What Does The Orange Light Mean On A PlayStation 5?

The PlayStation 5 has this pretty fancy looking LED light strip that shows different colors and patterns to tell you what the console is up to. Normally, you’d see the PS5 light up white, but sometimes, it can raise eyebrows when it switches to orange. When that happens, it means only one thing: The PS5 has dropped into Rest Mode, which is basically Sony’s version of a sleep setting. 

In Rest Mode, the console is technically still on, except it uses very little power to keep a few background tasks running. These tasks include charging any DualSense controller that’s plugged into the PS5 over USB, which is when the controller starts glowing orange as well. The mode also lets the console download and install game and system updates without the need for running full throttle.

The handiest perk, though, might be letting you resume your game right where you left it – the game falls into a suspended state while the console dozes off. To bring it back, all you have to do is hold the PS button, the one that sits in the middle of any controller. That’s when the console wakes up from sleep and the orange light turns white. Sony uses solid white for a PS5 that’s fully on. A console with no light at all, meanwhile, is completely off. That said, the orange light won’t always look perfectly steady. While the PS5 is easing into Rest Mode, it actually blinks orange for a few seconds first.

Why your PS5 goes orange on its own

It’s worth noting that Sony itself states in its support page that this blinking light can look more yellow or amber than orange to some people. Whatever the perceived shade, it means the same thing. Also worth mentioning here is that, by default, the sleep mode is triggered on its own. Sony’s factory settings send an idle PS5 to Rest Mode once it’s been sitting that way for a certain amount of time. On consoles sold outside Europe, including the U.S., the timer lasts one hour for everything except video. In Europe, things are stricter, with the window cutting down to just 20 minutes. Video playback gets a roomier four hour window, though.

Interestingly, Sony says when a PS5 is properly resting, it draws power under 0.5 watts. However, that figure only holds with every background feature turned off. The more features you turn on, the more the power consumption rises.

Unfortunately, if you find these orange lights annoying, there’s no setting to turn it off, short of a full shutdown. What the console does let you is dim the indicatore color to some other shade. Speaking of shutdowns, never do it by directly unplugging the console, as Sony’s support page warns that doing so can lead to corrupted data or even damaging the console itself

What to do if your PS5 gets stuck on orange

Sometimes, that orange light can get stuck, too, in one of two ways. In one, the blinking never stops, likely because the console got hung up as it entered Rest Mode. In the other, the light stays orange, and the console doesn’t wake. Sony’s official fix for problems like these is holding down the power button until it beeps. Once the light flashes white and goes dark, the company suggests leaving the console unplugged for 20 minutes.

This should usually fix the problem, but if it continues, the next thing to try is turning on Sony’s Safe Mode. Get the console to shut down first, and then launch Safe Mode by holding the power button down until you hear a second beep after that first one. You’ll see a barebones troubleshooting menu here, where you will find an option labeled Repair Console Storage. The option is meant for consoles that won’t start properly. Past that, Sony’s PlayStation Repairs page can help you arrange a fix.