Someone has a toaster, which has motorized raise/lower instead of a lever. But they say it won't stay down when lowered, and won't toast. Is this an easy fix. Because I know on toasters with levers, if the magnet and contacts get dirty with crumbs, then they won't stay down. But on a motorized toaster I assume it works differently.

A "motorized toaster"? 

Exactly what you think it is. Motor does the lowering and raising the lever instead of you doing it. Good for those short on time before the daily commute. You’d set the time and bread the night before. When you wake up it lowers the bread and start toasting. By the time you finish brushing and stuff it’s ready and toasty. No different from the timer setting on the coffeemaker.

My bro has one and it works great.

Like here:

Motorized toaster

Exactly what you think it is. Motor does the lowering and raising the lever instead of you doing it. Good for those short on time before the daily commute. You’d set the time and bread the night before. When you wake up it lowers the bread and start toasting. By the time you finish brushing and stuff it’s ready and toasty. No different from the timer setting on the coffeemaker.

My bro has one and it works great.

Why is a motor needed for that ? The bread can be loaded into the "low" position from the start. Switch the heating element with a timer

Original question : I would look if there is a limit switch that cannot be pressed and the toaster "gives up", for example if some crumbs block the tray from going all the way down

Ever heard of Sunbeam Radiant Control toasters? They don't have levers on them, but they use the thermal expansion properties of the nichrome wire to raise and lower the bread.

Heh. Motorized toaster.

Vroom vroom.

Ever heard of Sunbeam Radiant Control toasters? They don't have levers on them, but they use the thermal expansion properties of the nichrome wire to raise and lower the bread.

This uses to be called and "artificial muscle", just because its similarity to a real muscle.
It is rather common, mainly because it is very cheap to make (no motor winding, no gears), inherently smooth in operation and rather reliable.
And I would guess there would be some debris blocking the end-of-travel contacts, so the controller gives off.

All toasters here in Israel, uses a lever to lower and a bi-metal to rise.

Most of the toasters here (all I've seen) use plainlever to lower, then an electromagnet to hold it down and an electronic timer to cut out current to the magnet after a preset time, so release the mechanism so the spring can raise the toasts.
Or the really older ones (pre 1990) use no bread moving mechanism at all, just wings on its side holding the bread along the heater. These have no switch on the heater at all, so you really have to watch them closely. Plus you have to manually flip the bread, as these heat up only from one side (the mica + nichrome wire heater plate is in the middle, two bread pieces on each side).

Most toasters here too, do have the lever to raise/lower. Now with the toasters you mention with no timed, those seemed to be about 1930s and earlier here.

The motorized toasters are mostly starting to show up in last 10 years, yet some models are available both ways, and the motorized version usually costing about twice as much, as with lever. Probably mostly as a selling gimmick that add little functionality.

Why is a motor needed for that ? The bread can be loaded into the "low" position from the start. Switch the heating element with a timer

Original question : I would look if there is a limit switch that cannot be pressed and the toaster "gives up", for example if some crumbs block the tray from going all the way down

With the ones we have here at least, the lever won't stay down unless the power to the toaster is on due to the magnet setup. So it wouldn't be possible to get the toaster to switch on with a timer.

Although, the motorized ones I have seen don't have any timer ability to start, only for ending the cycle. The only way to start the toasting is pressing the button.

Why not ? Magnet will stay on all night, heating element will be switched on in the morning

Why not ? Magnet will stay on all night, heating element will be switched on in the morning

There must have to be some current or something to energize, but any toaster I've seen here, the lever won't latch down unless plugged in.

Why not ? Magnet will stay on all night, heating element will be switched on in the morning

The timer and magnet need ~9V for power. To save cost, the supply is usually picked from a tap on the heater wire. So the magnet may get supply only when the heater is ON.
Plus there is a safety reason: The intention is to allow to power the thing only when attended. So it requires a user action to turn ON the heating. That is, why even the "motorized" (regardless if they use geared motor or the artificial muscle technology; because the "muscle" wire segment is a part of the heater, it can not be operated without the heater turned ON anyway) require the user to press the "start" button.

Then it won't be usable for this application :

Exactly what you think it is. Motor does the lowering and raising the lever instead of you doing it. Good for those short on time before the daily commute. You’d set the time and bread the night before. When you wake up it lowers the bread and start toasting. By the time you finish brushing and stuff it’s ready and toasty. No different from the timer setting on the coffeemaker.

My bro has one and it works great.