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There are 2 white wires on one side, 1 red on top and 1 black on bottom on other side, there is no ground/green screw as it is very old. I transferred all the wires one from the old switch to their corresponding spot on the new switch, one by one (2 white wire on black screws, the other 2 wires on the brass).

The switch now works, but not the way it used to be. So I switched sides, and it's still the same. What did I do wrong? Can you please help?

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  • Lisa, well to the page! If you could please provide some pictures for context that would be great!
    – J Crosby
    Jul 5, 2019 at 15:41
  • What does "not the way it used to be" mean? I guess it is "both switches must be on for the light to lit", or "both switches must be off to turn the light off". Please clarify.
    – Jeffrey
    Jul 5, 2019 at 15:54
  • For 3-way and 4-way switches I have never associated the up and down positions with the respective on and off states of the light. Whether the light if on or off, if you flip any one switch, does the light change its state (from off to on or on to off)? Jul 5, 2019 at 17:54

2 Answers 2

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Unlike most people, you correctly understood the importance of the black and brass screws with 4-way switches. You also correctly understood that you can swap travelers.

But just to confirm, make sure the 2 wires on the brass screws go into one cable or conduit, and the 2 wires on the black screws go into a different cable or conduit.

So I assume your problem is that the switch is "up" when it used to be "down". There are two ways to solve that.

  • Physically flip the switch over when installing it... OR
  • Pick one side (e.g. brass) and exchange the two travelers.
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There will be 2 sets of wires coming into the box, with 4 wires in each

  • black
  • white
  • red
  • copper (ground)

Two will be connected together in the box (probably the two whites, but there are exceptions).

The two ground wires can be twisted together, with one of them shorter than the other, so that there's just a single "tail" to attach to the green ground screw.

Now you have two wires left from each set - probably a black and red. The black and red from one set need to go onto the two black screws.

The other black and red that entered the box together will go on the brass screws. It doesn't matter which pair goes to black and which goes to brass. It also doesn't matter which one goes to which of the same-colour screw. Only thing that matters is they go to the same colour screw as the wire they traveled with from the next switch (which was probably a 3-way, but could be another 4-way).

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  • Thanks for this, helped me fix my miswired 4-way switch! Aug 25, 2020 at 23:39

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