I was ready to throw out my old smart speaker until I tried one weird reset trick

My Echo Dot from 2018 had been acting up for weeks. It would stop playing music halfway through a song, and asking for the weather took forever. I was about to just buy a new one, but then I saw a comment on a forum from a guy in Tampa. He said to do a full factory reset, but then leave it unplugged for a full 24 hours before setting it back up. I thought that was overkill, but I tried it last Tuesday. I unplugged it, held the button down, and then just left it sitting on my counter for a whole day. When I plugged it back in and went through the setup in the Alexa app, it was like a brand new gadget. All the lag was gone. I guess some cached data or a partial update was just stuck in there. Has anyone else had a similar fix work on an old device that seemed totally broken?

2 comments

2 Comments

amybarnes2d ago

Always figured the "leave it unplugged" part was just tech superstition. My old Google Home Mini was basically a brick until I did the same thing, reset and then ignored it for a full day. Plugged it back in and it actually listened to commands again. Guess the trick has some merit.

phoenix_singh2d ago

Yeah the "leave it unplugged" part amybarnes mentioned is key. I read an article that said it lets the device's internal memory fully clear out, like a real deep reset. My old smart plug was doing the same thing and that 24 hour trick fixed it too.