There are various reasons why an Amazon Echo might be displaying a red light. The most common cause is that the device is muted. You might be familiar with the mute function if you’ve ever been startled out of your wits by the device suddenly piping up because it thought you were addressing it (as many users have). The device is essentially dormant while muted, ticking along without responding to any voice prompts it may be inadvertently given. That scarlet hue, however, can be somewhat unnerving if the user hasn’t intentionally muted their Echo.
If your Echo doesn’t respond to commands, you can try unmuting the device by pressing the microphone button on the top or side of the device. If your device can respond to you when the red light is on, you can rule out the system being muted.
When a user asks what the red light means, Alexa will state, “A red light on your device indicates the microphone or camera is turned off, or there’s a device communication error.” Further, the red light indicates that the video function isn’t active, should your Echo have video capabilities. Let’s look at the other potential communication issues that could result in the red light.
