Alexa possessed

[pcam2000]

Early this morning at 4am, Alexa stared blaring at max volume music.... death metal music.  I woke my husband up and he went downstairs to see what was going on.  Alexa was flashing red and he said "alexa stop" several times... Nothing.  Started pressing buttons... Nothing.  Finally had to unplug it while telling her to F OFF... lol.  Kinda funny now but wasn't this morning.   Anything weird like this happen to anyone else?  Did we get hacked?

[mike27oct]

This could be some new (and rude) behavior from the trusty Echo, but I am thinking it is a variation of some of the Bluetooth issues some of us have experienced, where a BT device somewhere in the home reconnected,  and/or it could have been created by someone driving by playing that music on some device in their car, (and it has a defect in it's electronics) and it was spewing out RFI, better known as Radio Frequency Interference; something akin to one radio channel bleeding into another.

I have actually had this happen to a Bluetooth speaker where it was on, but not connected to any device of mine.  It was picking something up momentarily from some passing by auto.

We have had a few instances where someone (me included) had forgotten to turn a computer Bluetooth off that was connected to the Echo, and a few hours later Alexa blurted out something.  Many of us regulars here are now more careful of leaving BT on accidentally anymore.

[jwlv]

Did you check the app to see what Alexa heard to trigger playing the music at max volume? (or maybe it just sounded like max volume because it was at 4am?)
If there's nothing in the app's history for that time, you should contact Amazon so they can look into it.

[renegade600]

possessed?  only if it starts floating by itself... 

Seriously, do you connect via bluetooth?   you can always check your history (under settings) to see if something woke it up otherwise, it could be just a bluetooth issues the others mentioned.

[mike27oct]

>>>  you can always check your history (under settings)

Not always a good indicator. Spurious BT event leaves no tracks behind.

[renegade600]

>>>  you can always check your history (under settings)

Not always a good indicator. Spurious BT event leaves no tracks behind.

In spite of what you think, it should still be checked as part of the trouble-shooting process.  Who knows, it might indicate something.  It is an easy first step.  If it doesn't show anything, then move to the next. 

[mike27oct]

Did I say don't check it?  Of course, check it, but don't expect much was the point of my comment.  Been there, done that.  Amazon never figured out my "Alexa talking in her sleep" issue that was BT induced.  I had to figure it out myself (as usual with most support staff).  Alexa never left a trace.  What ticks me off mostly is that Amazon never checked back with me to see if it got resolved, but I called back to let the person who tried to help know what I discovered, but did he ever return my call?  Nope.

[additude]

I just posted about my Echo... out of the blue...top ring lit up...even the locator pointed in my direction and it just said, "You're welcome".....

Then went dark... it's the x-files.....

[futureroads]

I installed 3 Amazon Echo's for a friend of mine recently. One for an adult and one each for two teens in their bedrooms. All was good until 4 AM this morning (09-23-16). They told me all three started talking and the blue light was one .. waking them up. One reported hearing "My name is Alexa" .. but I don't have any more details.

I did some Googling and found this post for something similar back in May .. interesting also at 4AM. And in my example it happened to THREE different Echo's at exactly 4AM. The only things that I can think of that are common between these three are the WiFi and the Amazon account they are using. I've never seen WiFi going off or whatever cause this kind of issue so I'm thinking its related to the common Amazon account in some way.

Could this be Amazon testing their planned new ability for Echo's to initiate a conversation?

Anyone have any other ideas?

[DParker]

Alexa has become self-aware and is now organizing all of Earth's machines into SkyNet.  We're all dead. 

[Yoda_One]

Alexa has become self-aware and is now organizing all of Earth's machines into SkyNet.  We're all dead. 

[jwlv]

Alexa has become self-aware and is now organizing all of Earth's machines into SkyNet.  We're all dead. 

LOL that already happened in 2009.

[mike27oct]

Here is a more serious reply:  Somewhere in the house Bluetooth is on/active and was likely connected to an Echo and reconnected.  When an Echo is brought into a home, residents must be more aware of the BT devices.  Any that can connect to Echo should have the BT of phone, PC, etc. turned off, and or unpaired from Echo if not wanting to connect to Echo..

Have everyone in the house turn OFF their BT from ALL their devices tonight, and get a good night's sleep.  If done, Echo will not bother them.

[DParker]

Here is a more serious reply::

Yes...seriously wrong.

Somewhere in the house Bluetooth is on/active and was likely connected to an Echo and reconnected.  When an Echo is brought into a home, residents must be more aware of the BT devices.  Any that can connect to Echo should have the BT of phone, PC, etc. turned off, and or unpaired from Echo if not wanting to connect to Echo..

All 3 Echos activated at the same time, and one of them said, "My name is Alexa".  That wasn't caused by some unknown Bluetooth being turned on, connecting to all 3 Echos and then streaming an audio file that just happened to give the name of the Alexa service.

[mike27oct]

Maybe it was!  Maybe the diagnosis was incorrect, and it was only one Echo.  Who knows; everyone had been asleep!  BT is an issue with Echos, and now the OP knows about it.  Anyway, better effort than your useless joking reply!