Having Alexa abruptly pause your music when you’re in the middle of your favorite song or playlist is the worst.
This is an all-too common occurrence due to the fact that Alexa will turn off after a set amount of time if she is not used. To what end, though, has this come to pass?
Alexa turns off playback after a period of inactivity to save battery life. When you stream music from Amazon, the company has to pay for it. That’s why, if nobody’s listening, there’s no point in them playing.
In the following sections, we’ll address the concerns you’ve voiced about using music with Amazon Alexa. Listen up if you’re tired of Alexa interrupting your music practice!
When Does Alexa Turn Off Music Because of Inactivity?
As soon as Alexa detects that you haven’t interacted with it in two or three hours, it stops playing. Since it assumes no one is listening, it turns off to save energy and money.
Despite being in “standby” mode, Amazon Echo speakers are continually listening and using power.
Even though different Echo devices use different amounts of power, most only use 2.1 watts when they are not being used.
Echoes use more power when they are being actively used, such as when they are playing music.
Again, this number is device-specific, although it’s usually about 3 watts.
To save resources, Alexa will switch off the music if it detects that no one is listening to it.
To conserve energy, Alexa powers down while not in use; if you’re listening to music on Amazon Music, this also reduces Amazon’s revenue.
Amazon Music has 55 million monthly listeners and pays musicians $0.00402 per stream.
If Amazon’s 55 million Prime Music subscribers always stream music even when they aren’t listening to it, the company may have trouble making money.
People who use Amazon’s Alexa-enabled devices tend to use Amazon Music because it’s easier to find songs.
Users can find music that fits their current state of mind by searching for it under categories like artist, lyric, decade, album, etc. As an added bonus, subscribers of Amazon Music may listen to their music without an internet connection, skip songs, and listen to specially crafted playlists.
As Amazon pays musicians per stream, there is no benefit for the firm to have their gadgets play music to an empty room.
Turning down the music when no one is listening helps them save money.
By monitoring for inactivity, they can tell if a listener has drifted off.
There are certain flaws in the system, notably when it comes to playing music.
You won’t want to interrupt your listening experience with requests to Alexa to skip tracks or switch albums if you’re really getting into your playlist.
Alexa will notice your silence and presume you have stopped listening, even if you haven’t.
The annoying situation where Alexa turns off your music arises here.
The latest generation of Amazon Echo is my go-to for listening to music on Amazon.
This speaker’s smooth, spherical shape helps both with data processing and with sound quality.
The built-in AZI Neural Edge processor in this Echo aids with speech recognition.
How To Prevent Alexa From Turning Off Due to Inactivity
There are workarounds if you wish to listen to music for extended periods of time without Alexa shutting off because of inactivity.
For example, if you want Alexa to keep playing music, you can tell her to “leave on,” which will cause her to continue doing whatever she’s doing until you tell her to stop.
Turning off the Sleep Timer is another option, which should allow music to continue playing until you tell it to stop. However, some Amazon Echo users have reported problems with this approach.
Other Reasons Your Alexa Isn’t Playing Music
There may be a reason besides inactivity that Alexa isn’t playing music. Let’s check out the most common causes of music playback difficulties and how to resolve them:
| Issue | Fix |
| Your internet connection isn’t stable enough to allow streaming. | If your Alexa has a poor internet connection, it may not be able to play music. To optimize your internet connection, take the following steps: Disconnect all unnecessary devices that are using the WiFi network.Move your device away from metal, walls, and ovens.Restart your modem or router |
| Your subscription is inactive. | It’s possible that your subscription to whichever streaming device you’re using is inactive. Confirm that your subscription is working by going to the “Memberships & Subscriptions” section on Amazon and checking your status. |
| You’re trying to stream a song that isn’t available. | If the problem is with a specific song, it’s possible that that song has been removed from the service, or it isn’t available for your subscription level. There isn’t a way to fix this; you’ll just need to switch to a different song. |
| The required firewall ports aren’t open. | If this is the problem, you’ll need to open the following ports: 12344340705353334344031749317 To open these ports, find your router’s IP address, open your internet browser of choice, and search your IP address. Then, enter your router username and password and navigate to the Port Forwarding section to open the ports. |
| Your Alexa needs to be reset. | It’s the most classic fix in the book: sometimes you just need to turn things off and turn them back on again. Resetting your Alexa can be annoying because you’ll lose all the configurations you’ve made, but it may be the only way to solve the issue. Hold down the volume and microphone buttons simultaneously for thirty seconds to reset. |
If your Amazon Echo still isn’t playing music after trying the aforementioned solutions, it may be time to call in the experts.
Conclusion
If Alexa hasn’t been used for a while, she may cut off in the middle of a song or playlist to save energy and money for Amazon.
That’s frustrating, especially if it happens when you’re listening to your favorite tune.
You can stop this from happening by telling Alexa to “leave on” while playing music, turning off the sleep timer, fixing any network problems, or resetting Alexa to factory settings.
