How to connect when there are 2 cables of ceiling light

Question

I found some similar questions but none actually sort out my problem.
I bought a new IKEA light fitting and its electrical box has 4 holes (2 for N and 2 for L). The instruction said to put 1 N to N and 1 L to L. And I saw many videos online doing the same thing.
Mine is different. I have two cables (each has 3 N/L/E). I know that one of them is for the switch while the other is for the consumer unit. I tried different combination:

Putting only the consumer cable in --> the light is always on. The switch does not work
Putting only the switch cable --> the light is not on.
Putting both of them in, 2 N from the two cables go to 2 N holes. Likewise, 2 L from the two cables go to 2 L holes. --> The light is on even when the light switch is not on. When I turn the light switch on, the light goes off and the main switch (of the room) switches off as well (meaning the combination is causing some conflict).

I tried different combinations of the third (changing the order of the two N and the two L) but none working.
Can someone please help?

Ed Beal · Answer

This is a switch leg or that’s what we call it on this side of the pond.
How we would wire it here is to connect the hot or L of the consumer unit to one of the wires going to the switch then the line coming back from the switch is the switched hot L. The switched hot goes to the L the N from the consumer unit in the n and connect earths
I did not put colors in since you did not mention them and I believe there are 2 or 3 possible combinations based on when built.
The wire going to the switch with the consumer unit hot we would use our normal color wire for N or white so that line is always hot and the switched hot brown or whatever is hot when the switch is on but the neutral always being hot can’t be mixed up as a neutral then we put tape or mark it as a hot.

Jo2ker · Answer

The 2 L's on the one side is the hot in and out to feed through to another switch. The switch leg comes from the other. Neutral doesn't switch its tapped together. You can find the hot by touching the wire from the light to the others one at a time and when it comes on thats the hot.

Answered by Jo2ker on July 10, 2021

How to connect when there are 2 cables of ceiling light

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