3 Most Common Issues With Alexa - And How You Can Fix Them

The Amazon Echo has experienced tremendous success after its launch two years ago, and is expected to dominate the A.I. assistant industry even in the face of growing competition from Google Home, Microsoft Cortana, Apple HomeKit, and Samsung Bixby.

In fact, Amazon’s artificial assistant was a smashing success at this year’s CES, with various third-party companies competing to integrate Alexa in their own products and apps.

Not everything is pitch-perfect with Alexa, though. The Amazon Echo voice assistant comes with its own set of problems, such as responding to your TV inadvertently or not understanding your voice commands.

For homeowners looking to make their homes smarter, here are some of the quick fixes that you can do to make Alexa work even smarter.

Alexa Wakes Up After Hearing TV Show Or Newscast

If you watch a lot of TV, then you might have experienced Amazon Echo being triggered after it was mentioned in a TV series, commercial, or newscast. There were reports that Alexa woke up after it was mentioned in an episode of Mr. Robot, or whenever professional wrestler Alexa Bliss’ name was mentioned on TV.

To prevent this from happening, you might want to consider moving your Echo away from your television or speakers. Amazon recommends you place its device at least eight inches away from a wall, within a central and open location. You can also press the “mute” button on top of the device when watching TV.

If this doesn’t work, or if you have a house member or a guest that also goes by the name of Alexa, you need to change the device’s wake word from the Alexa app settings.

Alexa Disconnects From Wireless Network

The Echo’s connectivity is indicated by the LED light located at the bottom of the device. White means the device is connected, while orange is a sign that the device is not connected to your Wi-Fi. If your Echo keeps getting disconnected, the first thing you need to do is to power-cycle everything — your router, modem, and Echo device.

Second, check if your Echo is nearby any equipment that could interfere with the Wi-Fi signal, and reposition it nearer to your router or move it to a higher location. If you are using a dual-band router, move your device from 2.4GHz to 5GHz so there is less interference. You can also remove the devices that are not being used in your Wi-Fi network to reduce congestion.

Alexa Cannot Connect To Another Device

First, make sure that the device you are trying to connect is actually compatible with Alexa. Follow the setup instructions for your smart home appliance before asking Alexa to discover it. Also check if you have the most recent firmware and software updates for the device you are trying to connect, and then check if you have added it as a ‘skill’ in the Alexa app.

If your smart home device is not natively supported by Alexa, you can create or use an IFTTT recipe to create a workaround.