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The Echo Dot is a great way to stay connected to your schedule, favorite streaming platforms, news, weather, and smart home devices, but it’s not without its glitches. From time to time, you may experience Wi-Fi dropouts or other frustrating hiccups. Not to worry though: most of these bugs have simple solutions to get things back on track. For your consideration, we’ve put together some of the most common Echo Dot issues that users encounter and what you can do to fix your woes if the Dot decides to act up.
Having trouble with other Amazon products? Check out our roundup of the most common Echo Show and Echo Buds issues and how to fix them. Problems with your network? Check out our list of the most common Wi-Fi problems (with solutions).
Your Echo Dot Won’t Connect to Wi-Fi
Has your Dot become very slow lately? Often, an unresponsive Echo can be the result of a faulty Wi-Fi connection. To start, try doing a hard reset of all your network hardware; Starting with your Echo Dot, then your router, then your modem. Wait a solid 10-15 seconds for each component, then re-power everything in reverse. Sometimes that’s all it takes to bring things back to normal.
Wi-Fi does its best when it comes to walls and floors, but physical obstructions can certainly break signal strength as well. The closer you can get your Echo Dot to the main location of your router, the better off you’ll be. It’s also a good idea to keep your Dot away from objects like baby-monitors and microwaves, as the waves emitted by these types of household items can interfere with the Echo.
Often during initial setup, Internet Service Providers (ISPs) will provide their own all-in-one modem/router combo. In the beginning, these may work fine for a group of three or four devices or older devices. But after a while, these towers may not be strong enough for the square footage of your home or for the demands of newer and more powerful smart-home devices.
While it’s never fun to spend dough, sometimes it’s worth upgrading to a great wireless router. Standalone units provide more power and better Wi-Fi coverage. These days, most router-brands offer dual-band options, allowing you to assign your Echo Dot to either the 2.4GHz band (better at longer ranges) or the 5GHZ option (a stronger connection for devices closer to the router). Keep in mind that many smart devices require the 2.4 GHz band.
Alexa not pairing with smart device
Start afresh. In the Alexa app, remove and re-add the smart device you’re having trouble with. If this doesn’t work, do a hard reset of both your Dots And Tip. Then, reconnect and relaunch. In cases where your Echo Dot will not perform a specific Smart Skill, try removing and re-adding the skill.
Now when you remove your devices from the app, you can ask Alexa to find them again by saying “Alexa, discover my devices.” This is much faster than manually reconnecting the device in the app.
drop in calls won’t work
One of our favorite Echo Dot features is the ability to drop in calls to family and friends who also have Alexa devices. However, sometimes, you may experience issues while making calls. First and foremost, you’ll want to make sure Drop In is enabled on the Alexa device you’re trying to call. To do so, open the Alexa app, then tap Tools > Echo & Alexa > Communication, then, select peek And turn on the setting for the device you want to make calls from.
You’ll also need to make sure that whoever you’re trying to call has approved you as a Drop In contact. If they haven’t done this, your device won’t be able to call them – regardless of whether you’ve enabled Drop In permissions on your side.
Like the other problems on this list, failed drop in sessions can also be the result of a poor network connection. To troubleshoot, reset your Internet gear, wait for everything to come back online, then try Drop In Call.
Alexa won’t listen to you
You’re showing off your new Dot to some friends, so you decide to hit up Alexa with some simple trivia. You ask “Alexa, how big is the Moon?” Her response – “I’m sorry, I didn’t understand that.” Ok, no big deal. “Alexa, play fear the inoculum by tool. His answer – nothing. Your friends laugh at your new gadget, and you wonder if you just wasted $35 on some cool kitchen-counter ornament. Sometimes, Alexa’s interpretation of what we’ve asked or told her can be garbled; Sometimes she cannot hear us or recognize our voice. Fear not though, as there are some ways to put things in order.
For starters, there’s a really neat feature on Echo Dots that you can use when Alexa claims she can’t understand you or does something completely unrelated to what you asked. After she responds, you can say “Alexa, tell me what you heard,” and Alexa will repeat back verbatim what she heard It is believed that He heard you say In many cases, it’s all a bit much on clarity and declaration Our part to fix things with the dot.
