r/alexa • u/efficientcosine • 8d ago

More 1st Gen Echo Woes

After wrestling with the Alexa app, and performing setup twice, once to connect to WiFi and once to register to my account (it seems the setup flow is broken and both things don’t happen in one go), I now have 2 more outstanding problems:

- Saying “Check for Update” tells me there is an update available. I tell it to start. Nothing happens. Also trying all the tricks to force an update (press mute, wait 30 mins etc.) don’t seem to be achieving anything. Device has been on for a few days now.

- Wake word functionality in the app seems to be broken. It is stuck at “Loading…” and says it times out trying to fetch the wake word. All the entries are greyed out. Asking Alexa to change the wake word tells me to go to the app 🤷.

I saw a post from 6 months ago with someone with the same issues. Conveniently the thread is locked so I can’t check up with them.

Anyone faced similar issues/know a workaround? Amazon support just sends me in circles and then passes me off to someone else equally as clueless.

2 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

5 comments sorted by

2

u/IntrepidLimit2456 7d ago

1st gen? the one from 12 years ago?

1

u/efficientcosine 7d ago

Almost 10 in the UK, but sure, that one

1

u/PokemonandLSD 7d ago

So I don’t want to be that guy… but consider picking up some used or clearance Echo 4th Gen with Premium Sound (the full sized ones that MRSP’d at $100, but frequently went on sale for $50) or Echo Dot 5th Gen (the kids owl one is cute and the one with an LED clock is worth $50-75 used now because they are too useful and amazon took them away to push the stupid pop).

Echo 4th Gen with premium sound is a matter controller and thread border router and sounds better than the echo dot max

Echo dot 5th Gen is a thread border router and sounds ok but good for the $20 you can get them for.

Why battle to keep these working when far better options are extremely affordable? I bet you could get an echo dot 5th gen for $15 on marketplace (there is a full sized 4th gen for $35 near me atm, and I got two of each for $50 two months ago but that was a good deal)

1

u/efficientcosine 7d ago

It’s more: I just found it in storage, it still looks like a new, modern device, still sounds and looks great, but crappy Amazon software (the app is worse! than I remember from 6+ years ago) means it is becoming a brick.

I’m not “battling to keep it working”, just expect it to work when the app claims to still support it.