Alexa App Alarms Not Working: 119 Reviews (2026)

If you opened the Alexa app this summer, went to set an alarm, and every Echo in your house was listed as offline while sitting there playing music, you were not misconfigured. You were on a specific build, and several hundred other people wrote the same review you almost wrote.

Can no longer add/edit/delete/toggle on or off alarms. All say unknown device (offline) next to them or no devices show in the list if trying to create a new alarm. All devices are online and able to set/edit/delete alarms via the devices themselves (which is what we've been forced to do since not being able to do anything with

Alarms will not work since last update unless I set them directly from my Alexa devices. All devices say offline in alarms but online under devices. So frustrating and unusuable for a couple weeks now. I can't even delete the alarms or set new ones.

We read the 3,000 newest Google Play reviews of Amazon Alexa from the United States store, dated 14 May 2026 to 2 September 2026, a 110 day window. Of those, 2,300 are 1-3 stars and 1,012 are substantial, meaning at least 120 characters. 119 of those 1,012, or 11.8%, say they could not set, edit, cancel or see an alarm, timer or reminder in the app. 84 of the 119 are one star.

Seventy-five of the 119, 63%, name the same specific signature: the app reports the device as offline or unknown, inside the alarm screen, while the same device is online everywhere else.

The filter is literal and it undercounts. A reviewer who writes "I can't make changes to reminders" is describing exactly this and is not in the 119, because the phrase does not match the wording we searched for. Treat 119 as a floor.

On Google Play, Alexa holds 4.04 stars from 5,696,738 ratings with more than 100 million installs, and 928,011 of those ratings are one star. The iOS listing holds 4.54 from 5,867,276. The app carries no ads and declares no in-app purchases.

The Finding: This Bug Has A Start Date And An End Date

Most complaint clusters are shapeless. This one is not. Sorted by the app version the reviewer was running, it appears out of nowhere, runs for about six weeks, and stops.

Across the six builds before 2.2.694622.0 there are 351 substantial negative reviews and not one of them describes this. Across the two newest builds there are 77 and, again, none.

By calendar week the picture is the same. The bug does not exist for eight consecutive weeks, then it does.

Two honest qualifications. The version label on a review is whatever build the reviewer had installed when they wrote, so the boundaries are approximate rather than exact. And nobody in this corpus writes to say it was fixed, which is normal, because people do not review apps to report good news. The disappearance of the complaint is strong evidence, not a confirmation. One reviewer gives the reason to keep watching:

I can't make changes to reminders. Show the list, click on a reminder, dumps you back at the list. This breaks, gets fixed and breaks again in a continuous cycle. No quality checking at all. Rubbish.

What The Bug Actually Looked Like

The signature is unusually consistent for something users are describing from memory. The device list says online. The alarm screen says offline or unknown device. Voice still works.

Amazon keeps finding ways to make Alexa app and hardware worse. Lately even though devices show online on devices tab, when trying to add reminders or make changes to alarms, devices are shown as offline.

Terrible since the latest update. I can no longer access any of my devices from the app to set alarms or reminders. it just says unknown and device offline for every echo I have in the alarms section even though in the main

German

seit einiger Zeit kann in der app kein Wecker mehr eingestellt werden. Bei einem neuen Wecker ist die Liste der Geräte leer und bei bestehenden steht das Gerät ist offline, obwohl es in der normalen Geräteübersicht online ist und per Sprache auch bedient werden kann.

That last one is from the German storefront, and we will come back to why that matters. One reviewer quotes the error string itself, which is the most useful single line in the whole set for anyone trying to confirm they had this and not something else.

Horrendous. " Unable to find the device that this alarm belongs to. Please restart the Alexa app and try again." My Alexas are online. All are working fine. The app is mostly useless now.

The practical consequence is not just that alarms could not be created. Existing alarms could not be turned off or deleted either, which is a different and worse problem.

since the new update you can not add devices to alarms anymore (which makes alarm not work at all). it all started by having all my alarms showm as unknown device and it cant be fixed aymore.

