Amazon Echo Show bug causes devices to use gigabytes of data

Amazon’s Echo Show smart display recently encountered a nasty bug that consumed massive amounts of bandwidth. The bug has since been patched.

The issue was first flagged by former Microsoft engineer Dave W. Plummer, who noted on X that his two Echo Show units had burned through a staggering 4GB of data in under 24 hours. Reactions online quickly veered into conspiracy theory territory, but Plummer offered more grounded explanations: a software bug, a hefty update, or cached video.

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At the time, plenty of explanations were on the table. Some users speculated the always-listening feature was to blame, with the device constantly uploading audio snippets for processing. Others pointed to Amazon Sidewalk, the company’s mesh network that lets smart devices connect across a neighborhood. But that theory didn’t hold much weight either — Sidewalk is designed as a low-bandwidth service with a strict 500MB monthly cap.

Amazon has since confirmed to Tom’s Hardware that it was indeed a caching bug. What was happening, it appears, was that the devices were downloading unnecessarily huge photos. Normally, Echo Show pulls down images for backgrounds and screensavers that are between 1MB and 4MB in size, which is sufficiently large enough for the device's display. In this case, it was fetching ultra–high–resolution shots far larger than the display’s 1080p panel could handle.

Thankfully, the mystery (and the bug) is solved now.