Molecular photoswitches have opened up a myriad of opportunities in applications ranging from responsive materials and control of biological function to molecular logics. Here, we show that the photoswitching mechanism of donor-acceptor Stenhouse adducts (DASA), a recently reported class of photoswitches, proceeds by photoinduced Z-E isomerization, followed by a thermal, conrotatory 4 pi-electrocyclization. The photogenerated intermediate is manifested by a bathochromically shifted band in the visible absorption spectrum of the DASA. The identification of the role of this intermediate reveals a key step in the photoswitching mechanism that is essential to the rational design of switching properties via structural modification.