Alexa hits snooze on basic functions as alarms and timers KO'd in UK outage
- Reference: 1755178047
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2025/08/14/alexa_hits_snooze_on_basic/
- Source link:
Reports from [1]outage tracker DownDetector show a surge of complaints from UK users on Thursday. The complaints started to roll in at around 0800 local time, right as many morning alarms were blaring and, for some, refusing to be silenced.
[2]Reddit is already awash with grumbles, some from folks who've had to yank the plug on their Echo to stop the racket. One poster said this worked – at least until they powered it back on and the alarm picked up where it left off.
[3]
"I'm about to throw my Alexa at the wall, it is driving me insane especially because I know I have another alarm in 18 minutes," one Reddit user groans. Another claimed the glitch made them rock up to work an hour late after Alexa failed to deliver their usual morning wake-up call.
[4]
[5]
Another user described trying to cancel alarms through the Alexa app only to be greeted with: "Unable to cancel alarms at this time, please try again later." They added that even scheduled wake-ups they'd long since deleted were still going off as if nothing had happened.
Alexa users, including us here at The Register , attempting to schedule an alarm are met with the unhelpful response: "Sorry, there was a problem setting your alarm."
[6]Eat or be eaten by AI, Amazon CEO warns staff
[7]How Amazon red-teamed Alexa+ to keep your kids from ordering 50 pizzas
[8]Amazon to kill off local Alexa processing, all voice requests shipped to the cloud
[9]'Error' causes Alexa to endorse Kamala Harris, refuse to discuss Trump
The gripes aren't limited to timers and alarms. Some users also report that reminders and routines have gone on strike, suggesting this isn't just a case of a few unlucky devices misbehaving, but a broader backend issue.
Another reckoned the borkage had also silenced their Blink doorbell notifications, which The Reg can verify: a user right here in Vulture Central says his Echo Screens have stopped telling him when someone's pressing the buzzer.
[10]
So far, Amazon has kept schtum on the cause of the meltdown and has yet not responded to The Register 's questions, leaving smart home owners to wonder how something as fundamental as telling the time can go so badly wrong.
Given the number of simultaneous reports, the problem likely lies in Alexa's cloud services rather than individual hardware. But until Amazon confirms what's gone wrong and pushes a fix, users are having to resort to old-school solutions: kitchen timers, phone alarms, or good old-fashioned wristwatches. ®
Get our [11]Tech Resources
[1] https://downdetector.co.uk/status/amazon-alexa/
[2] https://www.reddit.com/r/alexa/comments/1mptvgl/cant_cancel_my_alarms/
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2aJ4IFSyOs7CxP-czG1FfxAAAANU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aJ4IFSyOs7CxP-czG1FfxAAAANU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33aJ4IFSyOs7CxP-czG1FfxAAAANU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://www.theregister.com/2025/06/18/amazon_ceo_warns_ai_job_cuts/
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2025/05/01/amazon_red_teamed_alexaplus_interview/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2025/03/17/amazon_kills_on_device_alexa/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2024/09/04/error_amazon_alexa_k/
[10] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44aJ4IFSyOs7CxP-czG1FfxAAAANU&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[11] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: Sorry I'm a Bit Late With This Comment...
It seems they did go off and then didn't. Advocates of natural-language programming beware!
So far, Amazon has kept schtum on the cause of the meltdown and has yet not responded to The Register's questions, leaving smart home owners to wonder how something as fundamental as telling the time can go so badly wrong.
And there's the whole problem in a nutshell - outsourcing basic, everyday stuff to shitty "cloud" services.
Ain't AI a wonderful thing?
Buy a clock.
Master
The irony - a tax-shy, worker-squeezing giant now serves as Britain’s alarm clock. A digital plantation bell, and when the cloud trips, the slaves just lie there wondering why the master hasn’t rung.
I do have an Alexa that wakes me up with the radio and traffic reports for my commute, but I also have alarms on my phone. Working with technology teaches that I should never have a single point of failure, nor should I trust one provider.
That reminds me of old Nokia, where it would ring the alarm even if the phone's battery was dead. Saved me so many times.
We had an old Huawei handset from when they made phones for networks. Alarm used to go off once a year and stop before we could find it. Took about 4 years for us to get it and turn it off.
"I do have an Alexa that wakes me up with the radio and traffic reports for my commute"
I have an alarm clock radio that just plugs into the mains for power (no internet connection). It cost about GB £5.00 some ten years ago, costs a negligible amount for electicity to run and works just fine. I can turn the alarm off by pressing a single button, and adjust the alarm time, volume and station with a few key presses in complete privacy . So why involve a behemoth data slurper?
Re: "I do have an Alexa that wakes me up with the radio and traffic reports for my commute"
If I could only find a decent alarm clock without the default snooze feature, requiring to fiddle with small buttons to set it to the next day... and maybe with a calendar to avoid to ring on festivities, and let me upload a decent alarm sound.... without being a phone which I do not like to keep mext to my bed.
Instead all alarm clocks look to be built on the same chinese-made chip.
I used to have a dog, but it was fixed on one setting.
Nice!
Fritz
Kick out Alexa the spy, but be nice to Fritz!
I have had a Fritz!Box router & phone answering machine for 10 years and remain delighted with it.
Fritz could give you an alarm call, without telling any Trumpistan tech giants about it!
It's quite alarming: this should be a massive wake-up call to all involved!
Just use a phone (qualified advice)
Why don't people just use the alarms on their phones, because they always work don't they?
Oops, Android user here, I forgot about our fruity friends:
[1]Apple working to fix alarming iPhone issue
[2]iPhone alarm glitch leaves Apple users late for work: ‘Trying to explain this to my boss and not sound like I’m lying’
Probably best to get an old fashioned alarm cube then.
[1] https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c0kl4glp547o
[2] https://nypost.com/2025/01/14/tech/iphone-alarm-glitch-leaves-apple-users-late-for-work/
one man's ewaste is another man's ewaste.
I've never understood why people buy these things, does everything have to be part of the IoT? I have an alarm clock that's gone off 6:30am every day, no NIC required, and since the release of the Echo and Dot and whatever Apple is putting out, I haven't been able to figure out what they actually offer beyond an additional point of failure.
Sorry I'm a Bit Late With This Comment...
...I slept in as my alarm didn't go off.