How to Update Alexa on an Echo, Echo Dot or Echo Show

Say: “Alexa, check for software updates.”

That is the whole of Amazon’s instruction for Echo speakers, and the help pages on its US, UK and Indian sites all give the same line. It applies to an Echo Dot as much as to a full-size Echo, since the page is written for Echo devices as a group.

Leave the Echo alone while it installs. In Amazon’s guide to the lights on an Echo speaker, a blue light that glimmers briefly can mean the device is receiving an update. The device may then restart, and a slowly spinning teal and blue light means it is starting up again after the update.

Most of the time you need not ask. Amazon’s page of software versions opens with the rule: Alexa devices receive software updates automatically when they are connected to the internet. It adds that the updates usually improve performance and bring new features. There is nothing to switch on, so the ordinary way to keep an Echo current is to leave it plugged in and on Wi-Fi.

Update an Echo Show from its screen

Echo devices with a screen can also be updated from the settings menu. These are Amazon’s steps:

1. Say “Alexa, go to Settings”. Or open Settings by hand. If the device runs Alexa+, select the Menu icon on the screen and then Settings. If it runs the original Alexa, swipe down from the top of the screen and select Settings.
2. Select About this Device.
3. Select Check for Software Updates. The device checks for an update and installs it.

Amazon says the same steps work on the Echo Spot. It also notes that the settings menu on the Echo Hub and on every generation of the Echo Show 5 may look different.

Check the software version in the Alexa app

1. Open the Alexa app.
2. Select Devices.
3. Select your device.
4. Select Device Settings.
5. Select About. The device’s software version is shown there.

Amazon’s instructions use the app only to show the version. To start an update, it tells you to ask the Echo by voice, or to use the settings on an Echo Show.

There is no single latest version to compare it with. The help page called Alexa Device Software Versions gives the latest version for each model, from the first Echo to the Echo Dot Max and the newest Echo Show, and the numbers differ between models. Match yours against your exact device and generation. Amazon’s help page “Which Echo Device Do I Have?” lists every model and generation.

Older guides send you to the alexa.amazon.com website to find the version. That address now leads to Amazon’s page for using Alexa+ in a browser.

When an Echo will not update

Amazon has no help page for a failed update. An update needs power and an internet connection, and Amazon does have pages for both. Work through them in this order, which runs from least to most disruptive.

1. Check the Wi-Fi. Amazon’s advice for an Echo with connection trouble is to keep it within 30 feet (10 metres) of the router and away from things that interfere, such as microwaves and baby monitors. Test the network with another device. If nothing else can connect either, restart the router. If the router has separate names for its 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz networks, move the Echo to the other one. If your Wi-Fi password has changed, give the Echo the new one in the Alexa app: Devices, your device, Device Settings, then Change or remove a Wi-Fi network. On an Echo Show, Wi-Fi is changed on the device itself.
2. Restart it. Unplug the Echo, or its power adapter, from the socket and plug it back in. Amazon’s pages suggest waiting between 10 and 30 seconds before you plug it in again.
3. Ask again. Once it is back online, say “Alexa, check for software updates”, or use the menu on an Echo Show.
4. Reset it, as a last resort. A reset puts the Echo back into setup mode, and you set it up again in the Alexa app. On an Echo Dot (2nd to 5th generation) or an Echo (3rd or 4th generation), press and hold the Action button for 20 seconds and wait for the light ring to turn off and on again. Amazon says this reset keeps your smart home connections. On an Echo Pop, hold Volume down and Volume up for 15 seconds. On an Echo Show, hold the button that turns off the microphones and camera together with Volume down until the Amazon logo appears, about 15 seconds. That one is a full factory reset. Other models use other buttons, and Amazon’s help page “Reset Your Echo Device” has the steps for each.

Pressing the microphone-off button and waiting for the Echo to update itself is not on any Amazon help page we found. What Amazon says about that button is that it disconnects the microphones and turns the light red.

Should the version still not move, consider the age of the device. Amazon promises software security updates for at least four years from the day a device is bought new from Amazon, and its page “Amazon Echo Software Security Updates” gives a date for each model. On the US page the Echo Dot from the 3rd to the 5th generation is covered at least to the end of 2029, and the Echo Pop and the 4th-generation Echo to the end of 2030. The Echo Link and Echo Link Amp were listed only to the end of 2025. Past its date, a device has no promise of further updates. One model is beyond help: Amazon lists the Echo Look as deactivated.

Moving to Alexa+ is not a software update

Alexa+ is Amazon’s newer assistant, built on generative AI, and you get it by signing up for it. Amazon’s help pages say you can do that on its website or by telling an Echo “Alexa, upgrade”. Amazon limits it to personal accounts set to a supported country and language.

Software still matters in one way. If you have signed up and Alexa+ has not appeared, Amazon’s requirements page says to check whether the device software needs an update, using the same voice command. Some Echos will never get it. Amazon’s compatibility page names the first-generation Echo, Echo Dot, Echo Plus, Echo Show and Echo Spot among them, and says they carry on with the original Alexa.

What Alexa+ changes about Alexa’s jokes and answers is under funny things to ask Alexa.