Joycon Drift

[pawpatrolbab]

Sorry if this is the wrong place to post, it seemed the most appropriate
I haven't played Animal Crossing in weeks and weeks solely because of Joycon drift, it makes my game un-playable. I can't do anything because it's going all over the place, it's seriously so bad
I was wonder if anyone had any simple fixes or solutions? I am not taking my Switch apart, and I can't afford new Joycons either. It makes me very sad, especially with the fair coming up

 

[JSS]

I came here precisely to make a thread about this. I'm in Europe and bought the ACNH Switch back in March because it was cheaper than buying the game and console apart. In the past couple of months or so I started noticing that sometimes I couldn't look up or I could but the camera would come back down on its own. But that usually fixed itself if I moved my character slightly. And then today for the first time this happens without me touching the left joystick:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1294979235094773760

Nintendo knew about their joycon issues looooong before ACNH and, even though I expected it, I am livid that they didn't fix it for their Switch revision, Switch Lite and this special edition. They haven't even lowered the price of the joycons! Then when they got sued for it they tried to ask for a dismissal of the case if I recall correctly, which was denied, and ONLY recently "apologized" for the joycon issues. To me it speaks volumes of what their values are nowadays and part of why I can't stand it when people rush to defend them.

I was aware of the issue before I bought my Switch and told myself that if these ever started drifting I would just get a controller I liked more since I'm not in love with the joycons anyway. As for solutions to these though I tried the alcohol tip I saw online, and I tried recalibrating. Both twice. Neither of these worked for me. Apparently Nintendo replaces them for free in the US and Japan if you send them in. That's not an option for me though since I'm not in either of those places and a replacement is not a fix! My guess is it will only get worse over time.

I don't know what advice to give you but what I do know is that if your joycons have drift issues the last thing you should do is give Nintendo more money for new ones. I think there are third party controllers that can attach to the Switch like the joycons do, so you should look online if that's something you want.

 

[DarkDesertFox]

Cleaning it is what I would try first. The below video is the best method I've seen. It should provide a temporary fix with having to re-apply it every few months.

 

[Larsi]

Yes it is horrible and gettingYes the drifting is getting worse over time. First it was just a little bit of walking to the left. Now my character even starts running which is strange since I thought you had to hold a button to run. It can be a hell to use the item menu because it sometimes just drag an item to another place, click the wrong item because the cursor moves last second and should I even start to begin with walking over items to see what they are?

I'm glad I got all the diy recipes at the moment so I don't have to go to other islands where people give them away and search for them....
I still sell some diy's but it's not fun to search it because my character just refuse to stand still for just 2 seconds.

And oh yes when visiting other people I feel so ashamed when my character just walks away while I'm typing on my phone in the Nintendo app. Sometimes I don't see it and I'm so afraid people get scared if my character just runs out of screen.

 

[Peter]

My joycon drift was out of control too, i physically couldn't control my game and even bought a pro controller to use in place of my joycons at one point.

I didn't want to send my joycons to Nintendo with all this happening at the moment, so i tried a cheap fix of spraying electrical contact cleaner under the rubber skirts of the sticks and -- it worked! i was shocked but its a few months later and they haven't drifted at all since. I'll add a pic of the type i used, but there are a few tutorials on youtube showing where to spray these cleaners/rubbing alcohol. Try at your own risk of course, but i found it really worked for me.

Spoiler

 

[Mick]

Unfortunately, there is still no good fix that the average owner can do. There are a few options that might improve it temporarily (as the other posters have shared) but the only real fix is to have the parts replaced, and if you're not Nintendo or someone experienced with tiny electronics I really advise against that.

The problem with these is down to a part that wears down with use. And that's pretty normal everything breaks eventually, but the joy-cons seem to do that exceptionally fast and I am honestly surprised that an issue that has been known for years now still hasn't been fixed with some sort of revision. It's not that hard. All they have to do is replace the part in their design.

 

[Larsi]

Aaaaah yes ofcourse... I totally forgot I still had some contact spray so I used that and for now my drifting is gone Only problem is that I teared my rubber so dust will come in again... but at least the drifting is gone for now and maybe in the future I will get some new joycons. They are hard to find for a normal price here at the moment.

