Author: Admin

Recently, many Amazon Alexa users have been sharing their experiences about encountering an error while using the smart speaker, specifically Alexa error 701.

Surprisingly, this particular issue seems to have received limited attention across various online platforms such as the Amazon forum, Quora, Reddit, and others. That’s why I come across this topic when one of my brothers feels the same issue with his Alexa.

When he brought up this issue, I was completely unaware of it because I hadn’t experienced the same problem during my four years of using the Echo device. But after studying and analyzing, fortunately, I can find the reason behind this and find the solution.

That’s why I am sharing it here so that if any of my audience or readers encounter a similar issue, it will be helpful.

Alexa error 701 is mainly due to the connection issue with the WiFi network. when your Echo device can’t connect to Alexa servers, it returns an Error code 701.

Similar types of errors reported are

• Alexa Error 701 enter stop
• Alexa errors 10:2:17:5:1 and 7:1:10:12:2

Basically, these are network errors that can be quite annoying when using the Echo device. So, how can you solve this?

That’s what we are talking about here today.

How To Fix Alexa Error 701?

Here are the 6 things that you can do

Check your internet connection

Alexa requires a stable WiFi connection. Check your internet connection to confirm that there is no issue with the connectivity. In order for Alexa to function smoothly, your internet connection should have a minimum speed of 512 Kbps (0.51 Mbps). Even if your WiFi has such bandwidth, when it cuts frequently, this type of error may happen.

Restarting the modem can fix if there are any temporary issues with the network. This could include power recycling too. Just unplug your router/modem from the power and wait for a few minutes say 2 or 3, then restart.

If still problem persists,

To quickly check for any issues, connect your mobile device or laptop to the WiFi and play a video on YouTube. If you experience buffering problems, it confirms that your WiFi is unstable. Contact your service provider for assistance.

Clear the app cache

Clearing the cache of the Alexa app or browser can help eliminate vulnerabilities and resolve the 701 error code. Be aware that the settings that you have customized on the app will be disappeared while doing this. But I think that may not be a problem. We have to fix the error as soon as possible.

Re-initiate the connection settings

If your Echo can’t find and connect to the WiFi, you have to update the WiFi settings on the application.

Ensure your Echo is properly connected to the Alexa application.

If not connect it in the right way.

First of all, enter the device into the setup mode. For this, press and hold down the Action button (Labeled with a dot symbol) for 5 seconds. The orange ring will appear.

Then open the Alexa app, and go to the Devices tab. Search for the available device. Once the search is complete, it’ll show the available device. Tap on t and follow on-screen prompts to connect the device properly to the WiFi network.

Update the app

Updating the Alexa app ensures you have access to the latest features and improvements. I strongly recommend you update it whenever a new version is released on the app store.

By enabling the Auto-update feature on the Google Play Store, you can sit back and relax while your apps take care of themselves. Whenever a new version of the app becomes available on the Play Store, it will be automatically updated to ensure you have the latest version without any manual effort required on your part.

Do the necessary settings on your iOS device too.

Contact the customer support team

If your Alexa and Echo are properly connected to the WiFi, but still showing the error code 701, their customer support team can help you further more.

You can contact them Via the Alexa app itself.

• Open the Alexa app on your device
• Go to the Help & Feedback option on the menu
• Describe the issue in the box provided. And it could be “Alexa error 701 enter“
• Then follow the on-screen instructions and select your preferred mode for contact such as Call or chat
• Connect them and ask for help

Additionally, you can make use of the Amazon forum for help. There are dedicated moderators available to help you regarding the issue.

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One of the most common issues with Alexa recently reported is that Alexa not responding but lighting up to receive the command from the user.

This was the issue that I experienced yesterday, I just input the voice command, and the Blue light up and expected the result. But nothing happened.

Alexa is not responding but the light-up is due to it can’t receive the voice command properly. Once you say the wake word, it starts to light up, and you should clearly say the following command so that only it completes the processing of the voice and return the result.

This is the basic reason, but we can also try some other fixes when this error happens.

Reasons why Alexa not responding but lighting up

You can check the following conditions to properly get the response from Alexa.

Make sure that the Alexa command is clear and audible enough

Most users loudly say the wake word, and after that, they say the command at a low volume. If so, Alexa can’t understand the command. Because of the loudly said wake word, it starts lighting up, and due to the low-volume command, it can’t return a result.

You need to speak clearly, with sufficient volume, and close to the Echo device so that Alexa can easily understand what you are saying.

To ensure this is the issue, just move beneath the Alexa, and say a simple command like “Alexa, play a song from Coda”. If it gives the proper response, you can confirm that the issue is with your mode of delivering the Alexa commands.

Move the Echo device to a calm place

If you located your Echo smart speaker in a space full of voice nuisance, it can’t understand the voice command. Many people place the Alexa smart speaker very close to the TV, or home theater system. So, re-locate it some distance from such devices.

