If you’re outside the warranty, Reddit users had previously reported costs of $40 for an out-of-warranty repair, which is nearly the cost of a replacement single Joy-Con controller. Nintendo offers repairs, but they’re not cheap Otherwise, Nintendo offers a standard warranty of 90 days (for accessories, which seems to include separately purchased Joy-Con controllers) and 12 months (for consoles, which seems to include Joy-Con controllers that are included with a Switch). Nintendo now even has a dedicated area of its support website for Joy-Con repair requests: just fill out the form and Nintendo will coordinate your return, confirm that the controllers have the issue, and either repair or replace the controllers.
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Vice News reports that Nintendo has directed its customer support team to fix Joy-Con controllers for free and issue refunds for previous repairs, even if you’re no longer under warranty. What is Nintendo doing about impacted controllers?įollowing the outrage over the issue in July 2019, Nintendo has begun to fix impacted controllers free of charge. Others have taken the more drastic step of fully replacing the joystick entirely - a far more difficult fix that will void your warranty, if it works at all. Some users have also tried using compressed air or isopropyl alcohol to fix the problem, although success seems to vary greatly.
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A possible solution is to make sure you’re running the latest Switch software or to recalibrate your analog sticks to make sure it’s not a software issue.
How do I fix the issue?Īs mentioned above, it’s not fully clear what’s causing the issue, which makes fixing it tricky. Without Nintendo clarifying the situation, it’s tough to tell exactly what’s wrong. It’s also possible that neither of those theories is correct or that it’s a combination of factors that cause stick drift over time. Others have completely disassembled the controller and found worn-down contacts, which might be causing the issue due to repetitive use. There are two potential causes for drift: some users blame the issue on either dust or debris making their way into the controller underneath a rubber cap that’s designed to keep the interior clean. A quick (and extremely unscientific) poll of Verge staffers revealed that some Switch owners have reported multiple controllers encountering the issue, while others have never experienced it, which seems to be mirrored by reports around the internet. Although, there are reports of users experiencing it on both joysticks. Joy-Con drift is an issue that Switch owners have been encountering over the last few months that causes the analog sticks on the controllers to randomly move around and input commands to the console, even when they’re not being physically moved.Īnecdotally, the issue seems to affect left Joy-Con controllers (which tend to be used for movement in most games) more than the right half of the controller set. If you’re looking for more information on the problem, here’s the current situation: What is “Joy-Con drift”? But Nintendo hasn’t changed the design of the controllers, and it’s still an issue today, even on the refreshed Switch models that launched last year. The company will now repair drifting Joy-Con controllers for free, even if your controllers are outside the regular warranty. Nintendo Switch owners have been experiencing problems with the console’s removable Joy-Con controllers for years now, with users reporting weird joystick drifting problems that cause false inputs and have been steadily growing over time as original Switch machines grow older.Įver since a report by Kotaku from July 2019 shined a light on the Joy-Con drift issue, Nintendo has changed its policies significantly.