Board Thread:Episode Discussions/@comment-1181222-20161208112728/@comment-4912646-20161209090703

This probably deserves its own topic, but the only times a Rinnegan has been "deactivated" are: We also see Sasuke regularly closing his left eye instead of deactivating the Rinnegan after first awakening it. However, we know from Kurama that the Rinnegan can't use all of its abilities when it is first awakened, so it's possible it can't be deactivated right away either, and the ability to do so comes later. In any case, it seems pretty apparent that only the original owner can deactivate it, if anybody.
 * Episode 399, in which Madara's wood clone changes his eyes from Rinnegan to Eternal Mangekyō Sharingan to cast genjutsu on A. The clone also uses his Mangekyō in the manga, but strangely, all of Madara's wood clones are drawn with their eyes closed in every other panel, making it unclear whether they even had Rinnegan in the first place. We've seen Naruto and Hashirama create clones in forms different from themselves before, so it is indeed possible.
 * Chapter 691/Episode 474, in which Madara is on his deathbed, seemingly with no dōjutsu activated, after being separated from the Ten-Tails. The way his eyes are shaded in the manga resemble Itachi's when he was using Susanoo on the verge of blindness, if that's of any relevance.
 * The Last, in which Sasuke is initially shown without his Rinnegan in one scene then has it in a later scene.