My recommendation is to place it on a wall, at a minimal height, but in the middle portion of your entertainment room. Because, most of us are sitting inside the hall in the middle portion, and not close to the television.

And I think it could fix the Alexa not responding issue.

Is your Alexa on MUTE? Turn off it

Once you mute the device, you couldn’t hear any voice from the speaker even when you speak the voice command, but the light up.

In order to turn off the Mute option, you can use a simple voice command as, “Alexa, Unmute”

This will unmute your device and then you’ll hear the response from Alexa.

In the same way, the issue may be due to you may set the volume too low. If the volume was set too low, you feel that Alexa not responding.

Here is the voice command to raise the volume.

“Alexa, set the volume to 10”

Is your WiFi Unstable? – Make it strong

When you have a weak or unstable WiFi network, a response issue will happen. The command will not pick by Alexa properly when having unstable internet.

To fix the issue, just restart your router or modem. Make sure that a solid and high-speed stable internet connection is there. Call the internet service provider to know if there is any issue with the service.

A simple way to check if a problem persists on your WiFi service is if you are using a mobile network connection, connect your Alexa on your phone WiFi, and check whether the response issue is still there or not. If the problem was resolved, you can confirm that your home WiFi network runs on a problem.

Restart and reset your device

Restart the Echo device after unplugging it from the power outlet for a few minutes. If this doesn’t help to fix it, you can reset the speaker to factory settings. Only do a hard reset if and only if the above-described methods don’t work.

For a 4th Gen Alexa Echo smart device, there is an action button on top to reset it. Press and hold down on it till the light on the device go off and come back.

For the 1st Gen device, usually, there is a reset button on a tiny hole. Just press on it using a small paper clip.

Whatever device you are using, like 1st, 2nd, 3rd, or 4th, you can simply reset the Echo Via the Alexa app installed on your smartphone.

Follow the steps,

open the app, and then select the devices option. Choose Echo and Alexa options. Select the Echo device and navigate to the RESET tab to restore it.

After resetting, try whether Alexa is responding to your voice command.

Server issue

There is a minute possibility that the Amazon server gets crashed. But it may happen, because I have experienced big company servers like Facebook, Google, and Twitter, running out of service for a while.

When the Amazon server experience issue, the response error will happen. But Echo will light up.

To test whether there is an issue with the server, and not with the device, do some voice command experiment with the Alexa app installed on your smartphone. If you are experiencing the same issue, you can confirm that the error is on the server.

You can wait for a few minutes or even hours to get it fixed by the Amazon engineers. They’ll automatically identify the error and will solve it as soon as possible.

Recently, many users got the issue with their servers. Even though, Amazon web service (AWS) is the top server in the world, it handled millions of requests per second, so chances of getting the server down.

Turn off brief mode and revert back

I know you have turned ON the brief mode to not say some repeated words like OK, playing from, etc. This may be a reason that the Alexa not responding to your command.

Turn off the brief mode, and try with a sample voice command to know whether the issue has been fixed or not.

You can turn ON the brief mode later.

Make sure that the microphone button is OFF

The enabled microphone button on Echo will never receive any command from a user. At the same time, the light on the device will not turn ON. This is a possible cause to fix the response issue.

The concept of a smart home has been completely changed with the evolution of Alexa. Many people, including me, thought that making a home smarter is very expensive because we want so many smart devices, but it’s up to the person willing to make his house smarter.

But, In simple, you can make your home smart with one Alexa device.

Alexa AI voice assistant is free to use, the only one-time investment you need is to buy the Echo Dot speaker which is in the price range of $30 – $250. After connecting the device to a WiFi network and setting up your account, you can start using it.

Those people who want to become a part of the Alexa family, want to know more clarifications on how much Alexa costs, whether is there any monthly subscription fee applicable, any hidden charges are there, etc.

Before buying Alexa, I also have the same doubts. That’s why I am going to write a detailed post on this.

Is Alexa Free? Is there any monthly charge?

Alexa service is free to use, and there is no monthly subscription charge. You can use Alexa in two methods. One is Via the Alexa smartphone app and the other is by an Echo smart device.

If you installed the Alexa app on your smart device, you just need to set up your account and start using it. You don’t spend a single penny.

Suppose you want to buy an Alexa-enabled smart speaker to use in your home, you should spend some money to buy the device, which is a single investment.

Cost of Echo smart speakers

Three types of Echo speakers you can opt from the available models

• Echo dot (Have different generations)
• Echo show (With a display)
• Echo studio (High standard speaker)

Echo dot speakers

Echo Dot is the basic Alexa smart speaker. This included different generations like 2ng, 3rd, 4th, etc. The price range of these types of speakers is between 40$ and 100$.

