At low temperatures, a subband‐gap‐light‐excited photoconductivity overshoot &Dgr;&sgr; was observed following a millisecond pulse of visible‐light excitation in hydrogenated amorphous silicon. The relative change &Dgr;&sgr;/&sgr; was attributed to an increase in the optical absorption, &Dgr;&agr;/&agr;, due to deeply trapped carriers. Both the spectral distribution of &Dgr;&agr;/&agr; and its relaxation in the annealed state A are different from those in the light‐soaked state B. Silicon dangling bonds generated by the Staebler–Wronski effect having different configuration than the thermally generated bonds are suggested as the explanation for the different behavior.