What to Do When Alexa Goes Down

How to Control Your Smart Home when Alexa Goes Down

Using Your Echo During an Alexa Outage

Today, for the first time, Alexa experienced widespread outages.  Sometimes, she'd light up, and the blue ring would keep flashing, but she would not respond to any commands.  Other times, Alexa would blink red, indicating she was not connected.  Additionally, even if she was not flashing, she failed to respond to any commands. Sometimes, she would apologize. Other times, she'd look like she was listening and responding, but she would just fade out.  Alexa was unable to respond to a simple command, such as "What time is it?" let alone operate any Smart Home Devices.

As of the time I write this, Alexa still has not come back.  And unlike in the Super Bowl commercial, there are not a stable of celebrities waiting to take her place.

So what can you do when Alexa goes down? Does it mean you are out of luck until the network issues resolve?  Thankfully, there are some ways you can still command your Smart Devices, even when your Echo is not responding.

Alexa Says My Device is Not Responding: What Do I Do?

Smart Home Glitches and How to Resolve Them:

Fixing Issues with Amazon's Alexa

Smart Home devices are fantastic, when they are working properly.  But like any other electronic device, Smart Devices can experience errors.  So what do you do when you ask Alexa to turn on the lights, and she tells you a device is not responding?  Today, we're going to look at troubleshooting errors with Alexa and your Smart Home Devices.

Alexa Says "I'm Having Trouble Connecting to the Internet."  What Do I Do?

Like any wi-fi device, Alexa can experience connectivity issues.  A user generally discovers the Echo or Dot has lost connectivity when they issue a command, and Alexa responds with "I'm having trouble connecting to the Internet right now."  Additionally, the light ring will flash red rather than blue.  Despite the fact my Dot is the closest device to my router, it seems to experience connectivity problems more often than my other Alexa-enabled devices.

Sometimes, connectivity issues are caused by a blip in the wi-fi. This blip might be caused by interference from a microwave, a cordless phone, a back-up beeper, or any number of things that can cause wi-fi "noise."  I find often, if I wait a few seconds and reissue my command, the connectivity issue resolves itself.  If it doesn't, the next step is to reboot the malfunctioning Alexa device.  You may use the power button on the top to reboot Alexa, however, I often find it easier to yank the power adapter, wait about 30 seconds, and then plug it back in.  That way, I do not inadvertently turn off the microphone by mistake.  Like with most electronic devices, rebooting can clear about 80% of issues.