Amazon Alexa-enabled devices like Echo speakers and Echo Show displays are great – when there is no red ring lit up.
The Alexa red ring doesn’t mean it’s dead, so don’t worry. The red lights could mean something as simple as the microphone or camera is off. Fixes could be as simple as turning the microphone/camera off and on. If that doesn’t work, you’ll need to follow some more steps to try and fix issues that caused the red ring.
This article will cover the causes for the red ring and how to fix Alexa red ring issues.
What Causes the Alexa Red Ring?
The Alexa Red Ring means that Alexa is not receiving your commands, which could be because the microphone is off. You’ll need to turn it on again before you can use it.
The microphone could be off because you accidentally muted yourself, the microphone is malfunctioning, or the internet connection is bad.
If you’re using an Amazon Echo Show, the light bar next to the screen could mean that your camera is down and no video is transmitting out. This could be due to a malfunctioning camera or a poor internet connection.
When the red light ring is showing, Alexa will often say, “Sorry, I’m having trouble understanding you you right now.”
Look for those two symptoms, the red ring light and Alexa saying it’s having trouble hearing.
How to Fix the Alexa Red Ring Issue?
There are different ways of solving the red ring issue of Alexa, but all the solutions provided here work perfectly. You can try them out and choose the most suitable one for yourself.
1. How to Enable the Microphone Button
Make sure your Amazon Alexa and Echo device are turned on. Check the top of the device to see if the microphone button is also blinking red. If it is, that means the mic on the Alexa device is muted.
Press the mic button once to turn it back on. The red light should now disappear.
2. Check the Volume
If you’re not hearing anything, you may want to double-check the volume on the device. You need to press the volume button to increase or decrease the volume.
To change the volume, press the “+” sign three or four times.
Or, you can say “Alexa, Volume 7 (up to 10).”
3. Restart The Alexa Device
There might be some internal problems or issues with your device. A good restart of the Alexa device may fix any sort of corruption.
You can restart your device by removing the power cable and counting to ten. After that, reconnect the power cable again and wait for it to start up again.
After the device starts back up, you should see a blue light on top. Try to give it a command and see if it works.
4. Internet Connection is Not Working
Are you still facing the Alexa red ring problem? If yes, then ensure that your device is connected to a strong and reliable network.
Alexa needs an internet connection, or it won’t be able to listen and respond to your voice commands, and the red ring will still be spinning.
So, all you need to do is to check your internet connection. To test the strength of the internet, you need to connect your mobile phone to the wireless router that your Alexa device is connected to. Open YouTube or another video streaming platform and see if you have any issues with streaming.
If you get quick results when searching for something, it simply indicates that you’ve got a strong internet connection. If not, it means that your internet connection is weak.
If you’re facing poor signal strength issue when using the internet, try moving closer to the wireless router. If that doesn’t help, restart your wireless router and Echo device.
It’s easiest to unplug both of them for 10 seconds and plugin them back in. Wait for both to finish restarting and test out the internet connection again.
5. Update Your Alexa Device and Firmware
The red ring could also show if problems are coming from not having the latest firmware on your Echo device. There could be some incompatibilities and conflicts occurring.
Update your device to the latest version of the firmware to try and resolve the issue, or at least cross this off the list of potential issues.
Follow these steps to download the latest firmware on your device:
- Open the Alexa app on your mobile phone to connect to the device.
- Select the Main Menu and Setting Options.
- Select Device Option and then About.
- Select Software Version from the list.
- Once it finds the latest version, proceed with the firmware upgrade.
6. Factory Reset Your Alexa Echo Device
As one of the last resorts, you can perform a factory reset on your Echo device to put it back to the default settings. If you notice that pressing your microphone button isn’t working or unmuting, a factory reset may fix the issue.
Follow these general steps to perform a factory reset on an Amazon Echo device:
- While the Echo device is plugged in, use a paper clip or needle to Press and Hold the factory reset button in the tiny hole on the top of the device.
- Continue holding the button until the ring turns orange to indicate that the factory reset has started.
- The orange light will continue flashing until the device has finished resetting and entered setup mode.
- Continue setting up the Echo device like you did when you first got it. Connect it to your Wi-Fi network and see if everything is good to go.
Fix Alexa Red Ring Final Thoughts
All in all, troubleshooting and fixing the Alexa red ring is easy. You just need to follow the above-mentioned troubleshooting steps to find the root cause of the problem.
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