 

[JSS]

My joycon drift was out of control too, i physically couldn't control my game and even bought a pro controller to use in place of my joycons at one point.

I didn't want to send my joycons to Nintendo with all this happening at the moment, so i tried a cheap fix of spraying electrical contact cleaner under the rubber skirts of the sticks and -- it worked! i was shocked but its a few months later and they haven't drifted at all since. I'll add a pic of the type i used, but there are a few tutorials on youtube showing where to spray these cleaners/rubbing alcohol. Try at your own risk of course, but i found it really worked for me.

Spoiler

Not sure if I have that one lying around but I'll keep an eye out...

 

[Hypno KK]

Apparently Nintendo replaces them for free in the US and Japan if you send them in. That's not an option for me though since I'm not in either of those places and a replacement is not a fix! My guess is it will only get worse over time.

Electronics in the EU tend to have a 2-year warranty and I'm pretty sure this is true for the Switch too. Try getting in touch with Nintendo support in your country. Failing that, try the shop you bought it from.

 

[Neb]

I bought my Switch on launch day, so I had joycon drift right away. Over the next two years, the right analog stick got progressively worse. Eventually I used some contact cleaner and it eliminated the problem. It also works with Switch Pro controllers as well.

 

[Bcat]

Crap. Now I wish I would’ve known about wd40 before wasting $80 on a new set of joycons. Mine were drifting to the point where it was becoming unplayable if I used the joycons instead of the pro controller.

 

[JSS]

Electronics in the EU tend to have a 2-year warranty and I'm pretty sure this is true for the Switch too. Try getting in touch with Nintendo support in your country. Failing that, try the shop you bought it from.

The way you put it makes it sound like this is a normal one-off issue for warranty to have any real meaning. Either way I already did that. But I'd rather not get into this dance with Nintendo waiting for over a week to get "fixed" joycons where the root of the problem persists every time I need to. And the shop wouldn't be able to help since these aren't exactly easily replaceable joycons.

I will look into this spray thing or get a better controller.

 

[Larsi]

Also wondering how they are going to fix this with the special editions like the AC-switch. Those are special colored joycons and limited editions so are they going to replace the broken part or give you new ones? Because that can take a while I think.

 

[matt2019]

I had this issue with my first joy-cons but got new ones four months ago and haven’t had an issue since

 

[Holla]

I had the same problem and my Joycons were long out of warranty, but I took advantage of Nintendo’s free repair program and sent mine in to get fixed. I got them back after a couple of weeks and they work good as new now. It didn’t cost me anything to send them in either.

 

[Aurita]

I had the same problem and my Joycons were long out of warranty, but I took advantage of Nintendo’s free repair program and sent mine in to get fixed. I got them back after a couple of weeks and they work good as new now. It didn’t cost me anything to send them in either.

same! I sent in my day one joycons almost 3 years after purchase for free and they sent it back pretty quickly (pre-covid)! Haven’t had any issues since repair. But I’ve been using my ACNH ones less just in case they can’t fix it and will send me a different pair of normal joycons >_<

 

[trashpedia]

It's been getting on my nerves too. I tried putting alcohol on my left joycon and it works temporarily. After a day or two it starts drifting again. Many people have said it works for them and that they didn't have to use the alcohol and qtip method too frequently, so I'm assuming it's because my room is super dusty and I've noticed that I do tend to drop my joycon a fit too frequently so I should be more careful. oops...

 

[Easter]

my drift was caused by dirt under the joycons, i used some rubbing alcohol and qtips to clean them (without taking the console apart!) and it worked like a charm

 

[sunnibunniva]

I haven't had an issue with drift yet, but my joycons keep disconnecting (not detaching, just not responding until I take them off and back on) and it's pretty frustrating. Hoping I just need to clean the slide-y bits where the connect, but I'm worried it's permanent damage to the whole console from the way the screen feels like its almost tugging on the joycons during handheld play

 

[rose star]

Be careful about sending special edition joycons in for repairs! Nintendo has been sending people back replacements that don't match the colors. You probably won't get back ACNH joycons...

I'm not sure if I'm having a drift issue or not, but I notice sometimes when I enter my house, my camera automatically starts rotating. If I hit the right analog stick though it stops, so it's not a persistent issue. I think maybe I just need to clean it.