Light Restore controls how your LIFX lights behave when power is interrupted or when you use a wall switch instead of the app.
It includes two separate features:
Power Restore – what happens when power is lost and restored
Toggle Restore – what happens when you rapidly toggle the wall switch
Understanding the difference helps ensure your lights behave the way you expect.
Power Restore: After power is cut and restored
Power Restore applies when power is interrupted, for example:
Power outages or flickers
Turning the wall switch off and on once
Always Turn On (default)
Lights turn on automatically when power returns.
This ensures lights come back on after outages, but may cause overnight activations during brief power interruptions.
Previous Power State
Lights return to the same on/off state they were in before power was lost.
If the light was on, it turns back on
If it was off, it stays off
This prevents lights turning on unexpectedly after minor outages.
Important to know
If Previous Power State is enabled and the light was turned off using the app or voice control, turning the wall switch back on may not turn the light on immediately.
The light is correctly restoring its previous state, which was “off”. This is expected behaviour, not a fault.
If you prefer your wall switch to always turn lights on, use Always Turn On.
Toggle Restore: Resetting your light without the app
Toggle Restore lets you return your light to a default brightness and colour using only the wall switch.
Useful when:
The light is set to a colour (e.g. blue)
You want normal white back quickly
You don’t have the app handy
Turning the wall switch on and off twice, with each state lasting about one second, is recognised as an intentional action and causes the light to return to its configured default power state.
This makes the wall switch a manual recovery shortcut, not just a power control.
How these two features interact
These features handle different situations but can appear to overlap.
Example:
You turn a light off in the app
Previous Power State is enabled
You turn the wall switch on
The light remains off because it is restoring its previous state
If you then toggle the switch repeatedly, Toggle Restore may activate and return the light to its default state.
Both features are working as designed.
Choosing the right settings
| If you want… | Use this setting |
|---|---|
| Wall switch always turns lights on | Power Restore: Always Turn On |
| Lights never turn on after outages | Power Restore: Previous Power State |
| Wall-switch shortcut to reset colours | Enable Toggle Restore |
A useful setup is:
Previous Power State to prevent overnight activations
Toggle Restore as a manual recovery shortcut
Device and firmware support
Support depends on product generation.
Most current LIFX products on firmware 4.xx and later support both features.
Some older products have limited support. For example:
LIFX Beam supports Toggle Restore on firmware 4.xx and later
Beam on 3.xx firmware does not support Toggle Restore
If an option is missing in the app, it may not be supported on your product.