2000 sienna I want to keep the dome lights off and leave the doors open.

I just bought a 2000 sienna to use as a work van. I will be in and out of it all day and the three rear doors will need to be left open for long periods. Also the front doors will be opened and closed frequently but not left open. My problem is I can't figure out how to get the front dome lights or the door entry lights to stay off. They turn off automatically after 30 minutes, but every time i open one of the front doors or shut any door they come back on for another half hour. At this rate these lights are pretty much on 8 hours a day. I'm worried about finding a dead battery after work one day.

My 2003 Sienna is the same....and I went through the same thing with my 1996 FORD Windstar.
I wish there was a ON/OFF switch for the interior lights like I always had on my vehicles before.
I am sure that there is a way to modify the system, but there is not a switch that you have not located.......
I DID change my interior lights over to LED lamps, so less power is used, but they still stay on.......and the timer is reset to zero each time a door is opened.

You could always pull the 10 amp "dome" fuse in the fuse box-- or get creative and solder wires to a blown fuse- plug it in dome fuse slot- add an-inline fuse and a switch- now you can turn it on and off at will..

Thanks for the input. I already tried removing the dome fuse, but it also controls the power door locks and the power door is open warning light. This causes the power door to not open and makes it difficult to lock and unlock the three rear doors. I like the idea of putting in a switch, but I'm a carpenter, not an electrician. I'm not sure I could pull it off. Where would the switch be located then?

Well then, it may be easier to unplug door switches on doors that you intend to leave open, they are normally closed, held open by the door being closed- so if you unplug them, the vehicle thinks the door is closed and will/should not be of any consequence- there should be no open door messages, no doors that won't lock etc. But keep in mind that the dome lights won't come on anymore when one of these "unplugged" doors is opened. But that maybe okay, they will still come on with the doors you did not mess with.

Other than that, you would want to find the "dome light hot" wire (red/blk) where it comes out from under the dash (right side of fuse box) and goes up into the roof - cut it and put a toggle switch on it- mounted somewhere convenient- this can be your "domelight defeat" switch

The dome light defeat switch might be my best bet. And it would be easy to turn the dome lights back on if I'm not using the van for work. Right now I have taken the bulbs out of the entry lights on the doors. The 2 rear dome lights have an on/off switch on them, so my only problem now is the front dome which doesn't shut off if a door is open. How long would that take to drain my battery?