*** READ THIS IF YOU HAVE TROUBLE SETTING UP YOUR ECHO TO WIFI

[jwlv]

This is my take on what happens when someone tries to setup a new Echo with a smartphone that has WiFi Assist (or Smart Network Switch). Keep in mind that WiFi Assist was introduced in late 2015 and Auto/Smart Network Switch in 2016. Amazon Echo was released in mid 2015 to early adopters. So that means early adopters set up their Echoes before these features came about. Even if you were not an early adopter, you might not have these features if you didn't update your iPhone or Android device to the latest software at that time.

What happens when everything goes as expected:
1. User starts Alexa app and begins setup
2. Alexa app tells user to connect to the open WiFi network from the Echo
3. User connects to the Echo WiFi network
4. Echo detects that the user connected to it and starts to gather a list of nearby WiFi networks
5. User goes back to the Alexa app
6. Alexa app receives the list of nearby WiFi networks from the Echo
7. Alexa app asks the user to choose their network and enter the password for that network
8. The password is sent to the Echo
9. Echo receives the password and goes online to complete setup.

This seems quite simple but when WiFi Assist or Smart Network Switch is turned on, it interrupts the process somewhere between Step 4 - Step 8 and your phone disconnects from the WiFi to the Echo. This is where most people see that the Alexa app gets stuck because it's still waiting for the list of available networks from the Echo. As you know, scanning for WiFi networks takes a few seconds. But by then, the WiFi connection to the Echo is already interrupted and the Alexa app never receives the list of networks. It is also possible that the list of available networks was ready ahead of time but during the time it takes for the user to select the network and enter the password, the connection was interrupted and the Alexa app can't send the password to the Echo in order to continue.

But why some people never have any problems with this even if WiFi Assist and Smart Network Switch is turned ON? Remember a while back Amazon asked if they could store your network password in the cloud? If you said OK to that request, your password could have been stored when you first used the Alexa app, when you setup your first Echo device 2 years ago, or if you use any of the Amazon devices such as Fire Tablet, Fire TV, Fire Phone, Kindle Reader, Dash Buttons, etc.

So if your password was already known and stored at Amazon, the Alexa app told the Echo which one was your network and its password at Step 3. In that split second before WiFi Assist or Smart Network Switch took over and disconnected from the Echo W-Fi, the Echo already got the information it needed and skips forward to Step 9 and completes setup. If want to check if Amazon has stored your WiFi password, see this page: https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=201730860

iPhones and Samsung phones have a "feature" that will use cell data when it detects that the WiFi connection is slow or dead. If your phone has this "feature" you should turn it off before setting up your Echo. See the following screenshots.

On iPhone it looks likes this


On Samsung (Android) it looks like this (Since there are so many versions of Android and just as many phone manufacturers, your phone's settings menu may not look exactly like this)

[mindmagic]

I believe this is why I couldn't set up my Echo on the (stronger) 2.4 GHz band when I first tried it. I had no problem on the 5 GHz band.

[Old_Bodger]

My Nexus 5 with Android 6.0.1 does not have this feature but still failed to setup either a full-sized Echo or a Dot. I had sent the Echo back thinking I had been shipped a dud refurb but when the Dot failed the same way I did some in-depth digging online. The answer turned out to be at URL alexa.amazon.com accessed via the only Windows machine I own that has Wi-Fi ability in my strictly gigabit-connected home. I don't know if my Linux notebook would have worked since I forgot to try it first. After a single stumble successful setup turned out to be easy-peasy. Why Amazon does not tell us about this method openly is beyond me but there it is.

[Ellenfinkl]

Smart Network Switch is off on my phone. I had Echo Dot all set up and then it lost the connection with wi-fi and I can't get it back.  I'm getting Error 7:1:10:524:2.
Nothing has changed with my wi-fi.
I'm instructed first to connect to Amazon-XYZ (which my Samsung complains is unsecured, but i confirm it), and that works.
Then I'm instructed to connect to my wi-fi, but it can't do that 2nd step. My phone is on wi-fi, so I know the wi-fi is working.
Any suggestions?

[mike27oct]

Just so you know, the Amazon-XXX signal comes from the Dot and is there just until you connect it to your home wi-fi.  The fact that the signal is unsecure, is irrelevant since that Amazon signal is not connected to the internet, it connects nowhere but to your phone for setup and goes away afteward.

OK, so once your Dot gets connected to the XXX signal, you are instructed to switch phone back to your wifi signal and you should be good to go, because your Dot is now connected to the home wifi.

[Asti]

Smart Network Switch is off on my phone. I had Echo Dot all set up and then it lost the connection with wi-fi and I can't get it back.  I'm getting Error 7:1:10:524:2.
Nothing has changed with my wi-fi.
I'm instructed first to connect to Amazon-XYZ (which my Samsung complains is unsecured, but i confirm it), and that works.
Then I'm instructed to connect to my wi-fi, but it can't do that 2nd step. My phone is on wi-fi, so I know the wi-fi is working.
Any suggestions?

