Alexa randomly beeps in the middle of the night because of alarms, routines, and the wake word, which is “Alexa.”
There are other reasons that I will share in this article, along with the solutions to prevent Alexa from beeping and lighting up at night.
Why does Alexa flash blue in the middle of the night?
The cyan ring, or blue flash of light, indicates that Alexa heard a command and is processing it.
If it is a flash, it also means that someone woke Alexa up or that it is listening.
The last possible reason is that Alexa is going through a software update.
Here are some more reasons:
- Someone scheduled a task and did not turn it off
- Something is wrong with the settings
For issue number one, it is likely that someone in your household made an event and forgot about it.
It is also possible that you made a schedule for three in the afternoon but mistakenly scheduled it for three in the morning.
In this case, visit your routines and either make an adjustment or delete them.
To do this, follow these steps:
- Open the Alexa app on the smartphone
- Go to MORE
- Tap ROUTINES
From here, you can choose each routine to check the time they are supposed to activate.
If you have several routines, you may take some time to find out which one is causing the problem.
For the second issue, it is likely that somebody toggled with the settings of the Amazon Echo device.
If this is the case, you must reset the device.
However, this is your last resort. If you reset Alexa or Echo to its factory settings, you will begin from scratch all over again.
A temporary solution is to turn on Do Not Disturb.
Alexa has a function where you can tell it not to sound any alarm.
To do this, just say, “Alexa, turn on do not disturb.”
There is also another option to do this.
Go to the Alexa app, tap on the MENU icon, and then SETTINGS. Next, click on DEVICE SETTINGS.
Next, Choose the Amazon Echo device on the list acting up. Next, scroll down and then look for the SOUNDS area.
Then, tap on DO NOT DISTURB.
From here, you can enable DO NOT DISTURB.
You can also set a schedule to tell Alexa to enable DO NOT DISTURB at specific times.
How can you tell if someone is listening on Alexa?
Alexa itself is listening if the blue light is on.
To prevent Alexa from listening, you must turn off the microphones or mute them.
But how do you know if someone is listening?
You will know if the blue light is on. In Alexa and Echo, there is this feature that they call drop-in.
It is like patching someone over the phone.
The least you can do, really, is to prevent people from dropping in.
You can do this by turning off the microphone or putting Alexa on DO NOT DISTURB mode.
What sound does Alexa make when someone drops in?
You will hear a beep when someone drops in. The light will also turn green.
The thing is that you may not even hear the beep as it is too short.
You may not even see the green light. Why? Because your eyes are not always looking at the device.
The problem with the drop-in feature is that people can drop into your device without you realizing it.
Sure, you will get a prompt on your phone, but only the first time you enabled it with someone.
If this person drops in some other time, Alexa will no longer give you a warning.
The drop-in feature will enable itself. Your Echo device will allow the other person to listen to what you are saying.
Now, the Echo of the other person may be on mute.
If this is the case, he can hear everything you say, but you cannot hear anything from his end.
Amazon says that the drop-in feature automatically gets disabled unless you turn it on, which means you can turn it on and off from the Alexa app.
You can also mute the drop-in feature by enabling the DO NOT DISTURB feature.
Despite this, many people may forget that it is turned on.
And if they do, people can just listen in without them knowing.
The solution here is that Amazon should have a similar feature to a phone.
If you drop a conversation by pressing the red phone icon, the entire connection should die.
In addition, the two phones will no longer connect unless the other party calls and the receiver accepts the call.
They should do the same with Alexa and the Echo hardware.
Why did my Alexa go off randomly?
Sometimes, Alexa can just go off randomly.
There were reports of Alexa screaming in the middle of the night, laughing maniacally.
When Alexa does this, it is very likely that the system misinterpreted a sound. Since Alexa is not human, it depends on sound waves and thought that it was the wake word.
If that “fake” wake word was followed by something else, it is possible that Alexa will also misinterpret it and make loud noises.
The other possible cause is an update, which has introduced a bug or glitch in the code.
If this is the code, Amazon will surely know and fix it.
If it is the former, you can turn off the microphone or mute it, so Alexa does not hear.
Or, again, turn on the DO NOT DISTURB mode.
Conclusion
Alexa, like any app, can malfunction.
However, more often than not, Alexa does things we do not want because of user error.
Alexa is easy to configure; all it takes is to go to SETTINGS or the schedules and routines to figure out what is happening.
The last resort is to reset the device.
However, you must know that if you do this, Alexa will forget everything you programmed, and it would be back in the same state as when you started.