Echo show with speakers

Alexa Echo Show is a smart speaker with 1 7-inch built-in touch display. Echo Dot is only limited to audio-only services like you can only listen to music, and get answers to your query (Alexa commands).

On Echo Show, you can watch TV shows, movies, etc. The cost of the device ranges between $50 – $200.

Echo studio

Echo Studio is the high-end Amazon smart speaker built with top features like Dolby Atmos, 3D audio, High-fidelity, etc. Alexa AI is built on it and you’ll get high-quality output. If you are a music lover, this is the best Alexa-built-in smart speaker you can buy.

You don’t need a Home theater system.

The cost of an Alexa Echo studio smart speaker is above $200.

Is there any Alexa hidden cost?

No. There is no hidden cost. If you want to use some other third-party services, you should pay their subscription charges, but using them along with Alexa is free.

Here are some of the free services that you can enjoy

• Get the free news and updates:- With a simple voice command “Alexa, tell me the news” will give you the latest news for free.
• Home automation devices:- Simply connect other smart household devices like smart speakers, switches, smart lights, etc with Alexa and control them with simple commands for free.
• Helps you organize and thus improve productivity:- Believe it or not, Alexa can act as a simple virtual assistant that helps you to do your duty on time by reminding you. You can set timers, Alarms, etc so that you won’t forget to do your job on time. You really won’t spend a single penny on this.
• Get entertained:- Alexa provides a hell lot of songs, podcasts, etc from free resources. If you have a free music streaming application on your smartphone, once you tell Alexa to play a song from a specific movie, it’ll play the song from the free streaming application. In the same way, you can listen to podcasts too.
• Get numerous Alexa skills:- A lot of Alexa skills are there you can available from an Amazon account. Using these skills, you can enjoy so many services. I have installed so many gaming skills, so I can play games with Alexa in my leisure time.
• Know the weather conditions:- Just imagine, you’ll get the current and the upcoming weather details with a simple command and without connecting third-party apps or services.

Most of the Alexa skills are free to download or enable. But I have paid a small charge to buy the skills that help me to change Alexa’s voice to Jarvis.

Third-party premium services are not free with Alexa

Don’t think premium apps and services are free with Amazon Alexa.

For example, if you want to use Apple Music along with Amazon Alexa, you should have a premium Apple Music account.

Services from the parent company, Amazon prime video, you should have a premium membership to prime video to enjoy it with Alexa (If you want).

while saying this, it’s not necessary for an Amazon Prime account to use Alexa. In order to use Alexa, you just need to create an Amazon account using your email address. That’s enough. Enter the world of excitement.

Summary

We don’t need to pay for using Alexa AI service. All that we need is to buy an Alexa Echo device (For installing in-home), and a strong WiFi service. And this is the only investment we required.

No expense to use Alexa on a smartphone.

If we want to use other premium services along with Alexa, we should have them.

Once you switch on your Alexa Echo speaker, on starting up, it’ll spin with a blue light ring. Then the light will disappear. Then whenever you give voice commands, it’ll spin at the time and disappear. What if it continuously spins with Blue light?

What does it mean Alexa Blue light spinning?

Your Alexa Echo speaker spinning (But looks solid) Blue light with a cyan segment indicates that the speaker is listening to the voice command and processing them. This only lasts a few seconds. After accepting and processing the command it’ll disappear and gives you the response.

But, if you noticed that the Alexa spins blue light continuously and won’t turn off automatically,  literally, it’s stuck on spinning. This should be avoided. This means that there is some issue with your device.

If this type of error showing on your Alexa mobile app, you can simply solve it by restarting the application after forcibly closing it.

Before that, you should know the different types of Blue light spinning.

• Slowly spinning Teal and blue colors – Your device is starting up. Disappears immediately.
• Spinning teal and Blue color for a few minutes – Your device is under upgrading the firmware. Wait for a few minutes till the update completes and automatically restart the device.
• Starts spinning when you say the voice command

Related:- Alexa Vs Echo dot: Know the difference

How to fix Alexa spinning Blue light issue?

When you noticed that the blue ring is stuck on your Echo speaker, there is an issue and this is what we commonly called the Blue ring of death.

Follow the troubleshooting tips to fix the issue

Restart your Echo speaker

This is what we called the power recycling of the device. Unplug the speaker from the power outlet for a few minutes, say just 2 or 3.

Do you know why we doing this troubleshooting method?

Sometimes, the device may stuck on startup. If the blue light spinning keeps for a long time after starting up, there should be an error during the launching of the device. Because Echo is not just a device, a software application is built on it. Do you want to know what exactly is? It’s Fire OS, a cloud-based machine learning software.

So, when the app is not launched properly, this type of error may happen.