Try using your phone (or other devices) as a Hot Spot and have the Dot connect to that. This is a good way to test the Dot to make sure what kind of error it is.
If you are able to connect with the Hot Spot, it's something with your Wi-Fi preventing you from connecting. Crazy as it will sound, my Alexa devices we unable to connect to my home Wi-Fi randomly because of a bad Relay Switch for my Internet - it had litterally eroded away. Everything else was connected fine, just the Alexa's were failing. Got that fixed, no issues sense.

But if the Dot is not able to connect to the Hot Spot, you will want to contact Customer Service for Troubleshooting. More than likely something is wrong with the Dot and they can help diagnose it.

[Ellenfinkl]

That sounds like a great idea, but my phone won't let me have wi-fi and the hotspot on at the same time. When I turn off wi-fi and turn on the hotspot and try to connect, the Alexa app says that it can't connect to wi-fi.

So I tried going to alexa.amazon.com and went through the entire process again using my computer instead of my phone. I got the same Error 7:1:10:524:2 message.

So I'll contact Support. It's strange, because the Dot worked out of the box, then stopped.
Thanks for your suggestion,
Ellen

[Ellenfinkl]

So I called support. It seems as if the Alexa app was corrupted or something like that. The support person had me Reset the device (Hold Down the Mic & Minus buttons for a while), uninstall and reinstall it and register the Echo Dot as a new device and then it was able to connect. Maybe this will help someone.

[nicolec]

So I called support. It seems as if the Alexa app was corrupted or something like that. The support person had me Reset the device (Hold Down the Mic & Minus buttons for a while), uninstall and reinstall it and register the Echo Dot as a new device and then it was able to connect. Maybe this will help someone.

Was this a permanent solution for you? It worked for me only for a few hours until alexa lost connection again.

[BobShy]

Just so you know, the Amazon-XXX signal comes from the Dot and is there just until you connect it to your home wi-fi.  The fact that the signal is unsecure, is irrelevant since that Amazon signal is not connected to the internet, it connects nowhere but to your phone for setup and goes away afteward.

OK, so once your Dot gets connected to the XXX signal, you are instructed to switch phone back to your wifi signal and you should be good to go, because your Dot is now connected to the home wifi.

[Lchnsf]

I ordered an Echo Connect and had nothing but problems with setup. Spent hours on the phone with support and had it replaced twice.  For set up i use an iphone 6S.  When setting up my other devices I realized that I had an easier time setting things up on my iPad. As I was waiting for a callback from the technician I decided to ask someone to register my echo connect directly from Amazon.

Once my echo connect was registered on Amazon I was able to set up the Wi-Fi from my iPad. Now everything works great!

Sometimes you need to think out-of-the-box I guess

[Reshki]

I got mine as a gift and I was never able to get it setup, I haven't messed with it in about a year and it still only does this: https://streamable.com/pwznj

This is the only thing its ever done, I've never been able to get the orange light. Everything I google leads to how to reset but reset doesn't work. I can't hold the actino button to get to wifi and holding the reset keys also puts it on the same loop.

[engineer-larry]

It was working one and THEN not at all.
Error 7:1:17:6:1
can't get it to connect on my PC, I just don't get it. About to throw it out the window and neve login in to Amazon again.

[Woodward]

I am trying to set up my 2nd Echo Dot. The first one (which I've had for a few years now) was no trouble. The second one, which I think is the 2nd gen version, refuses to set up. I get the orange light just fine. On my phone (Android , I can't get the Bluetooth to recognize it at all (the little spinner goes around and around, with no result), so I tried with WiFi. I get to the step where I'm asked to connect to Amazonxxx, and I do so, but my phone immediately drops that connection and goes back to one of the Wifi signals in my house. I turned off the "avoid bad wifi connections" feature, which seems to be my phone's version of the Smart Network Switch feature, and it made no difference.

I then tried setting up via alexa.amazon.com. It seems to get slightly further in the process: it asks me to select a wifi signal and connect to it. It then either rejects the password (which, of course, I checked carefully and it was fine) or gives me a cryptic message "authorization expired." It instructs me to sign out of the "app," sign back in, etc., but of course I'm on a website, not in an app, and there is no "sign out" button on the website. I close my browser, figuring it's the next best thing. That, too, is useless: retries just take me to the same place.

Before any of this, I made sure the Echo was in setup mode, and I did multiple factory resets. I should note that this unit was a trash rescue, but the trash pile was a result of someone having moved out, so not necessarily a sign that it it actually had issues - except that I'm finding issues.

The only thing I haven't tried is setting my phone up as a hotspot; not doing that because Verizon will charge me through the nose for it. So far the only thing Amazon Support has offered is the factory reset, which I'd already done and redone. I told them that, and will have to see if they have any better ideas.

[Mogo]

Not sure if I'm in the correct area, I have 6 echo devices all set up to my hub locate under my TV. I have since installed 2 access points in my house for better coverage. Password and login on access points are the same as my hub, so as I roam around the house my phone tablet etc connect automatically to the strongest signal. However my echo devices are still trying to connect to the hub, which for some is out of range causing issues. How can I set up my echo devices to recognise the access points. Is it a case of starting all over again? Any help is much appreciated.