Bug results in Echo Show devices consuming large amounts of data

Amazon’s Echo Show smart display recently experienced a significant bug that resulted in a massive consumption of bandwidth. The bug has since been fixed.

Former Microsoft engineer Dave W. Plummer was the first to highlight the issue, reporting that his two Echo Show units utilized an astonishing 4GB of data in less than 24 hours. Speculation online initially leaned towards conspiracy theories, but Plummer provided more plausible reasons: a software bug, a substantial update, or cached video.

Amazon later confirmed to Tom’s Hardware that the issue was indeed a caching bug. It was discovered that the devices were downloading excessively large photos unnecessarily. Typically, the Echo Show downloads images for backgrounds and screensavers ranging from 1MB to 4MB, which is adequate for the display. However, in this case, it was retrieving ultra-high-resolution photos much larger than the device’s 1080p panel could support.

Fortunately, the mystery has been solved, and the bug has been rectified.