Perils of too many Echo devices in home

[mike27oct]

For now, I will just mention the four Dots and one Echo, and if necessary I will mention the Taps at another time.

Was checking the four Dots bluetooth settings.  First, it helps if you are SURE you are working on the Dot you intend to.  Alexa app shows you serial numbers of all Dots and numbers them, but when setting them up you only see the last three characters of serial number.  Fine, so don't get mixed up when working on 3rd Dot when you intended oto be working on 4th Dot.  No wonder app showed I had paired the Dot, but it was not working; it was the Dot upstairs and I was checking app for a downstairs Dot!  Got that figured out eventually, and all was well.

During this futzing, I noticed my 3rd Dot showed that my new next door neighbor's iPhone was one of the Dot's Bluetooth connections!  How in the heck did that happen?  Fortunately, I could delete/remove his iPhone from the list.  My wife's iPad's BT was also connected, too, and I deleted that, since it was unintentional.

Well, I think it can happen because some people obviously never turn off BT in their phones and tablets.  Some people have the BT setting of their device to auto-connect to any detected BT signal; not good either.  And, now it seems an unauthorized BT connection can be made on an Echo device, but will it work?  Maybe so.  Perhaps someone can get a friend to connect his phone BT to your echo device and see if it allows for him to send music to your Echo.  I sure hope not.  (His phone can be deleted from the Echo's BT connection list afterward.)

Who wants to try this before I get a chance to and report back here
?

[malliekm]

Why don't you name your Dots with identify names...bedroom Dot, kitchen Dot, Livingroom Dot, etc?  I haver all three of mine named not only on the Alexa app but on my router.
I'd love to help ya out but as you know, I live in the middle of a cow pasture with the nearest neighbor 300 yards away.

[mike27oct]

Good idea, but I have been know to move them around, so the default names I have (Mike's 1st-2nd-3rd-4th Dot) are fine.  It's when we look in the BT settings to connect they are not listed that way; only the last three of the serial number show (e.g.-SP5). 

Good thing we are not close enough for a personal visit, otherwise, we would have you take off your shoes -- three blocks away -- before you came in! 

[strayfish]

I wonder if that's what happened to the person on another thread whose Dot woke them in the night. He/she thought it was a software update but maybe a neighbour one wall away suddenly connected.

[scottrods]

Good idea, but I have been know to move them around, so the default names I have (Mike's 1st-2nd-3rd-4th Dot) are fine.  It's when we look in the BT settings to connect they are not listed that way; only the last three of the serial number show (e.g.-SP5). 

Good thing we are not close enough for a personal visit, otherwise, we would have you take off your shoes -- three blocks away -- before you came in! 

Thought about identifying them with yet another concept... Put a Color label on each one and name them by that color... then they will still be portable and easily identifiable. "Red Dot", "Black Dot", "White Dot", "Green Dot", etc... That would be a perfect way to get a grip on which is which without looking at numbers each time you need to modify or add apps.

[mike27oct]

Will soon stick a small piece of post-it to underside with Dot's device #  and last 3 characters of serial # on underside of each Dot.

[mike27oct]

I wonder if that's what happened to the person on another thread whose Dot woke them in the night. He/she thought it was a software update but maybe a neighbour one wall away suddenly connected.

Yes, I forgot to mention that perhaps some one made a loud snore and woke Alexa and she said "Huh".  One night as I got in bed and made a quite cough, Dot woke up and said some nonsense.

[strayfish]

It occurs to me, people who talk in their sleep or have nightmares may suddenly find there's someone else in the conversation!

[mike27oct]

Exactly, and right away they post in this forum their Dot is "defective", because their Dot started talking in the middle of the night!  Go figure.

[renegade600]

Good idea, but I have been know to move them around, so the default names I have (Mike's 1st-2nd-3rd-4th Dot) are fine.  It's when we look in the BT settings to connect they are not listed that way; only the last three of the serial number show (e.g.-SP5). 

Good thing we are not close enough for a personal visit, otherwise, we would have you take off your shoes -- three blocks away -- before you came in! 

Thought about identifying them with yet another concept... Put a Color label on each one and name them by that color... then they will still be portable and easily identifiable. "Red Dot", "Black Dot", "White Dot", "Green Dot", etc... That would be a perfect way to get a grip on which is which without looking at numbers each time you need to modify or add apps.

but you would have to remember which room you put what color in so it really would not solve the problem as to remembering which dot you are wanting to use or edit.  I like the other thought of naming it based on the room it is in. 

[mike27oct]

Thanks for the idea, although I would not use colors; re-read my comment.  I do know which Dot is in each room (but sometimes it can be confusing) so is why I will put post-it on bottom and if not sure, look under the Dot.