How to Opt Out Of and Turn Off Amazon Sidewalk

Not feeling neighborly? Turn off Sidewalk at your convenience

by
S. E. Slack
S.E. Slack
Strategy Director, Lifewire.com
S.E. Slack has 30+ years' experience writing about technology. She has authored 12 books, thousands of articles, and worked for IBM and Microsoft.
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S.E. Slack
Updated on December 08, 2020

What to Know

  • In the Alexa app, go to Settings > Account Settings > Amazon Sidewalk.
  • Disable one or both: Sidewalk and/or Community Finding.
  • You can turn these back on at any time using the same steps and simply switching things back.

This article explains how to opt out of Amazon Sidewalk and Community Finding together. It also covers how to disable Community Finding only while keeping Sidewalk turned on.

Turn Off Amazon Sidewalk and Community Finding

Don't want to participate in Amazon's community network experiment, Amazon Sidewalk? You can get out of it by changing some settings in the Alexa app. The following steps apply to all Echo and Ring devices connected to your Amazon account and will disable both Sidewalk and Community Finding.

  1. Open the Alexa app.

  2. Tap More.

  3. Tap Settings.

  4. Tap Account Settings.

    Screenshots of the Alexa app, showing how to access Account Settings.

  5. Tap Amazon Sidewalk.

  6. If the button next to Enabled is blue, you are currently opted in to Amazon Sidewalk. To opt out, tap or slide the button to the left. The command will change to Disabled and the button will turn a very light blue.

    Screenshots of the Amazon Alexa app showing how to disable Amazon Sidewalk.

That's it! You've opted out of Amazon Sidewalk, which also automatically disables Community Finding.

Community Finding is the part of Sidewalk that lets you connect to neighbors using what Amazon calls 'Sidewalk Bridges'. These bridges basically connect all your Echo and Ring devices to all of your neighbors, so if that's your biggest concern then you'll want to shut it down, too. Some people, though, prefer to keep Amazon Sidewalk enabled and only turn off Community Finding. That's a slightly different process but just as easy.

Turn Off Community Finding Only

To opt out of Community Finding only (but keep Sidewalk turned on), follow these steps:

  1. Open the Alexa app.

  2. Tap More.

  3. Tap Settings.

  4. Tap Account Settings.

    Screenshots of the Alexa app, showing how to access Account Settings.

  5. Tap Amazon Sidewalk.

  6. Tap Community Finding.

  7. On the Community Finding screen, tap or slide the button to the left. The button will turn a very light blue, indicating that the feature has been turned off.

    Screenshots from the Alexa app showing how to disable Community Finding.

  8. Use the arrow or slide back one screen to the Amazon Sidewalk screen. Confirm that Community Finding shows as Disabled.

    Screenshots showing how to confirm Community Finding is disabled in the Alexa App.

That's how you disable Community Finding while keeping Amazon Sidewalk turned on. You can always turn either or both settings back on by following the above steps and simply moving the slider button in the other direction.

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