You can also improve your Dot’s responsiveness with Amazon’s voice training tools. Open the Alexa app and tap on the menu icon in the top left of the home screen. scroll down Adjustment and then choose your profile, Near soundTap manage, The app will then take you through speaking exercises where you will be asked to repeat 25 phrases at your normal talking-volume. This helps Alexa become better acquainted with the way You talk.
If you have more than one Echo Dot in your household, or multiple family members use the same Dot, you can even set up different voice profiles for each, which your Dot can easily switch between. Could In cases where your Echo Dot is struggling to even listen to your commands, try placing it in a quieter part of the room or a new place entirely. Dots will always perform best with things like noisy dishwashers, dryers, HVAC systems, and other media sounds.
Alexa wakes up when it shouldn’t
You’re watching TV and there’s a character named Alex on your favorite show. Whenever someone calls its name, your living room Echo Dot turns blue, waiting for you to issue a command. or, better yet, maybe Yours The name is Alex, and your dot wants to do all the talking for you whenever someone calls your name.
From time to time, the dots will activate for “wake words” that were not made for. It can be an annoying process, but there are a few quick and easy steps you can take to resolve these false positives.
By far the easiest option is to just Tap and change the wake word in the Alexa app Device at the bottom of the Home screen. Select the Echo Dot that’s giving you trouble and scroll down wake word, Alternatives to “Alexa” are “Amazon,” “Computer,” “Echo,” and “Ziggy.”
the second option is to press mute button on the top of the Dot while watching TV or listening to streaming services. This will prevent Alexa from listening at all, but it may not be the best option for preventing accidental wake-ups if you use the Dot as a way to control your TV or home-theater equipment. It also won’t help much if your own name is Alexa, or close to it. Your Dot needs to be muted at all times.
If all else fails, try relocating your Dot to a low-traffic area of the house. Shoot for areas away from TVs and speakers. If you’re not sharing the Dot with a family member, keep it in your own room or office so it doesn’t have an opportunity to hear other sounds.
music streaming not working
One of the best features of your Dot is its ability to rock your gym playlist using its music-streaming prowess — including Spotify, Apple Music, and TuneIn. However, sometimes songs pause in the middle of play or your Dot can’t connect to these services when you tell it to. Sometimes, all it takes is a hard reset to squash these minor hiccups. Unplug your Dot, wait 10 seconds, then plug it back in. Once the device gives a steady blue light indicating it is back on your network, try launching your music service again. If you’re still having problems, try resetting your router and modem.
As mentioned above, the Echo Dot does its best work on a bandwidth-rich network, and streaming music requires a good amount of data. If you have devices connected to your network that are not in use, you can try temporarily disconnecting them to free up bandwidth for your Dot; Or, if you have a dual-band router, you can try reassigning these devices (or your Echo Dot) to a different band.
Sometimes, music-streaming can be finicky, and only one thing can really fix these bugs – patience. Spotify and Apple Music servers may malfunction from time to time, causing the services to be slow. If you’ve done all the troubleshooting you can, just turn off the music stream, wait five to ten minutes, then reboot. It is likely that Spotify will be reactivated.
notifications are too loud
we’ve all been there. You’re engrossed in an exciting book or work project, your Echo pumping out your favorite tunes in the background. Out of nowhere, a screeching sound of chimes blares from the speakers, startling you and ruining the vibe. Then you remember that this is just the timer you told Alexa to set to remind you to take the lasagna out of the oven.
Echo Dot has countless convenient features like notifications, calendar reminders, delivery messages, and kitchen timers. These notifications are much higher than the Dot’s standard volume, which the designers did thinking that people would not want to miss these specific notifications. But the volume can make you jump when they sound out of nowhere, which can be annoying. Luckily, turning down the sound is easy.
First of all open your Alexa app. choose DeviceThen choose and select the correct Echo Dot sound, You’ll see a handy volume slider for alarms, timers, and notifications at the top sound Menu. You can choose your preferred volume by adjusting the slider from left to right. If the notifications are still bothering you at low volume, try changing the tone and see if that helps.
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