Reset your device

Before you restore your Echo speaker, you must accept the reality that all the personalized settings and preferences will be erased. But we have to solve the sticking of the Blue ring around the speaker.

I am using the 4th gen Echo speaker, and obviously, there should be a small difference in resetting options from other models.

Methods,

For Echo Dot 2nd Generation – Press and hold down the Microphone OFF and the volume down buttons together for 20 seconds.

Resetting 3rd & 4th Gen Echo speakers – There is a tiny white dot (button) at the top which is called the action button. Press and hold down it for 20 seconds.

I think you all are away from the first-generation Alexa Echo speaker (I hope you upgraded to the latest version), but still, if you are using it, let me briefly explain how to reset it.

A small paper clip is needed or a soft-edged SIM ejector tool to reset the 1st Gen Echo. A tiny hole can be seen at the top, inside it, a button is present. Press on it using the paper clip or SIM ejector for 20 seconds.

That’s it.

Make sure that your WiFi is stable

If Echos couldn’t connect to the WiFi network properly, Blue light spinning may happen. In this case, what you can do is, check the WiFi connection at your home and make sure that the connection is stable.

Reboot your Router and attempt to connect your Alexa again through the app.

Wait till the software update process is complete, in its own way

You shouldn’t interfere while Alexa itself updates her firmware. the process may take up to 15 minutes to complete. Once it completes, the device undergoes restart. So, you don’t need to worry about the blue ring spinning continuously for a few minutes, but the firmware updating time also depends on the speed of the WiFi network too.

What’s your thought?

The 4 working methods are outlined here. Probably, the issue will be fixed by using any one of them. But, still persisting the problem, you can contact the nearest Amazon center, or Via their online customer support.

Read More:-

• Why does my Alexa have a yellow ring that won’t go away?

Alexa is a cloud-based voice assistance service developed by Amazon. Obviously, there need two types of systems one is to process the voice commands and the other is to give the output for the voice commands.

Both hardware and software (server) contribute to this virtual assistant service.

So, In simple,

Alexa is a voice assistant that processes the input voice commands and provides the output, while Echo is a smart speaker that gives the output for the voice query.

What is the difference between Alexa and Echo?

If you buy Amazon Alexa for your smart home, it comes with a smart speaker which looks like an ordinary speaker where the Alexa virtual assistant is loaded into it.

When a user asks Alexa using a voice command along with a wake word, the speaker will get into listening mode and receives the commands. After processing the voice commands at the server level, an appropriate answer is given to the user Via the smart speaker.

Alexa mobile applications are also available you can install on your smart devices. Here you don’t need an extra speaker, but your device speaker acts as the output device.

What Alexa can do?

You can ask Alexa to play the songs you wanted, turn ON/Off lights, set an alarm, order any product from Amazon, etc with a simple voice command.

A wake word should be added in front of the voice command in order to invoke the system. By default, the wake word is “Alexa”, but you can set some other reserved wake words like Computer, Echo, etc. But you can’t set a custom wake word.

For example,

Alexa, Play a song from slum dog millionaire

This command will play a song from the movie slum dog millionaire.

A hell lot of devices can be connected to the Alexa virtual assistant and can control all of the with voice commands.

Once you connected your Alexa-supported decoration lamps, if you want to reduce the brightness of the lamp, you can do this with a simple Alexa command.

Enable Alexa skills kit (ASK)

Skills are like apps for Alexa which are software frameworks that let you create content, and with interactive voice commands you can enjoy many more features.

The skills are free to enable. A lot of skill sets are incorporated into Alexa’s core system. And thousands of skills are developed by third-party developers to empower their products on Alexa virtual assistant.

For example, if you enabled the Alexa skill for the Ring video doorbell, you can simply connect the doorbell device to Alexa and can control each and every activity with voice commands.

Hope you got what I mean.

What an Echo speaker can do?

Echo is a smart speaker it plays music, radio, or the answer to the query you had given to Alexa as a voice command. This is connected to an Internet or WiFi network and interacts with the Alexa servers.

It’s not a common speaker just like others but a smart speaker. It has some built-in smart features. Once you start saying the command with the wake word Alexa, once it receives the wake word, a Blue light will start to glow which means it is ready to receive the voice commands.

A microphone is built into the speaker so that it can listen to you.

Different types of Echo smart speakers are available based on the different versions.

Conclusion

Only a small investment is required to buy an Amazon Echo speaker but then using the Alexa service is completely free. There are no hidden costs. But when your smart speaker got damaged, you should repair it. So, place it in a place where kids and pets can’t reach.

It’s better to place it at a small height where the Echo smart speaker can easily accept your Alexa voice commands. If it is far from you, you should command louder.

Read more:-

• How to turn off the audio description on Amazon Prime?
• How to change Alexa’s voice to Jarvis/Samuel L. Jackson?
• Stop Alexa from saying OK