New Update- Bugs since new update I'm unable to set an alarm via the app as its always saying my devices are offline - please fix this

ever since the Alexa 2.0 update this app has gone from decent to terrible, just when I didn't think it could get worse it did. I can no longer set any alarms from the app. Every device is set as unknown and unresponsive.

Timers had their own version of it, which was a blank screen rather than an error.

Garbage since last update. Try look at Timers then all I get is a blank screen. All alarms show a device offline message even though they are not. These functions used to work but the last update has just screwed up these basic functions...

Awful since update, can no longer view timers that I have set on my Echo on my phone. Please put it back to how it was before!

Why can I no longer see active timers on the home screen? I now have to do 3 taps to see what originally needed none. Well done, you've managed to make this app even harder to use.

And reminders could be seen but not edited or deleted, which for some people meant they kept firing.

FIX OPENING REMINDERS - ISSUE HAS BEEN THERE FOR WEEKS. since the new update, reminders are not. opening and you cannot edit them. this is a pain if you have done a mistake or something needs to be edited.

Handy for smart device control/routines and as extra speakers, but the reminder feature (the main thing I use it for) keeps breaking. With the latest update I can no longer edit or delete reminders I had previously set, so they go off at times I don't want them to and I have to unplug the Echo devices to disable them.

After the July 2026 update I can no longer edit or delete reminders in the app. Fix it please. The new design is even worse than it was, if that's possible.

Why An Alarm Bug Is Not A Small Bug

It is tempting to file this under interface annoyance. The reviews do not read that way, because an alarm is a thing people build a morning around.

since update amazon echo dots alarm now doesn't work properly, usually says it's offline and today alarm didn't go off at all. Now late for work so binning the echo dot and replacing with a non alexa product.

Since the update. Its TERRIBLE. Slow interface, my alarm setting didn't work as it made me late for work. Takes forever to open the alarm setting in the app.

Last update ruined the app. It doesn't recognize any of our Echo devices. I use it primarily for my son's alarm and now I can't edit it in the app. Useless.

One reviewer describes relying on it for medication:

since the last update they did the app does not work. Try to set reminders and it won't add, trying to turn alarms on and says all offline (I have 3) plus am playing music so they aren't offline. It's the same for adding to shopping list. needs to be fixed ASAP.

And one describes the failure mode that gives no warning at all, where the alarm exists, the device thinks it fired, and no sound comes out:

Alarms stopped working.... my alarms stopped making noise. according to my Echo Dot, it still works but it's silent. According to the app, both my Dot and Show are are offline.

The Wider Picture: What Else People Say Stopped Working

The alarm cluster sits inside a bigger one. 292 of the 1,012 substantial negatives, 28.9%, describe the app or the assistant as worse than it used to be, and 126 of them, 12.5%, name a specific capability that used to work and now does not.

Alarms are the single most named loss, and by a wide margin. That is worth sitting with, because it is the most basic thing the hardware does.

The monthly share of the wider regression cluster also rises across the window, from 27.0% in May and 25.8% in June to 29.4% in July and 31.2% in August. That is a real move but a modest one, and unlike the alarm bug it has no clean version boundary, so we are not going to call it a single cause.

Seventy-two of the 1,012 name Alexa+ by name. Some blame it directly for the app getting worse:

orginally this was great. then they updated and made "alexa +" mandatory. they removed the old product i enjoyed to control my smart home devices, and replaced it with an AI search engine.

Like the I-phone, Amazon deliberately downgrades their app to force the subscription to Alexa+. I had it. Before I had it, the app worked good without it. then I canceled Amazon Prime because it, too, sucks. Soon after, issues have been cascading. one routine after another has quit working.

We are flagging that as an opinion held by reviewers, not as a finding, because a user cannot see from the outside which change caused which break. What we can check is who the alarm bug hit. Not one of the 119 alarm reviews mentions paying or a subscription, and only five name Alexa+ at all. Whatever caused it, it was not confined to people who had opted into the new tier.

