Bluetooth speaker 'pairs' to Dot but no sound out of speakers

[mafitz2380]

I have an echo dot (1st generation) and iHome iBT11 speakers.  I have successfully paired the bluetooth speakers to the Echo dot, as indicated by the speakers as well as the Echo.  However, no sound comes out of the speakers.  It only comes out of the Echo. 

I have looked online and through this forum and have not seen any issue related to mine.  Any ideas on what to try?

Thanks,
Fitz

[mike27oct]

If speakers are paired to Dot, but instead the sound still comes from Dot, then they obviously are not actually paired!

[mafitz2380]

I understand what you are saying.  However, I get indication from the Dot and I get indication from the speaker that they have connected.  If I turn off bluetooth on the speaker, I get indication from both that they have disconnected.  If I use the alexa app it shows me that they are currently connected.

[DParker]

Let's start by determining what's really happening.  With Bluetooth, "pairing" and "connecting" are two different things.  Pairing simply establishes a relationship between two devices, making them aware of each other and authorizing future connections.  It is not until a subsequent connection is made that the devices can stream media data between them.

So, did you just pair them, or did you also intruct one of them to connect to the other?

[mike27oct]

Good point, Parker.

So, one has to pair the two devices, then to connect the Dot to speaker, one needs to tell the Dot to "Connect bluetooth" and tell Dot to play music, tunein station, etc.  If all went well, to stop playing, tell Dot "disconnect bluetooth" and it will do so and say  something like "next time when both are turned on again they will automatically connect and start playing.

As an example, this is what I just did:  I powered up my portable BT speaker.  I heard a couple of sounds that indicated it "connected" to the previously paired Dot.  I told Dot to play tunein statiom XXXX, and it did so through the BT speaker.
Then, to complete the circle, I told Dot to "disconnect bluetooth".  It did, and said it had disconnected from the specific BT speaker.  The music came out of the Dot speaker, I told Dot "stop" and it did,  I turned off the BT speaker power then, and am ready for the next time to connect them again.

[mafitz2380]

I was going to say that I knew the difference between pairing and connecting and I think I still do.  However, I went through the process again so I could explain better what i was seeing.  I turned on the speakers and then told Alexa to Bluetooth Connect.    The sound started coming out of the speakers.  So I guess I don't know what I was doing before or it was an anomaly.  We will see if it continues to work or not. 

Thanks anyways.

[hertin]

This was driving me crazy. My speaker was paired and connected but still no sound.
For some reason the volume (seem to be a "bluetooth" volume) was just about zero so when I figured that out I just said "Alexa, volume ten" (when I was connected but could not hear) and then all was fine again. Hope this helps someone cause it was not easy to find and like I said, driving me nuts....

[eel]

I am having a similar problem.  I am using a MagicBox bluetooth speaker.  I can pair it and connect it to my Echo Dot.  Once connected, no sound comes out of either the bluetooth speaker or the Dot speaker.  The bluetooth speaker works fine with my phone so that is not the issue.  I tried telling Alexa to set volume to 10 but that did not help.  I have tried forgetting and re-pairing the bluetooth speaker multiple times but nothing works. 

I have finally given up and just connected the speaker to the Dot via a wired connection and that works fine.  If anyone has any ideas on how to make bluetooth work, let me know and I will give it a try.

[mike27oct]

Does the BT speaker also have a volume control?  Mine does, so get it adjusted, too.