When I put away the solar sidewalk lights in Winter, they stop being charged, the batteries drain, and are often bad in Spring from being discharged so long. The original lights often had a switch to shut off the light (and the battery). But they have cheapened them up and none have switches anymore. They come with a piece of paper or plastic that is pulled out to expose the battery to it's contact, and are forever on after that.
I have tried to push that battery cutoff (paper/plastic) back in, but it just crumbles. I cut strips from a heavy cardboard, but that just folds over or crushes and wont go in. Do they make anything (to sell) that will shut them off?
On some of them, I remove the battery, and may even charge it during the winter. Some are easy to take apart and remove the battery. Others are complicated and difficult. I usually just do the easy ones, or I end up with a pile of parts that need to be reassembled in Spring. Although most of these lights are fairly cheap, I buy the ones that I like the look of, and since I have a large amount of them, replacing them can get costly and I will lose the ones I like.
If only they still put switches on them........