Alexa is a virtual assistant to reckon with since its initial release in 2014; it has stayed relevant, sometimes ranked as the best digital voice assistance.
No doubt, Alexa is quite reliable and very efficient. However, like every other technology work, it sometimes develops a fault or two. A rare one is when one realizes that Alexa is not playing music.
For so many of us, music is more than a medium of entertainment; some work with music, relax with music, focus on music, and many other activities. So, when our Amazon echo music stops playing we tend to get pissed.
Without much ado, let’s see 13 Possible Ways To Tackle The “Alexa Not Playing Music Error”
Why Does Alexa Stop Playing Music?
This is quite a rare occurrence; however, sometimes it still happens. There’s no particular reason you are experiencing this as it could vary. Poor network connection due to a congested network or your ISP could be a cause, something as little as a mismatched location for your Amazon account and Alexa services could cause this.Â
On the Amazon website, they even stated opening your firewall ports as one of the solutions to resolve this issue; therefore, your Firewall could be a cause. Some other petty reasons may be due to a streaming limitation or an exhausted subscription.
Alexa having trouble playing music? Here’s what to do
It is often unlikely for this error to rear its head, but it is usually not delightful when it does.
After issuing the “play music command,” be it from Spotify, Tidal, TuneIn, Apple Music, Amazon Music, or Pandora, and your digital virtual assistant refuses to respond, you should try any of the solutions below.Â
1. Restart your assistant
Restarting devices when they develop a fault is one of the quickest and surest ways to solve problems. When you observe that your Alexa is having trouble playing music, a quick restart might solve the issue.
Step 1: Switch off your Echo with the Power button.
Step 2: Unplug the cable from the device or the power source.
Step 3: Leave the device unplugged for about 30 seconds.
Step 4: Reconnect it and power on the device, then check if the problem persists.
2. Check the network connection
You should also check your network connection. If you have a poor network, Echo might likely encounter some difficulty while functioning. To check if the fault isn’t from your network, you should try any of these.
- Disconnect and reconnect your WiFi network. If they are many devices connected to your WiFi, they’ll be a tussle for bandwidth; these devices could sap so much that it may leave Echo with barely enough; to resolve this, disconnect and reconnect your WiFi to decongest it. If this resolves the issue, disconnect devices that aren’t relevant temporarily.
- Change your router position, microwaves, ovens, mirrors, metals, thick walls, and many other objects in your house could affect the network’s free flow. If possible, elevate your router or move your Echo closer to it.Â
- 2GHz band is quite reliable; nevertheless, it sometimes doesn’t give that speed needed. If your router supports the 5GHz band, switch to it.
3. Check your subscription status
Often, these music services demand a subscription to keep giving you quality music. Be it Amazon Music, Apple Music, Spotify, or any other music service that works with Alexa. You should check if your subscription is still active. The steps to do this varies with music services.Â
For Amazon Music, all you have to do is visit the Amazon website from your web browser, sign in to your account if you aren’t signed it already, select your name, which is above the Account & Lists option, then navigate to Membership & Subscription (or Your Prime Membership).
4. Check your streaming devices
For instance, Prime Music allows you to stream on just one device at a time from a particular Prime account. Suppose you are playing music on the Amazon app or some other Echo device. In that case, you likely won’t be able to use the “Alexa play music” command due to the streaming limit.
Check if the other music services you use to have this restriction too.Â
5. Make Prime your default music provider
Amazon Prime is the best and easiest way to enjoy music on Echo. To avoid many skirmishes, you should consider making Prime your default music player.
Step 1: Open the Alexa app.
Step 2: Tap on the three dots (hamburger icon) at the top left-hand corner of your device’s screen.
Step 3: Locate and open the Settings option, then select Music.
Step 4: Tap Default Services and make Amazon Music your default music player.
This is perfect, especially if you have multiple music players on your Alexa app.
6. Select a default account
Not all Amazon accounts are the same and have the feature to play from Amazon Music; only Prime members have this leisure. Suppose your Echo is connected to different profiles linked to other Amazon accounts by chance. In that case, you won’t enjoy Prime music then.Â
So if Alexa is not playing music and has multiple accounts and profiles, you should switch to a Prime membership profile. Make use of the “Alexa switch user or profile” command, then sign in to a Prime account.
