# Yet another breathing magenta question

**URL:** <https://community.particle.io/t/yet-another-breathing-magenta-question/15732>\
**Category:** Troubleshooting\
**Created:** [September 19, 2015, 5:35am UTC](https://community.particle.io/t/yet-another-breathing-magenta-question/15732 "2015-09-19T05:35:53Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![butters](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b9e5f3/32.png) [@butters](https://community.particle.io/u/butters)\
**Post date:** [September 19, 2015, 5:35am UTC](https://community.particle.io/t/yet-another-breathing-magenta-question/15732/1 "2015-09-19T05:35:53Z")

</div>

I setup a new Photon today. It connects to the cloud. There was a time when it blink magenta (purple), so I assumed it was updating firmware and let it be. It shows up in my devices tab as using the latest 0.4.5 firmware. I copy and pasted the “blink LED” sketch from the examples.

[https://docs.particle.io/guide/getting-started/examples/core/#blink-an-led](https://docs.particle.io/guide/getting-started/examples/core/#blink-an-led)

Then I downloaded it to the Photon. It flashed purple like it’s supposed to. But then it seems messed up.

Flashing Green  
Flashing Blue  
Breathing Magenta/Purple…stays that way for 40 seconds or so  
Flashing red…and then goes back to the beginning of sequence.

I’ve tried power cycling it. Same thing happens. I wonder if I’m missing a setup guide that explains these lights and makes everything clear? The device mode kind of talks about it, but doesn’t cover usual circumstances.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Moors7](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/community.particle.io/moors7/32/588_2.png) [@Moors7](https://community.particle.io/u/Moors7)\
**Post date:** [September 19, 2015, 11:33am UTC](https://community.particle.io/t/yet-another-breathing-magenta-question/15732/2 "2015-09-19T11:33:28Z")

</div>

So on initial set-up, it does an automatic update, which you’ve noticed. If I’m not mistaken, this doesn’t automatically update you to the latest version (correct me if I’m wrong @dave @mdma). When you update through the web IDE it will initiate an automatic update if it noticed your firmware on the device is not equal or greater than the one picked in the web IDE. It will then update that when you flash new firmware. Since these system firmwares are considerably larger, it will take longer for them to be transferred. Fully updating the Photon can take a couple of minutes, although it shouldn’t take longer than 10 minutes.  
If, for whatever reason, something gets messed up while updating, your Photon will enter Safe mode (breathing magenta). When you try flashing an application again, it should pick up where it left off and correct itself.  
If you want to, you could update the Photon manually, using the CLI (which I recommend installing regardless). Put your device in DFU mode, and issue a `particle update` form the CLI. After that, do a `particle flash --usb tinker` while in DFU mode. This should get you to the latest firmware, and install Tinker, the default app.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![tezza](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/community.particle.io/tezza/32/6976_2.png) [@tezza](https://community.particle.io/u/tezza)\
**Post date:** [September 19, 2015, 11:44am UTC](https://community.particle.io/t/yet-another-breathing-magenta-question/15732/3 "2015-09-19T11:44:25Z")

</div>

I had a similar problem with my Photon, and @Moors7helped me get it going again with these commands.