We’re not hearing yet complaints or issues about Amazon’s truly wireless earbuds, the Echo Buds, overheating while charging. But it looks like they are getting ahead of the problem as they’re now advising users to update their earbuds’ software to the latest version to fix the potential overheating issue, “out of an abundance of caution.” This is probably a wise course of action before any problem arises, although some more details about when and why it overheats would have been better.
Owners of the Echo Buds are being notified by Amazon that there are “very rare cases” when their earbuds would overheat while in the charging case. And so they have released a software update that would fix this “potential safety risk” and at the same time, improve the performance of the batteries of your device. They didn’t give any other specifics like what conditions could trigger the overheating of the earbuds.
The “safe” updated software of the Echo Buds is version 318119151 or higher. You can check what version your earbuds are by going to the Alexa app on your connected smartphone. Under Devices, you should see Echo & Alexa so choose Echo Buds from that list. You should be able to see what version you’re on in the About screen. There is no news as to how many people are affected by it but better to be safe than sorry of course.
Lithium-ion batteries and overheating have caused problems before, specifically the infamous recall of the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 a few years ago. If you remember, some phones actually exploded before overheating. Since then there have still been some issues although not as severe. Overheating batteries resulted in reduced battery life or batteries becoming degraded early on.
The software update to the Echo Buds should install automatically. Your earbuds have to be in the case with lid closed and of course, connected to your smartphone. A 30% charge is also needed for the update to happen.
