Alexa is a smart assistant that’s designed to help us with our daily life routines. From playing your favorite music or shopping online to guarding your house while you are away. All you have to say is “Alexa!” and she will wake up, ready for you to wish! However, sometimes this dutiful and compliant servant may do things that annoy you.
With a quick search on the Internet, you will notice there are several users complaining about their Alexa speaker behaving weirdly in the middle of the night. They include:
- Playing random music, sometimes at max volume
- Playing news
- Playing beep sound
- Turning on the speaker’s blue light with a spinning cyan
Tip: It’s always a good idea to ask Alexa itself. She can instantly explain if something has triggered her behavior. So before any further commands (like asking her to turn off the music), request for an explanation using a phrase like:
- “What did you say?”
- “What just happened?”
- “Did you hear that?”
- “What did you do?”
- “What’s up with that?”
Anyway, there is no definite fix for this as the cause could vary. But here is a comprehensive guide to all possible solutions that have worked for some users. So it’s worth taking time to go through it before completely giving up on your device.
Why does Alexa beep or play music in the middle of the night?
Misinterpretation of sounds
The most likely cause of an off-the-cuff reaction of Alexa is the misinterpretation of a sound. Amazon Echo’s microphones must be sensitive enough to hear you from a distance. That’s why sometimes Alexa responds to a sound and interprets it as the wake word, even though you can barely hear it.
To see if this is the case, simply ask “Alexa, why did you do that?” and she will tell you the last
Unwanted routines
You may have set a routine by mistake. It gets triggered in the middle of the night and starts to play music, news, alarm sound, or other tasks that are completely irrelevant. So you will need to check them and see if this is the case.
Open your Alexa app and go to the settings. From the menu find and tap “routines”. Here is where you want to see if anything is off.
If there is any unwanted routine, simply delete it. To do so, open the routine and tap the 3 dots icon on the top right of the screen, then tap “Delete Routine” on the bottom of the slider box.
Unwanted Alarms
It’s also possible that an Alarm has been set for this time. So let’s have a look to find out.
Launch the Alexa app and head to the settings. Tap “Alarms & Times” to see if there is any unwanted active alarm. If you found one, open it and tap “DELETE” to remove it.
Other Possible Fixes to Avoid Alexa’s Spontaneous Activation
Restart your device
One solution that’s usually offered by the Amazon support team is to restart your device. It’s pretty simple; just unplug the power adaptor from the outlet and plug it back again after a few seconds.
Reset Factory your device
Resetting your Echo may sound like a good idea and could fix your Alexa device but may not be a good choice for you. Unless you don’t mind setting up the whole device again. A reset factory will erase all data, settings, and preferences from your device like it’s brand new. This will erase all settings, data, and preferences from your Alexa device. So consider it only as a last resort.
There are other methods you can try. At least it will give you some time to find a permanent solution to this problem.
Activate the DND mode
If you receive alerts, Do Not Disturb mode will solve your problem. Just say, “Alexa, turn on do not disturb mode.” This will temporarily fix the problem and you won’t hear Alexa overnight.
To schedule DND:
- Tap the menu icon and select Alexa Devices
- Choose your device
- Tap Do Not Disturb
- If Do Not Disturb is turned off, toggle it back on
- Use the toggle to enable Schedules
- Tap Start and End to select the times
Contact customer support
There may be other reasons why your Alexa comes on in the middle of the night but can’t fix them. It could be due to your mic acting up, or a problem with the speaker that makes Alexa think it has received a command. So you need to contact the Amazon support service. They will be able to solve the problem perfectly and you will never have to deal with it again.
Why does Alexa turn on with a spinning blue light in the middle of the night?
A blue light ring with a spinning cyan means your device is starting up. So why does this happen? It’s likely that your device has received an update and restarted itself after the installation. Another possibility is a power flicker that is strong enough to make the device turn off and on.
How To Turn off Alexa At Night?
Muting and using Do Not Disturb mode sounds like a good idea, but what if you want to turn off Alexa completely? The answer is you can’t. Amazon has not considered this option for Echo devices.
Amazon Echo family devices have no power button and are designed to stay on all the time (They consume very little power). Clearly, the only option to completely turn off an Alexa device is to unplug the cord from power, which is not recommended to be done frequently.