The Same Bug, In German, On The Same Dates

This is the part that closes the case. We pulled reviews from 45 Google Play storefronts outside the United States and kept only what we had not already seen: 4,212 new reviews, 755 substantial negatives, of which 452 fall inside the same May to September window.

Thirty-four of those 452 match alarm and reminder failure keywords in their own language. Sorted by month, an entirely separate set of reviewers, writing in four other languages, reproduces the American timeline exactly.

Zero, zero, then it starts in July, then it stops. Twenty-three of the 34 are from the German storefront, five French, five Italian and one Spanish. They describe the same screen.

German

Ich kann keine Wecker mehr über die App einstellen. Alle Geräte werden als offline angezeigt, obwohl sie online sind. Wieder mal alles kaputt geupdated. Vorher hatte alles wunderbar funktioniert...

German

Wecker sagt alle Geräte offline obwohl sie in der Geräteübersicht als online angezeigt werden. Eigentlich ist 1 Stern noch zu viel.....

German

Seit ca. einer Woche kann ich die Wecker nicht mehr mit der App verwalten. Geräte auf dem ein Wecker gestellt ist oder gestellt werden soll, ist als offline angegeben obwohl diese Geräte in der Geräteverwaltung online und auch sonst voll funktionsfähig sind.

French

Nouvelle appli bug déjà, tous mes appareils apparaissent hors ligne dans la section réveil et rappel, est ce que vous testez vos applis avant de les diffuser ?

French

depuis la dernière mise à jour impossible de paramétrer de nouvelles alarmes, ou même de modifier celle des gens en place. appareil inconnu ou impossible de sélectionner un appareil

Italian

Prima l'applicazione funzionava discretamente bene. Adesso, invece, dopo l'ultimo aggiornamento è necessario riavviarla almeno 2/3 volte affinché funzioni (per esempio, per attivare la sveglia) perché i dispositivi risultano offline. Pessima, peccato.

The German reviews independently reproduce the detail that makes the bug diagnosable: online in the device overview, offline in the alarm screen, and voice control still working. A user in Munich and a user in Ohio, neither reading the other, describing the same three facts, is about as close to a reproduction as public review data gets.

As always, a storefront is not a country and a store bucket is not a language. Every label above was assigned by reading the review text.

How To Fix It, According To The People Who Fixed It

None of these steps come from Amazon's documentation. Each one is the workaround that reviewers in this corpus report actually using, in rough order of how often it worked for them.

Step 1: Update The App Before Anything Else

The complaints in this data stop entirely at app version 2.2.704787.0, across 74 substantial negative reviews. If your Alexa app is on 2.2.694622.0, 2.2.695641.0 or 2.2.698932.0, that is the affected range, and updating is the only thing here that addresses the cause rather than working around it. Check your version in the Play Store listing or in the app under settings, and let it update fully rather than resuming a paused download.

Step 2: Set The Alarm By Voice On The Device Itself

This is the workaround the cluster converges on, and it worked for nearly everyone who tried it. The bug lived in the app's alarm screen, not in the device. Say it to the Echo directly. Reviewers report the alarm is then created correctly and even shows up in the app afterwards, while the app still insists the device is offline.

App has had a technical issue for weeks. My alarm function does not work in the app any more. I cannot add an alarm or turn one on and off of either my two devices. Both are showing as Unknown in the app even though the show online in the device details. I can speak to them and they function fine.

since the app update, I cannot set alarms manually, says the device is offline yet when I go into that device says its online. have rebooted the echo device have uninstall ed and reinstalled the app, sometimes this works. the alarm can be set by voice control but I don't want to have to do that.

The limit is real and worth knowing before you rely on it: several reviewers point out that deleting or editing an existing alarm by voice is clumsier than tapping it, and one describes needing four prompts where one used to do.

