# Breathing magenta when I try to flash with Particle Dev

**URL:** <https://community.particle.io/t/breathing-magenta-when-i-try-to-flash-with-particle-dev/19033>\
**Category:** Troubleshooting\
**Created:** [January 13, 2016, 3:13am UTC](https://community.particle.io/t/breathing-magenta-when-i-try-to-flash-with-particle-dev/19033 "2016-01-13T03:13:13Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![ctmorrison](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/community.particle.io/ctmorrison/32/7396_2.png) [@ctmorrison](https://community.particle.io/u/ctmorrison)\
**Post date:** [January 13, 2016, 3:13am UTC](https://community.particle.io/t/breathing-magenta-when-i-try-to-flash-with-particle-dev/19033/1 "2016-01-13T03:13:13Z")

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I have a program that worked fine a couple weeks ago on my Photon, but now every time I try to compile and flash it, the Photon simply appears to go into Safe mode (breathing magenta). Am I making a mistake using Particle Dev? Do I need to move (back) to the online IDE?

I am able to flash Tinker and have it work fine.

I’ve wasted tons of time on this, refreshed 4.6 via DFU in case I compromised an update when getting a bit impatient and power cycling a magenta breathing Photon.

Is it possible my program requires something that needs an update and that’s why it breathes magenta?

There’s a ton of helpful information on this forum, but there is a TON of information that’s a bit hard to get through.

I had this same thing happen on another Photon, but somehow managed to get through it via “particle update”.

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**Author:** ![ctmorrison](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/community.particle.io/ctmorrison/32/7396_2.png) [@ctmorrison](https://community.particle.io/u/ctmorrison)\
**Post date:** [January 13, 2016, 3:29am UTC](https://community.particle.io/t/breathing-magenta-when-i-try-to-flash-with-particle-dev/19033/2 "2016-01-13T03:29:46Z")

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So…I as one post suggested, I created a _very_ simple program on the web IDE and made sure 0.4.7 was selected as the firmware. This seems to have corrected the problem. Did I fix it “correctly” or merely stumble onto a fix?

I have ordered several additional Photons and I suspect I’ll have issues with them, too, and I simply want to avoid today’s painful experience.

Thanks!

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**Author:** ![ScruffR](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/community.particle.io/scruffr/32/6952_2.png) [@ScruffR](https://community.particle.io/u/ScruffR)\
**Post date:** [January 13, 2016, 9:17am UTC](https://community.particle.io/t/breathing-magenta-when-i-try-to-flash-with-particle-dev/19033/3 "2016-01-13T09:17:01Z")

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When you say

> [@ctmorrison](#):
>
> I've wasted tons of time on this, refreshed 4.6 via DFU

This suggests that this was the problem, since Dev and CLI _ **always** _ build against the latest versions, which currently _ **is** _ 0.4.7.  
Having an application firmware targeted for 0.4.7 and running a system firmware with an incompatible version must fail.

There are alternative ways to update the system firmware are  
`particle update` or the DFU way you tried for 0.4.6 but of course using the correct binaries.