7. Check if the song is available
They are countless songs uploaded daily; Spotify can boast of over 60,000 uploads every day, so it is likely your streaming service doesn’t have that particular song. Amazon Prime Unlimited, for a start, has more songs than Prime Music.Â
Try playing another song, especially a pretty common song that would likely be on Prime to resolve this. It would be best if you also tried searching for the song manually from the Prime Music app. If other songs play, then we know what’s wrong.
8. Open Firewall ports
Firewalls are generally good; they help protect you and your network from unwanted visitors, especially hackers. One of the ways they do this is by preventing connections through some ports.
As good as this may sound, sometimes the Firewall gets over-ambitious and blocks access to Alexa; the solution here is to open your firewall ports and allow connections through the ports listed below.
Step 1: Find out how to access your combo page; it is usually with your IP.
Step 2: Launch your web browser and input your IP address into the address bar and strike Enter.Â
Step 3: Input your router username and password in the field provided.
Step 4: Navigate to the Settings page and locate the Port Forwarding area. Now, open the ports below.
- 123
- 443
- 4070
- 5353
- 33434
- 40317
- 49317
9. Disable explicit filter
By default, Amazon Music filters out songs with explicit content or lyrics. If the song you try to play has some explicit lyrics and the filter feature is still active, you may encounter the error we are dealing with. To disable this feature, follow the steps below.
Step 1: Launch your Alexa app and tap the three horizontal bars at the top left corner of your screen.
Step 2: Select the Settings option and locate Music.
Step 3: Select the Explicit Filter option, then toggle it off by tapping the switch.
10. Confirm your Amazon country
If suddenly Alexa stopped playing music, it could be due to a country mismatch. Probably your Amazon account and Alexa services location aren’t the same. To resolve this, you’ll be updating both service locations to where you are.Â
Step 1: From your web browser, go to the Manage Your Content and Devices page by clicking this link.Â
Step 2: Sign in using your Amazon details if required.
Step 3: Locate and click the Settings option. If you can’t find it click on the “Go to the Manage Your Content and Devices page at Amazon..” link.
Step 4: If you can see the Country Settings click on it; if you can’t go to Preferences at the top menu bar and then select Country/Region Settings.
Step 5: Strike the Change button and select your current location.
Step 6: Amazon now shows you a text which reads, “Click here to learn more about other Amazon sites” click on it.
Step 7: Now, click on Learn or Learn about, then confirm your location under the Update your default Kindle Store to Amazon text.
Now try playing music to see if the problem persists.
11. Go through your Echo settings
This may seem unlikely, but a wrong timezone could affect your seamless music stream. Go through your device’s location, language, and timezone and make sure they are accurate.
Step 1: Launch your Alexa app and select the Devices option from the bottom.
Step 2: Select the Echo & Alexa button from the top three options, then click on your Echo name, e.g., Mikel’s Echo Dot.
Step 3: Go through your device’s Location, Language, and Timezone and confirm it matches your local information. Update what needs to be updated and try playing a song.
12. Move music to another country
If your Alexa is still having trouble playing music, you should try changing your Amazon Music country to your current location (preferably).Â
Step 1: Go to music.Amazon.com from your computer’s web browser.
Step 2: If prompted, sign in with your Amazon credentials, then click on your name, which is at the bottom of the left pane.
Step 3: Select the Your Amazon Music Settings option from the menu list.
Step 4: This takes you to the settings page. Go down and select the Move your Music account option, which is under the Amazon Music Account Country/Region heading, finally change your location.
13. Deregister and Re-register Echo
If Alexa won’t still play music, the final solution is to deregister your Echo device, then re-register it from the Alexa app.
Step 1: Launch the Alexa app and tap on the Devices option from the lower right side of your screen.
Step 2: Tap on Echo & Alexa next you tap on your Echo device’s name.
Step 3: Go down and tap on Deregister
Step 4: Wait for a while, then follow the steps above and re-register it, then set it up.
Conclusion
We all hate being cut off our music, especially when we need it the most. If your Alexa is not playing, you can try any of the solutions listed here. Before diving in, I advise you first to restart your Echo, which often solves many problems devices encounter. If that doesn’t work, this article has twelve other ways to try to rectify this issue. Thank you for stopping by, have a great day.
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