Alexa, can you fix these 5 little upsets? Quick and easy solutions for minor problems

Little things get the most annoying, don’t they? As if you forget to turn down the volume of the Alexa speaker before bed or an Echo Dot with a watch bright enough to land a plane. Overall, Amazon’s smart speakers and displays are great, but these little grievances can make you blush.

I get it – when it comes to pet pets, I have a bigger catalog than Chewy’s (Amazon with pet supplies, for those without a fur family). But I also have solutions.

In no particular order, here are five of the most annoying problems I’ve had with my Amazon Echo devices and what I’ve done to fix them.

Alexa, please, can you pipe?

Nobody wants Alexa to shout at them in the middle of the night. But if you bragged about a banger before bed and forgot to turn down the volume when the lights went out, “startled” is an understatement of what you will be when you turn around and ask, “Alexa, what time is it?” “what you will soon discover is 3:13 in the morning

There are actually several ways to solve this:

• Turn down the volume as part of your bedtime routine: If you have a set of routines that trigger every night when you say “Alexa, good night”, you can add a command to set the volume to something comfortable (I like volume 3 for the night).
• Create a routine to reduce the volume at the same time every night: say, 22 in the evening, if you usually go to bed.
• Use whisper mode: It’s simple. Just whisper to Alexa, and your speaker will whisper back to you.

Echo Dot with Clock can be seen from space

Echo Dot with Clock has an ambient light sensor that adjusts the brightness of the clock according to the amount of light in the room, but not always. You may have a night light nearby that throws it away, or you may be sensitive to light when trying to sleep (for example, keep a roll of electrical tape for your bedroom devices handy).

Here’s how to adjust the Echo Dot with Clock Brightness:

1. Open Alexa app, Touch Instruments then tap Echo and Alexa and LED display.

2. Be stopped Adaptive brightness or not.

3. Adjust skimmer (if you go Adaptive brightness on, the clock will change automatically according to the new position).

Alexa constantly rejects your music request

I listen to Kanye West’s 2008 masterpiece 808s and Heartbreak – in its entirety – several times a year, but Alexa reliably hides the demand every time, strangely, no matter how I ask for it. (“808s and Heartbreak are only available with Amazon Music Unlimited,” I’m always told, even though the album is widely available on my connected streaming service, Apple Music).

To get over this or any other Alexa music request usually borks – such as trying to get your Echo speaker to sing any of Chvrches (pronounced “churches”) or !!! (“Chk chk chk”) – Create a playlist in Apple Music, then ask for the playlist by name (Alexa, playlist “the greatest hip-hop album of all time”, “playlist “Chvrches” playback, “” playback list “exclamation point” etc.).

Someone named Alexa – or even Alex – is in the room

Given the nightmare I experience when I’m on a phone call with an Amazon representative – even if I turn off Echo Show 5 at my office, another Alexa device from across the house invariably hears me every time I say the word “A” – – I can only imagine the horror if someone named Alexa ever came (or worse, lived in the same house).

At those work calls, I started using the code name given to Alexa on the Internet of Things podcast – “Mrs. A” – but that wouldn’t work with a real man named Alexa, let alone my brother Alex, saying whose name mistakenly summoned Alexa several times.

I don’t really care when my brother comes, because it happens so rarely, but if you often find Alexa devices perking when you don’t actually talk to them, you may want to choose a different awakening word than “Alexa” (“Amazon”, ” Echo ”or just“ Computer ”are also options).

1. Open Alexa app and touch More in the lower right corner, then tap settings.

2. Touch Device settings then find the device whose watchword you want to change and tap it.

3. Scroll down to the bottom and tap Awakening Word, then tap the one you want to use.

4. Click on the Back button (<) in the upper left corner twice to return to the list of devices; repeat as needed for the other Echo speakers or displays.

You feel that Alexa just doesn’t understand you

Communication problems can hinder any relationship, but the advantage of having them with a digital voice assistant is that there can be a technological solution. If the problem seems to be that Alexa misunderstands you (I know my Kentucky draw can sometimes prevent voice dictation), try using Alexa’s voice training feature.

1. Open Alexa app, tape More in the lower right corner, tap settings, then tap Your profile at the top.

2. Right next to Voice, Touch Create (or Manage if you have already done this and want to redo it) and follow the instructions there.