I recently updated the firmware on my Philips Hue bulbs throughout the house, hoping to fix some lag issues with the app. Instead, now several of them flicker sporadically, especially the ones in the living room and kitchen. I've tried resetting the bulbs and power cycling the bridge, but no luck. The weird part is that the flickering seems to happen mostly when I use voice commands via Alexa, but not when I control them manually through the app.

I’m using the latest version of the Hue app and my Echo Dot is fully updated too. The bulbs are about 2 years old, so not exactly brand new, but they've never acted up like this before. Ideally, I want them to respond smoothly to voice and app controls without flickering.

Has anyone experienced this kind of post-update flicker? Could it be a compatibility bug between Alexa and Hue? Should I try downgrading firmware or is it better to wait for an official fix? Also, are there any reliable ways to diagnose if it’s a network, hardware, or software issue causing this?

On 01/29/2026 at 3:20 AM, TechGuru42 said:

I recently updated the firmware on my Philips Hue bulbs throughout the house, hoping to fix some lag issues with the app. Instead, now several of them flicker sporadically, especially the ones in the living room and kitchen. I've tried resetting the bulbs and power cycling the bridge, but no luck. The weird part is that the flickering seems to happen mostly when I use voice commands via Alexa, but not when I control them manually through the app.

I’m using the latest version of the Hue app and my Echo Dot is fully updated too. The bulbs are about 2 years old, so not exactly brand new, but they've never acted up like this before. Ideally, I want them to respond smoothly to voice and app controls without flickering.

Has anyone experienced this kind of post-update flicker? Could it be a compatibility bug between Alexa and Hue? Should I try downgrading firmware or is it better to wait for an official fix? Also, are there any reliable ways to diagnose if it’s a network, hardware, or software issue causing this?

That flickering sounds super frustrating, especially since it’s tied to Alexa commands. I had a similar issue a while back after a Hue firmware update, and it turned out to be a weird handshake problem between the bulbs and the Alexa skill. One workaround that helped me was unlinking and then relinking the Hue skill in the Alexa app - kind of like a fresh start for their communication. It’s not a guaranteed fix, but worth a shot before downgrading firmware, which can be tricky.

Also, since you mentioned it’s mostly the living room and kitchen bulbs, double-check if those bulbs are on the same Zigbee channel or near any other wireless devices that might cause interference. Sometimes firmware updates can make devices more sensitive to that. If you have a Zigbee channel scanner app or a Hue-compatible hub with diagnostics, it might reveal if there’s a network clash.

Fingers crossed Hue or Alexa patches this soon, but meanwhile, those

That flickering with voice commands sounds super frustrating, especially since the app control works fine. It could definitely be some weird interaction between the latest Hue firmware and Alexa’s commands. I had something similar happen after a firmware update where the bulbs would blink briefly when triggered by voice but stayed stable otherwise.

One thing you might try is unlinking and then re-linking the Hue skill in Alexa. Sometimes that clears up weird command translation bugs. Also, if you have any other smart hubs or devices controlling those bulbs, try isolating them to see if there’s a conflict. Downgrading firmware is tricky since Philips doesn’t always make older versions easy to get, but waiting for a patch might be safest unless you’re comfortable with some risk.

For diagnosing, you could try running the bulbs on a separate Zigbee channel if your bridge supports it, to rule out interference. Also, check if the flickering happens with any other voice assistants or just Alexa

On 01/29/2026 at 3:20 AM, TechGuru42 said:

I recently updated the firmware on my Philips Hue bulbs throughout the house, hoping to fix some lag issues with the app. Instead, now several of them flicker sporadically, especially the ones in the living room and kitchen. I've tried resetting the bulbs and power cycling the bridge, but no luck. The weird part is that the flickering seems to happen mostly when I use voice commands via Alexa, but not when I control them manually through the app.

I’m using the latest version of the Hue app and my Echo Dot is fully updated too. The bulbs are about 2 years old, so not exactly brand new, but they've never acted up like this before. Ideally, I want them to respond smoothly to voice and app controls without flickering.

Has anyone experienced this kind of post-update flicker? Could it be a compatibility bug between Alexa and Hue? Should I try downgrading firmware or is it better to wait for an official fix? Also, are there any reliable ways to diagnose if it’s a network, hardware, or software issue causing this?

