Nintendo Switch: 5 ways to fix Joy-Con drift

Joy-con drift is amongst the biggest problems that most Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Lite users have been facing for years, and even the company knows that it is a big issue.

Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch Lite are one of the most famous gaming consoles in the market on which you can play lots of amazing games like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Mario Kart 8 and more. It is compact, powerful, and gives its users a great gaming experience. However, many users have reported that they faced the Joy-Con drift issue after a few years of use of their Nintendo Switch.

What is Joy-Con drift?

Joy-Con drift is an issue that most Nintendo Switch users face that causes the Joy-Con to behave weirdly and take input even when you haven’t touched it. As a result, your character starts moving on its own with any input from you, which may make you feel that your device has been possessed or hijacked? So, don’t worry if you are facing the same issues with your Switch device you are not alone, and we are going to help you in solving this issue.

Here are things that you can do to fix the Joy-Con drift issue.

1. Calibrate or recalibrate your Joy-Con drift

Calibrating your controllers is the first thing that you should do if you’re experiencing Joy-Con drift on your Nintendo Switch or Nintendo Switch Lite device. It is a simple trick but just might do the work and help you regain control over your device. Follow these steps to calibrate your controllers:

• Detach your Joy-Con from Switch.
• Open System Settings.
• Scroll and go to “controllers and Sensors.”
• Select the option to “Calibrate Control Sticks.”
• Next, press on the control stick of the controller that you want to recalibrate.

Once you have done that, you will see a calibration check screen. If you haven’t touched your controller, you will see a plus sign in the middle of the circle, and if you have used the controller, you will see a dot on the screen. To check if your controller is calibrated or not, move the joystick and see if the color of the circle has changed to blue or not. If the color is not changed, then you have to recalibrate your controller.

To recalibrate your controller press on the “X” button. Now you will see instructions to move the joystick in a particular direction. Follow those instructions and complete the recalibration process.

2. Clean the joystick

If you are still facing Joy-Con drift even after recalibrating your controller, then try cleaning the control stick of the controller. There is a sensor at the base of the control stick, and by cleaning it, your problem might get solved.

All you need is a cotton bud and isopropyl alcohol (70%). Apply or dip the cotton bud in isopropyl alcohol and clean the sensor by pressing the bud against the bottom of the joystick to make sure alcohol reaches the sensor. After that, rotate the joystick for about 30 seconds to make sure alcohol cleans the entire sensor. Once this process is completed, leave your Nintendo Switch device idle for 15 minutes and check the joystick calibration.

Note: Clean your Nintendo Switch only when you have completely drained its battery and don’t apply the alcohol directly to the controller. Otherwise, you might damage the parts of the joystick.

3. Joy-Con repair program

If the above two methods fail, you can go to Nintendo to fix the Joy-Con drift for you. Nintendo has a Joy-Con repair program that comes with your device’s one-year warranty. So, if your warranty period is not over yet, you can go to Nintendo, and they will fix Joy-Con drift for you completely free.

However, even if your warranty period is over, you can still go to Nintendo to get your joystick repaired for free because the company is offering this service for free as of now due to the epidemic. But you have to be a little patient because it might take a little longer than usual to get your repaired Joy-Con back.

4. Buy a new Joy-Con for yourself

Another great option that you have for fixing the Joy-Con drift issue is to buy a new Joy-Con for your Nintendo Switch for $50. But the only problem is they are very hard to find these days because the single Joy-Cons are not available or are out of stock on most of the e-commerce websites due to the epidemic.

Even if you find one, it might not match your device’s color or may not be the side you want. However, you can find a Joy-cons pair on most sites very easily at the price of almost $80.

5. Replace your joystick

Finally, if nothing else works, you can replace the joystick yourself. Yes, it is a very challenging and difficult task, but there are many kits available in the market at a very low price that can help you replace your device’s joystick.

Opening the Nintendo Switch for replacing your broken joystick and putting everything back together is not very easy and requires lots of patience. To learn the process of replacing your joystick, you can go to YouTube and search for video tutorials about the same.Note: Before moving forward, do remember that if you replace your joystick yourself, it will void your one-year warranty, and you might end up breaking your device completely.

Arya Stark is a Office expert and has been working in the technology industry since 2003. As a technical expert, Tango has written technical blogs, manuals, white papers, and reviews for many websites such as Norton.com/setup.

Source:- Nintendo Switch: 5 ways to fix Joy-Con drift

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