# Manually forcing a failover
<a name="aif-and-input-switching-failoverpair"></a>

You can set up automatic input failover to allow the MediaLive operator to perform a manual failover.

Keep in mind that the content in the failover pair is identical. Therefore, you only switch between them for specific reasons. For example: 
+ You might think that the active input is degrading, but MediaLive hasn't yet made the decision to fail over to the other input. 
+ You might want to perform maintenance on the network for the input that is currently active.

**To switch between the two inputs in the input pair**

1. If you think you might want to manually switch inputs, then when you set up the failover pair, set the **Input preference** to **EQUAL\$1INPUT\$1PREFERENCE**. See [Setting up automatic input failover with RTMP and RTP inputs](aif-setup-other-inputs.md) or [Setting up automatic input failover with MediaConnect inputs](aif-setup-emx.md). 

1. To manually switch, [create an input switch action](schedule-using-console-create.md) in the schedule in the usual way.

   Set up the input to switch to the other input, and set the **Start Type** to **Immediate**.