Home » PC » Troubleshooting Nintendo Switch: The ultimate guide

Troubleshooting Nintendo Switch: The ultimate guide

Problems with your Nintendo Switch? Our ultimate guide will help them disappear!

Nintendo’s latest console, the Switch, is unique and a ton of fun to play, but it’s also a complicated piece of tech that doesn’t quite follow the rules of typical consoles or tablets. Therefore, it’s not always obvious what to do when something doesn’t quite behave the way you think it should, and that’s where this collection of troubleshooting steps comes in.

If you don’t see your issue on the list, please let us know and we’ll do everything we can to update with exactly what you need to know!

My controller got jammed on the wrist strap!

It turns out there’s a right way and a wrong way to attach the wrist strap adapters to your Joy-Cons when they aren’t attached to the Switch. If you go with the wrong way, nothing lines up and it feels like you can’t actually separate the halves anymore.

Don’t panic! You didn’t break your controller and it’s not permanently stuck like that, though it may certainly feel like it when you try to pull the two pieces apart. The fix is simple, as long as you know how to do it!

How I fixed my jammed Switch controller

My Switch is HOT, like maybe too hot?!

With all of these phones exploding in people’s pockets and gadgets melting from a too-hot battery, it’s very easy to worry that your Switch is running hotter than it should, especially if you’re not used to how hot consoles run. We decided to test the heat from the Switch using a thermal camera to allay any fears that your Switch is running hotter than it should or that it might just burn a hole in your pocket, literally.

Is your Nintendo Switch running hot while in the dock?

My Joy-Cons seem too loose when I snap them into the Switch. Is that normal?

For the most part, a little wiggle is totally normal with the Joy-Con controllers when snapped into the Switch. However, there have been some complaints that it’s not just a wiggle, but a downright un-attached controller that’s causing the problem, and that’s after making sure the Joy-Con is indeed properly snapped into place.

Here’s how to check to see if your Joy-Cons are properly set, and what to do if you still experience a loose connection:

How to deal with loose Joy-Cons on your Nintendo Switch

How not to turn your computer into a big stupid box of malware

With every new gaming format, someone wants to create an emulator for it that will run games that launch on it, and the Switch is no different. Well, it sort of is different because, so far, no one has actually made a Switch emulator. Instead, some nefarious groups are sharing malware disguised as a Switch emulator that you download onto your computer. Don’t be tempted by the Dark Side. Just get a real Switch, like a grown-up.

Switch emulators aren’t real and will mess up your computer

This Switch keeps changing the channel on my TV

If you are watching TV and accidentally roll over on your Switch controller, or someone else picks up a Joy-Con and presses buttons, all of a sudden the TV will flip back to the Nintendo Switch input ready to play a game. It’s a cool feature if you do it on purpose, but accidentally waking a controller can quickly pull you away from whatever you were actually doing on your television.

Fortunately, this feature is entirely optional. You can disable it without messing with any other features, and go back to life as it was before game consoles could adjust your TV at will.

I do this to stop my Nintendo Switch from taking over the television

The dock is scratching my Switch, how do I stop it?!

It’s true, and it’s so sad! If you’re not extra careful about how you put the Switch in or take it out of its dock, you can get little scratches on the far sides of the display. The plastic on plastic rubbing together is just enough for little scratches, and they’re particularly difficult to avoid depending on how many other people are using your Switch!

You need to be able to protect your Switch from more scratches, and that means making sure there’s a solid way to use the dock without worrying about this being a problem.

This is how I avoid scratches on my Nintendo Switch screen

Or, you could make your own dock Sock

I want my Switch to stop changing the screen brightness. Help?

Nintendo Switch adjusts screen brightness based on how bright or dark the room you are in is. This works well enough in most situations, but If you’re on a train or in a room with indirect light these sensors can easily get it wrong and you need to be able to mess with the brightness on your own.

Nintendo makes it easy to adjust the brightness as you see fit, but you can also entirely disable auto-brightness controls and be able to do things your way from now on.

Stop your Switch from adjusting brightness for you with this!

My Switch has completely frozen and nothing works, what can I do?

In rare cases, my Switch has just stopped altogether and does nothing. For example, I was moving from one app to another, and suddenly none of the buttons worked. Not even the power button! That’s a bad place to be, especially if you’re trying to game on the go.

There are a couple of ways I found to deal with this problem. So, even though it doesn’t happen often there are quick ways to address it.

What I do when the Switch freezes on me

I’m worried I might break the Switch kickstand!

You’re not the only one. It might feel flimsy, but it’s a pretty resilient piece of plastic, that kickstand. Actually, it’s removable, too. So even if you accidentally manhandle it right off the back of your Switch, it probably didn’t break and you can just pop it right back on.

No, you’re not going to snap the kickstand off your Switch

I accidentally bought a game that I don’t want. How do I return it?

Eeehhh… (picture my face grimacing right now). Well, that could be a problem. If you purchased a physical game card and didn’t open the package, you can probably return it to the retailer you purchased from. Games from the eShop, however, are a different story.

Want to return a Nintendo Switch game? Well, there’s a catch

These Joy-Con controllers are just too small. They’re cramping my style … and my hands!

For some people, the Joy-Cons are a joy to play with. For others, however, there’s just not enough controller to hold. Luckily, third-party accessory makers have come up with a variety of solutions, depending on your personal needs.

How to keep your Joy-Con controllers from hurting your hands

Why does my Nintendo Switch dock show a blinking green light?

When you set your Nintendo Switch into its dock you may notice a solid green light letting you know all your connections are good. If that light starts blinking, there may be trouble. Be sure to try the things listed in the article linked below before calling Nintendo for a repair.

How to fix the blinking green light on your Switch

How to fix controller drift on your Nintendo Switch Joy-Cons

Controller drift is one of the most annoying issues in gaming. It’s a situation where your analog stick becomes too sensitive to input, so much so that characters in a game may start moving even if you’re not pressing the analog stick. It happens on the Switch just like it does on any controller, and there are ways you can ease the pain.

How to fix controller drift on your Switch

I’m running out of room on my Nintendo Switch. Help!

Instead of deleting all those games to make room for more, you should know that storage is expandable on Nintendo Switch. You can buy any standard microSD card and use it to install your games to. New games can find the card just fine, but how do you move older games over? That can be a bit trickier. Let us help you.

How to transfer Nintendo Switch games to a microSD card

Your fixes?

Have you come across an issue with your Nintendo Switch that you were able to troubleshoot? Let us know what happened and how you fixed it.

Updated May 2019: Updated content.

Nintendo Switch

<!–

–>

Source of the article – iMore