The app has gone downhill since Alexa+. I can't even set an alarm without logging out and in again as the alarms become unrecognisable after I cancel them all, which now takes about 4 prompts instead of just 1.

Step 3: Force Close And Reopen, More Than Once

The second most reported workaround, and the most annoying. Multiple reviewers independently report that the devices appear after the app is closed and reopened, sometimes on the second attempt, sometimes the third.

Whenever I open the Alexa App to check on timers or alarms, I am forced to close it and open it 4-5 times. The alarms will show offline and there will be no devices listed. This has open began happen recently.

New app update is terrible, every time I try and update or set an alarm all of my echo devices are seemingly offline. I have to restart the app 1000 times just to get it to see the device is online so I can set the alarm...

Step 4: Clear The App Cache And Data, Then Sign In Again

Reported as working by several people, and reported as working only temporarily by others, so set your expectations accordingly. On Android this is under app info, storage, clear cache and clear storage. You will have to sign in again afterwards.

What on earth happened in latest update?! Takes forever to load my devices. and my alarms apparently can't connect unless i constantly restart the device (or as I've now discovered clear the app cache). This is a daily occurrence & ridiculous.

Practically unusable now since the update. App keeps stating ALL devices are offline so I can't even edit simple things like alarms. Managed to get it working by clearing the app cache & data then uninstalling and reinstalling, but that only worked once as I've just tried again

Two reviewers report stranger fixes that cost nothing to try: changing the app's language and changing it back, and running Android's own battery and device care optimisation to close background apps.

Since update, alarms go offline in app. I have to change language in order to get them to be online again. My routine glitch and stop or talk over one another. Otherwise, works okay.

8/8/26: THANKS TO ANOTHER COMMENTER! If you go to [battery & device care] on your phone (android) and then select OPTIMIZE NOW, it closes down background apps, and then for some reason THEN the app shows all your devices and they are all showing as online! OMG!! 7/14/26: Now my alarms all say "Unknown Device, Offline".

Step 5: Keep A Second Alarm Until You Have Watched One Fire

This is the step nobody wants and several reviewers wish they had taken. The failure in this corpus is not always visible: the alarm can exist, the app can show it as set, and no sound comes out. Until you have personally watched an alarm go off after fixing it, set a duplicate on your phone. Two of the reviewers above were late for work, and one was managing a child's morning.

lately, when accessing devices on the app. it just says the devices are offline. I trouble shot the wifi. my phone and all the echo devices I have. and it says offline. so I can verbally set an alarm, and she sets it but can't set alarms or anything using this app.

Uninstalling and reinstalling, for the record, is the one thing multiple reviewers tried and specifically reported as not working, so it is not a step on this list.

can't add or edit my alarms anymore. devices show online in main device menu but when you go to alarms its shows unknown device offline. I have logged back in multiple times, Uninstalled and reinstalled the app. nothing works

What This Does Not Show

We are reading complaints, not telemetry, and the limits should be stated.

The 11.8% is a share of substantial negative reviews, not of users. People who are not affected do not write, and people who are affected write more than once. Nothing here says how many households hit this.

Version labels are approximate. A reviewer's build is whatever they had installed when they typed, which is why the boundaries in the table are clean but not exact.

The end of the complaints is evidence of a fix, not proof of one. No reviewer says it was fixed, and one says explicitly that this area breaks, gets fixed and breaks again.

And 893 of the 1,012 substantial negatives are about something else: the interface, the AI, the speed, the answers. This is one cluster inside a much broader unhappiness with the app, not the whole story of it.

Where To See The Reviews

We keep a running breakdown of the negative reviews for the Amazon Alexa Android app and the iOS listing, updated from the same source as this article, along with a trust check on whether the Alexa app is legit and a list of alternatives to Alexa for anyone whose patience has run out.

If you are still seeing offline devices in the alarm screen on a current build, that is worth reporting, because on this data it would be a return rather than a leftover.