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Solved: Alexa says “Sorry, I’m having trouble understanding you right now. Please try a little later”

Amazon’s voice-controlled personal assistant, Alexa, isn’t perfect just like us, human beings. She hadn’t been able to understand me for a few days. All she’d been saying was (in a red light):

Sorry, I’m having trouble understanding you right now. Please try a little later

Click to watch the videos in this page:

Steps to fix “”Sorry, I’m having trouble understanding you right now” issue

Turn it off and on

It might be a temporary issue caused by some hardware or software malfunction. Before trying the relatively complex steps below, first turn off and on your Echo device (unplug the cable and plug it back). If it doesn’t work, turn off your router and turn it back on after waiting for 10 seconds.

https://youtu.be/aO0m2jGydqM

Your Wireless Network

It’s not her, it’s -probably- your wireless network. Since Alexa is a cloud service, she needs to be connected to internet. So it’s a good idea to start diagnosing your wireless network.

Even if your other devices are able to connect to internet, the problem might still be caused by your network. Check your router to see if Alexa’s IP address is blocked (This was the issue in my case).

 

Firmware Mismatch

Make sure you are using the latest firmware in your Alexa device. Alexa automatically checks for latest firmware every night. However, there might be a glitch that is preventing to perform daily checks.

In order to force Alexa to update herself, hit mute button and keep it muted for 30 minutes. It will start updating the firmware.

Reset Alexa to Factory Defaults

Press and hold the “Microphone off” and “Volume down” buttons at the same time until the light ring turns orange and follow the instructions Alexa tells you.

More information about resetting your Echo device is here.

Alexa is unavailable

There might be an issue on Amazon’s side. Contact Amazon Support. It’s pretty straightforward to call or chat. Here is the link.

Alexa says "Sorry, I'm having trouble understanding you right now"

Still having this issue? Try Alexa’s official support page

Looking for a way to to connect more than one Bluetooth speakers to Echo Dot? Check this post out.

Ned Sahin

Blogger for 20 years. Former Microsoft Engineer. Author of six books. I love creating helpful content and sharing with the world. Reach me out for any questions or feedback.

19 thoughts on “Solved: Alexa says “Sorry, I’m having trouble understanding you right now. Please try a little later””

  1. Mine has been anything this for 2 days and I have 3 different Alexa models the other two are working fine it’s the tall one that’s gives me trouble

    Reply
  2. All three of my ‘Echo’ devices (2 Echo’s, and 1 ‘DOT’) have been doing this; I’ve done all the steps shown here, and all of them work, temporarily. I see this is a common ‘glitch’ and a good reason to sell them and invest in a good ‘HomePod’.

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  3. i’ve had the dot and ultra ,tap and original model since each was brand new….i’m beginning just lately to have constant problems with all of them..I had an idea this would occur sometime in the near future..all these models created to interact yet having different drivers ,different this different that being updated ,each with their significantly individual specifications,etc…this was bound to happen..i really only forecast more failure of more features in th future unless they begin extreme testing to see that every time a feature is created that it is compatable with the workings of every echo model that’s been created and make certain that not even one feature or driver or whatever is prone to become inoperable or effected badly it..too much stuff going into these different models ,not being tested correctly against the possible bad side effects effects of the other models —i’m surprised that the entire line of amazon echos still work as well as they do interactively,but ..i see stuff going on with my echos now, that tell me it might not be for very much longer..

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  4. i have the tall alexa first model,every day it becomes unresponsive and i have to unlug it,every freaken day i have to do this,its crap

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  5. I have 3 echo dots, 1 Show, and 4 towers linked and the dots are giving me an issue among with the echo show Its not my internet. sometimes the dots will work sometimes not and this is just in the last few weeks. The one dot I have in a bedroom in a tower speaker is fine, the Kitchen dot will not work no matter what , sometimes the bathroom dots do not work. They were all fine Christmas and New Years. It was great to have music streaming throughout, now its very frustrating. Cant get the Show to engage at all just see the yellow/orange line across the bottom of the screen and get the “Im not understanding right now try again later” and Ive tried EVERYTHING!!!

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  6. I had the problem today but it was simply that my internet had been down for four hours and it hadn’t reconected afterwards. Simply switching it off and back on again did the trick for me.

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  7. I had the same as described above and none of the remedies worked. Finally I went into the Alexa app on my phone and completely deregistered the Echo from my account. Afterwards I set up the Echo as if it was new from the box and now it works.

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  8. I have this straight out of the box. This is only the second day I have owned this echo dot 3 and its rubbish.
    The fact that I am typing this on my wifi tells me it usnt my network. That us working fine. It’s the dumb echo that has a problem

    Reply

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