware or "taking control" of the device with the builder tool.

when you are saying you are using "core" do you mean the "core install type" running directly on python which is now deprecated? or do you mean something else? be clear on your install type and also the version you are using.

[manic dagger]

I’ve now flashed the device back to standard using the tool you linked. And il using Home assistant OS on a pi 5, running core 2025.7.4

[arctic herald]

any reason you are not updated to latest ha (2025.12.3)?

is your network standard or do you have any fancy stuff. e.g. vlans?
what does your voice pipeline look like and is it assigned to the vpe?

[manic dagger]

Y’know… I feel like a total Wally. I’ve just installed the latest core update and it worked immediately. Thanks for that. I feel so embarrassed for wasting your time. It’s solved it. Awesome! I really appreciate you taking the time.