Amazon Alexa Echo Gen 1 smart speaker, showing the Mic as off, mic mute on, as Indicated by the red light ring.
We know of no way to directly update Amazon Echo firmware on many of the Alexa Echo smart speakers. Instead, that process appears to be automatic. I.e. They update quickly on their own when Amazon pushes new firmware. This usually occurs within a couple hours. Or at worst, you might receive the update within a couple days of release.
But you can get your speaker to update almost right away. You might do this when you know that an update has just been published, and you’re trying to solve a software related issue with it.
Firstly, these speakers, including all the Dots and Echos, update themselves under the following conditions:
Note though that this method likely does not work on the Tap, as its microphone is normally muted. On that speaker, you must press the actions button to get Alexa’s attention.
So you can force a sort of scheduling of an update as follows.
Make sure the unit is running and that it connects to the internet.
This mutes the speaker’s microphones. Muting assures that the Echo will neither hear nor respond to any commands. The light ring turns red. This means that the microphone is indeed OFF.
The firmware update may occur thirty minutes after you muted your Echo mic. But updating might take as long as a day or more to run. So be patient. You’ll eventually get the update. Or try muting the speaker overnight, when not watching it.
After a software update, these speakers reboot themselves. You’ll see the light ring running through its patterns during reboot, as pictured next. Also, the speaker may emit several crackles and pops during the update.
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