# \[Solved\] Help reviving a Photon

**URL:** <https://community.particle.io/t/solved-help-reviving-a-photon/14794>\
**Category:** Troubleshooting\
**Created:** [August 27, 2015, 2:36pm UTC](https://community.particle.io/t/solved-help-reviving-a-photon/14794 "2015-08-27T14:36:24Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Awake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Awake](https://community.particle.io/u/Awake)\
**Post date:** [August 27, 2015, 2:36pm UTC](https://community.particle.io/t/solved-help-reviving-a-photon/14794/1 "2015-08-27T14:36:24Z")

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I have a Photon that I managed to put in “Halt and catch fire” (infinite loop) mode, requiring what accidentally resulted in a factory reset.

I managed to reconnect the Photon to the Internet (breathing cyan) via USB and ‘w’.

It shows up as ‘live’’ in both Web and Dev IDEs, but flashing anything results in nothing happening, just cyan ‘breathing’.

What next?

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**Author:** ![Dave](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/community.particle.io/dave/32/181_2.png) [@Dave](https://community.particle.io/u/Dave)\
**Post date:** [August 27, 2015, 3:21pm UTC](https://community.particle.io/t/solved-help-reviving-a-photon/14794/2 "2015-08-27T15:21:58Z")

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Hi @Awake,

If it’s breathing cyan, but you can’t flash anything to it, try putting it in safe mode:

[https://docs.particle.io/guide/getting-started/modes/photon/#safe-mode](https://docs.particle.io/guide/getting-started/modes/photon/#safe-mode)

Thanks,  
David

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**Author:** ![Awake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Awake](https://community.particle.io/u/Awake)\
**Post date:** [August 27, 2015, 3:54pm UTC](https://community.particle.io/t/solved-help-reviving-a-photon/14794/3 "2015-08-27T15:54:31Z")

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That did it! What I don’t understand is why a factory reset doesn’t just ‘reformat and reinstall’ the device. There are too many flashy light codes, but no “F’it… I’ll just start from scratch” as if I were unwrapping a new device.

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**Author:** ![mdma](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/community.particle.io/mdma/32/1924_2.png) [@mdma](https://community.particle.io/u/mdma)\
**Post date:** [August 29, 2015, 6:29am UTC](https://community.particle.io/t/solved-help-reviving-a-photon/14794/4 "2015-08-29T06:29:24Z")

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There is no factory reset on the photon - [https://docs.particle.io/guide/getting-started/modes/photon/#factory-reset](https://docs.particle.io/guide/getting-started/modes/photon/#factory-reset).

The way to get to a fresh state is:

- enter safe mode, and hold setup for 10 seconds to clear all credentials
- put the device in DFU mode
- run `particle flash --usb tinker`
- run `particle update` to install latest system firmware.

A full reset is rarely (never?) necessary - if it’s a problem with application firmware, safe mode will take care of that and reconnect the device to the cloud even when your application firmware would otherwise prevent this.