How to fix Joy-Con drift

How to fix Joy-Con drift | Why is my Joy-Con moving on its own?

Several Nintendo Switch owners are reporting that they are encountering Joy-Con drift issues. Understandably, they’re upset that their controllers that cost around $80/pair aren’t behaving correctly, and some users have said that they’ve had this issue with newly-purchased Joy-Cons. What is this issue and how can it be fixed?

Simply put, Joy-Con drift is an issue with the analog stick on your Joy-Con. You’ll have your hands off of the stick entirely, but you’ll find that the game is detecting movement in a particular direction with absolutely no input from the user. It can’t be said for sure whether it’s a hardware or software issue, but it sure is an annoying problem for people to have to deal with. So, how do you fix it?

How to fix Joy-Con drift | How to fix the problem

How to fix Joy-Con drift

Firstly, Nintendo recommends that you follow several steps to ensure that your Joy-Con is correctly connected to your Nintendo Switch:

ALSO: Joy-Con drift lawsuit potentially being investigated by US law firm

  1. Make sure the Joy-Cons register correctly on the Home Menu > CONTROLLER screen.
  2. Check to see if you have the latest system update for the Nintendo Switch.
  3. Make sure the latest firmware for your controllers is installed.
  4. Remove any skins or covers on the Joy-Con(s) having a problem to see if this is causing the issue.
  5. If the issue only happens in a particular game or app, make sure that that game or app has the latest software updates.

If these don’t work, the next step is a somewhat more frustrating one: the only solution that Nintendo provides for Joy-Con drift after these steps is to create a Help Desk ticket to get your Joy-Con repaired. The upside is you won’t have to send in your entire system; they’ll only need the affected controller(s). The downside is that you’ll be without that controller(s) for a while so Nintendo can effect repairs on the problematic little device.

Even in this case, sending your defective Joy-Cons in for repair might not be the magic bullet — this Reddit submission on /r/NintendoSwitch has numerous people complaining that the issue crops up again after their Joy-Cons were repaired. It seems that there isn’t really any permanent, guaranteed solution for Joy-Con drift other than a dash of good luck for now.



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