The publisher. smarthomegenius.site is written and published independently by Vanshika. Amazon.com, Inc. owns no part of it, funds no part of it and has approved no part of it, and the same goes for every other maker, seller or brand owner whose equipment turns up on these pages. Amazon runs its own website, and support for Alexa belongs there.
The edges of it. Explanation in writing is all that gets made here, and the list of what does not exist is worth stating outright. No number has ever been published. Nobody sits and advises. Nothing gets reached into from elsewhere, no fault is traced, no login is put back, and no piece of hardware is repaired. Across the whole site there is not one field asking for a password, a card, or any detail belonging to you, and nowhere to log in even if there were.
Whoever holds the Alexa name holds it still, as with Echo and Echo Dot. They turn up on these pages because there is no other way to indicate which hardware is meant. Should a piece of your own equipment have actually failed, that is a matter for its maker or for the shop that sold it.
Changed broadband · plain English
A new router, a new provider or a new password takes every connected device offline at the same moment. Here is why, and what it actually takes to put right.
At setup, every connected thing was handed the network's name and its password, and it filed both away. That filed pair is what brings it back on its own after the power returns. Alter either and all those filings turn false in the same second.
Ask the engineer fitting the replacement whether the old name and password can be put onto it. Where that is done, the house reconnects by itself and no device wants looking at.
Start here
The remedy differs considerably depending on which of these happened. Tap whichever applies.
Tap what changed
Your answer appears just underneath
General guidance on what follows from each. Nothing here reaches your equipment.
In more detail
Nothing has failed. Understanding why makes the remedy obvious.
During setup, an Echo is handed two things: the name of the network and its password. It keeps a copy of both, permanently, in its own memory. That copy is what lets it find its way back unaided after a power cut, without anybody being asked to configure it again.
It is a sensible arrangement, and it works invisibly for years.
A new broadband provider brings a new network name and a new password. Every device in the house is holding the previous pair, and all of those stored copies stop being true simultaneously. Speakers, plugs, bulbs, cameras, the printer — all of them lose the network at the same moment, for the same reason.
The scale of it is what alarms people. A whole house falling silent looks like a serious failure rather than a name change.
New equipment can usually be configured to carry the old network name and password across. Where an engineer does that, every device reconnects on its own and nobody notices anything happened.
It costs nothing to ask, and it is far easier to arrange while somebody is standing there than afterwards. Where the new box has already arrived with its own printed credentials and those have been used, the effect is the same as a change of provider entirely.
A far smaller matter. The network name is unchanged, so devices still recognise where to go — they are simply being refused on arrival. Each one wants the new password entered once, and nothing else about the arrangement has moved.
Renaming a network, by contrast, has exactly the same effect as changing provider. Devices identify a network by its name, so a renamed one has, as far as they are concerned, simply vanished.
Worth having ready
Working through this beforehand is what prevents a second afternoon being lost to it.
Tick each one as it turns up
Nothing leaves this page and nothing is stored
A list to work through, that is all. None of it is typed in here.
Questions
Each answer opens where you tap it.
No. Each one needs telling the new network details, which is a different and much shorter job than starting over. The application carries a setting for exactly this, and devices keep their names, rooms and groups throughout.
What would be lost is the arrangement of rooms and groups, and that stays intact.
Very often, yes. Network name and password are settings on the router rather than anything fixed by the provider, and an engineer can usually carry both across.
Ask while they are still there. Doing it afterwards means reaching the router's configuration yourself, which some providers restrict on their own equipment.
Same reason. Every connected thing in the house stored the same network details, and all of those copies stopped being true at once — printers, cameras, plugs, televisions, thermostats.
The scale of it is what makes it look like a serious fault. It is one change affecting many devices, not many faults.
The devices behave identically — new network, so each wants telling. The part that catches people out is anything left behind for the new occupants.
Equipment staying with the house should be unlinked from your account before you go, or whoever moves in cannot set it up. That is done in the application, and it is much easier before the move than after.
Keep going
All free to read, all published here.