7 Tips To Fix Alexa “Something Went Wrong”.

Alexa is widely known for its features that make our lives easier and facilitate the control of our intelligent home devices.

This third-party app has become a must-have for anyone with smart gadgets inside their home as it will centralize the control of your set of devices.

Users have found that sometimes Alexa says “something went wrong” which prevents them from using the voice assistant and its features.

Alexa will notify you of this issue when you trigger a voice command or send it to you as a pop-up message when you launch the mobile app.

So how can we deal with this problem? solving this problem is relatively easier than you think, and I will explain it in detail in this post.

How to Fix “Alexa Something Went Wrong”?

There are many causes that can lead Alexa to this outage, such as a down server, or an internal error with the app.

It can also be triggered due to an issue with the device you are controlling Alexa from, or simply due to internet connectivity problems.

Don’t worry, because in the following sections I’ll explain this in more detail and show you how to deal with each one of them, so keep reading.

One: Log out and then log back into your account.

The first and easiest solution you can begin with is to log out from your Alexa account and then log back in.

This may seem unnecessary but it will help especially if you’ve changed your account credentials such as your password or username.

Think of your Facebook or Instagram account, it is impossible to continue using them when you change your credentials until you authenticate again.

The same thing happens with your Alexa account.

Two: Force stops the Alexa app.

If the previous solution didn’t fix the root cause of your problem, move on to this one which is to force stop the Alexa app.

Force quitting Alexa can be useful when the app malfunctions and the operating system does nothing about it.

Here’s how to force stop on an IOS device:

  1. To quit the app, open the App Switcher, swipe right to find the Alexa app, then swipe up on it.
  2. If you are on iOS 11, tap and hold the app instead of swiping it away. When the red minus symbol appears on the app card, tap it to quit the app.

And here are the steps to follow on Android:

  1. Open the Settings app on an Android device.
  2. Scroll the list and tap Apps, Applications or Manage apps.
  3. Scroll the list to find the Alexa app to force quit.
  4. Tap FORCE STOP.

Now open the app and see if it works normally, if not proceed to the next solution.

Three: Reboot the Alexa-enabled device.

This step involves rebooting the device you’re controlling Alexa from and it could be your Echo speaker or display, or just your phone and tablet.

This process is helpful as it can fix internal errors that are preventing the voice assistant from working properly.

All you have to do is turn off the Alexa-enabled device for a few seconds (up to 60 seconds), then turn it back on.

Four: Update the Alexa app.

An update is necessary to keep your Alexa app working properly, otherwise, you will face many issues due to poor performance and internal errors.

Updating your app will boost its performance and fix bugs and errors that may be the root cause of the problem you’re facing right now.

Here’s how to update Alexa on Android devices:

  1. Open the Google Play Store app.
  2. Tap Menu, then my apps & games.
  3. Find the Alexa app.
  4. Tap Update.

And here’s how to update it on IOS devices:

  1. Go to the App Store.
  2. At the bottom right of the screen, tap Search.
  3. Tap your account.
  4. Find the Alexa app.
  5. Tap Update.

It’s also important to update the operating system of your phone and tablet as well as the firmware of your Echo device to keep them working properly.

Five: Check your internet connection.

Providing a stable and reliable internet connection to your Alexa-enabled device is mandatory as this app depends on the internet to do its job.

Make sure that your internet subscription hasn’t expired yet and that your device is getting enough Wifi signals to execute the app.

I won’t take long to explain this step as I have already written an in-depth article on the “7 Ways to Fix Alexa App Connectivity Issues”.

Six: Clear app cache.

Clearing unused cache files on your Alexa app is a good thing to do to temporarily free up space, fix app issues, and improve its performance.

So after trying the previous troubleshooting tips, I highly recommend clearing the app cache as it may fix your problem.

Here’s how to clear the Alexa app cache on your mobile and tablet:

  1. Open Settings and select Apps.
  2. Find the Alexa app, and then select it.
  3. Tap Storage.
  4. Then tap Clear cache.

Seven: Check if the server is down.

When you say something to Alexa, it will automatically send it to Amazon’s servers which actually do the speech-to-command conversion and send Alexa back whatever you actually intended for it.

This demonstrates the important role of the server, so when a problem occurs within the server, Alexa will not work accordingly.

Here when you hear Alexa say “Something went wrong”.

So, if you’ve tried all the tips listed above and none of them worked for you, I suggest you call tech support and ask them if the server has crashed.

Server issues are Amazon’s responsibility and there’s nothing you can do about them.

So I suggest you wait a few minutes until the problem is solved.

In Summary.

Several users reported that sometimes Alexa says “Something went wrong,” and this issue can recur.

So I recommend taking this article as a guide every time this problem occurs.

Adam B