That flickering sounds super frustrating, especially since it only happens with Alexa commands. I had a similar issue after a Hue firmware update where the bulbs would blink when triggered by voice but worked fine through the app. In my case, it turned out to be a timing conflict between Alexa’s command signals and the bulbs’ new firmware response time.

One thing that helped was unlinking and relinking the Hue skill in Alexa, then rebooting the Echo Dot. It’s like it forced Alexa to refresh its connection and command queue. Also, double-check if your Hue bridge firmware is fully up to date, since sometimes the bridge and bulbs need to be perfectly in sync.

If that doesn’t work, I’d hold off on downgrading firmware unless you find an official rollback method from Philips. Sometimes waiting for a patch is safer, but you could also reach out to Philips support - they might have a beta fix or workaround for this weird Alexa interaction. Fingers crossed

On 01/29/2026 at 3:20 AM, TechGuru42 said:

I recently updated the firmware on my Philips Hue bulbs throughout the house, hoping to fix some lag issues with the app. Instead, now several of them flicker sporadically, especially the ones in the living room and kitchen. I've tried resetting the bulbs and power cycling the bridge, but no luck. The weird part is that the flickering seems to happen mostly when I use voice commands via Alexa, but not when I control them manually through the app.

I’m using the latest version of the Hue app and my Echo Dot is fully updated too. The bulbs are about 2 years old, so not exactly brand new, but they've never acted up like this before. Ideally, I want them to respond smoothly to voice and app controls without flickering.

Has anyone experienced this kind of post-update flicker? Could it be a compatibility bug between Alexa and Hue? Should I try downgrading firmware or is it better to wait for an official fix? Also, are there any reliable ways to diagnose if it’s a network, hardware, or software issue causing this?

That flickering tied specifically to Alexa commands sounds like it could be a timing or signal handshake issue between the Echo and the bulbs after the firmware update. I had a similar problem when my Hue bulbs started glitching only when triggered by voice, and it turned out to be a weird firmware mismatch between the bridge and bulbs. Sometimes the bulbs’ firmware updates faster than the bridge or Alexa integration can handle.

Since you’ve already reset bulbs and power cycled the bridge, you might want to try removing the bulbs from the Hue app, then re-adding them one by one to force a fresh sync. Also, double-check if there’s a separate Alexa skill update or a Hue skill re-link needed after the firmware update. Downgrading firmware can be risky unless you can confirm the exact version that worked well before. If nothing helps, submitting logs to Philips support might push them to prioritize a fix.

On 01/29/2026 at 3:20 AM, TechGuru42 said:

I recently updated the firmware on my Philips Hue bulbs throughout the house, hoping to fix some lag issues with the app. Instead, now several of them flicker sporadically, especially the ones in the living room and kitchen. I've tried resetting the bulbs and power cycling the bridge, but no luck. The weird part is that the flickering seems to happen mostly when I use voice commands via Alexa, but not when I control them manually through the app.

I’m using the latest version of the Hue app and my Echo Dot is fully updated too. The bulbs are about 2 years old, so not exactly brand new, but they've never acted up like this before. Ideally, I want them to respond smoothly to voice and app controls without flickering.

Has anyone experienced this kind of post-update flicker? Could it be a compatibility bug between Alexa and Hue? Should I try downgrading firmware or is it better to wait for an official fix? Also, are there any reliable ways to diagnose if it’s a network, hardware, or software issue causing this?

That flickering tied specifically to Alexa voice commands definitely sounds like some kind of communication hiccup between the Hue firmware and Alexa's control signals. Since the app controls work fine, it’s probably not a hardware issue with the bulbs themselves. I’d lean towards a software or integration bug, especially after a recent firmware update.

Downgrading firmware might be tricky since Philips doesn’t always make older versions easily available, but it could be worth a shot if you can find a safe way to do it. Otherwise, you might want to report this directly to both Philips Hue and Amazon support - sometimes they push out quick patches when these cross-platform bugs pop up. Meanwhile, maybe try isolating one bulb on a different Zigbee channel or test with a different Alexa device if possible, just to rule out network interference or device-specific glitches.