# Photon 2 is repaired/updated/setup and then restarting device gets stuck in listening mode

**URL:** <https://community.particle.io/t/photon-2-is-repaired-updated-setup-and-then-restarting-device-gets-stuck-in-listening-mode/70962>\
**Category:** Hardware\
**Tags:** photon2\
**Created:** [January 29, 2026, 9:54pm UTC](https://community.particle.io/t/photon-2-is-repaired-updated-setup-and-then-restarting-device-gets-stuck-in-listening-mode/70962 "2026-01-29T21:54:08Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![slbrento](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5f9b8f/32.png) [@slbrento](https://community.particle.io/u/slbrento)\
**Post date:** [January 29, 2026, 9:54pm UTC](https://community.particle.io/t/photon-2-is-repaired-updated-setup-and-then-restarting-device-gets-stuck-in-listening-mode/70962/1 "2026-01-29T21:54:08Z")

</div>

I manage a fleet of 100+ Photon 2 devices used by students across multiple classes. I’ve configured these successfully for years using Device Doctor, Setup, and Restore.

**Current issue (seen on dozens of devices):**

- Device completes setup, **breathes cyan** , and responds to **Console → Signal** and **Ping** successfully

- Device is marked as **Development** in the Particle console

- After a **power cycle or reset** , the device consistently boots into **Listening Mode (blinking dark blue)** instead of reconnecting

This behavior occurs regardless of provisioning method (Device Doctor, Setup, or Restore).

**Additional context:**

- Firmware auto-update no longer moves devices from v4 → v5, though version isn’t critical for our use case

- Custom firmware is minimal (Wi-Fi setup plus hotspot fallback for classroom reliability)

**Question:**  
What would cause Photon 2 devices to repeatedly revert to Listening Mode after a successful cloud connection, and what is the recommended way to reset, re-claim, or stabilize them at scale so students can program them normally?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![slbrento](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5f9b8f/32.png) [@slbrento](https://community.particle.io/u/slbrento)\
**Post date:** [January 29, 2026, 10:28pm UTC](https://community.particle.io/t/photon-2-is-repaired-updated-setup-and-then-restarting-device-gets-stuck-in-listening-mode/70962/2 "2026-01-29T22:28:30Z")

</div>

UPDATE: One of the Photon 2s just did this again and after about 2 min started blinking green and then booted properly. It’s almost as if it’s not immediately finding the wifi credentials stored in memory and it’s pausing the boot sequence?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![rickkas7](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/community.particle.io/rickkas7/32/8681_2.png) [@rickkas7](https://community.particle.io/u/rickkas7)\
**Post date:** [January 30, 2026, 6:39pm UTC](https://community.particle.io/t/photon-2-is-repaired-updated-setup-and-then-restarting-device-gets-stuck-in-listening-mode/70962/3 "2026-01-30T18:39:26Z")

</div>

That's not a known issue. The best way to troubleshoot this is to enable trace logging in your firmware.

```auto
SerialLogHandler logHandler(LOG_LEVEL_TRACE);

```

When the problem occurs, capture a USB serial debugging log to see what the device is doing. This might be tricky because you might lose log messages before you can connect by USB serial.

One solution is to wait for serial connected at the beginning of setup, but this will also delay operation when the USB serial debug is not connected.

```auto
void setup() {
  waitFor(Serial.isConnected, 10000); 
  delay(2000);
  // ... rest of your code

```

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![slbrento](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/5f9b8f/32.png) [@slbrento](https://community.particle.io/u/slbrento)\
**Post date:** [February 13, 2026, 9:53pm UTC](https://community.particle.io/t/photon-2-is-repaired-updated-setup-and-then-restarting-device-gets-stuck-in-listening-mode/70962/4 "2026-02-13T21:53:30Z")

</div>

Thanks for the debugging tip, Rick.

As a side note, I’ve had a lot of Photon 2s blinking red that were hard to recover with device doctor/update/setup processes. Using Mode and Reset to factory reset the Photon 2 before using Device Doctor seems to solve that one.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![system](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/uploads/particle/original/3X/3/2/3291e3c9351789fe8620ae5bcec8d3fec67ff221.png) [@system](https://community.particle.io/u/system)\
**Post date:** [August 15, 2026, 9:54am UTC](https://community.particle.io/t/photon-2-is-repaired-updated-setup-and-then-restarting-device-gets-stuck-in-listening-mode/70962/5 "2026-08-15T09:54:30Z")

</div>

This topic was automatically closed 182 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.