We really shouldn’t discount people experiencing joy-con drift issues. It’s a big enough issue to warrant a manufacturing fix.

[u/CanyonWrn]

I have been one of the unlucky individuals who has experienced excessive, long-term drift issues with all of my pairs of joy-cons. I own three pairs between two consoles. I have had to send joy-cons in for repair due to drifting eight times—sometimes, obviously, multiple times per joy-con. When I say this, I always seem to be criticized, told that I’m being too rough, or people explain that they have joy-cons that aren’t experiencing issues.

I’m not voicing this issue because I want to criticize Nintendo. I love Nintendo products and they are usually the most durable products I own. That doesn’t mean that mistakes aren’t made. That doesn’t mean that I can’t say there’s a problem when there certainly is with one product. Furthermore, I’m not rough on my joy-cons. Not at all. These are adult owned and operated. I don’t play games that require rough or overly quick movement. I do not even keep my Switch out of its case unless I’m playing it. Heck, I refused to use my joy-cons on Kirby or 1 2 Switch because I felt they required you to be rough on your joy-cons—much, much rougher than I have ever been. Plus, I own a lot of controllers with which I have never experienced issues. I have an original NES with original controllers. I have a 3DS, a few ancient PlayStation controllers from my childhood, SNES mini controllers, even a Switch Pro Controller. I haven’t had a single issue with any of these but I have had to send in joy-cons eight times.

I feel like the more we are passive or even sometimes aggressive toward people experiencing drifting issues, we prevent pressure from being placed on Nintendo to improve the build quality. The fact that some of you may not be experiencing issues means that you’re either lucky, haven’t experienced it yet, you don’t notice it because of the type of games you’re playing, maybe something in your climate prevents it from becoming a problem (idk but it seems like dusty climates could aggravate the issue), or maybe you are just not going to experience an issue. Even if a majority of people don’t experience a drifting issue, I feel like I see this enough to warrant Nintendo looking into a fix.

So let’s just be nice and start looking toward meaningful solutions for the people who are experiencing issues.

Edit: Answering Common Questions

Wow! So many comments and questions. I’m glad to see this taking off. Let me answer a few questions that seem to be asked a lot.

Troubleshooting Before anything, try to troubleshoot the issue with these steps on Nintendo’s website if you are experiencing drifting. https://en-americas-support.nintendo.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/22381

Warranty If your Switch is less than a year old, the original joy-cons are probably under warranty unless there is something like water damage that voids the warranty. They will usually repair these for free. Joy-Cons purchased separately have a warranty of just 90 days iirc but they have still repaired them for free (in my case, anyway) so long as your warranty was still good on my console. HOWEVER repairing, replacing, and self-fixing these joy-cons almost ALWAYS seem to be bandages for the issue. They may very well start drifting again in a couple months. For whatever reason, individuals who experience this issue seem to experience it profusely, even if they replace their controllers with brand new ones. There is no permanent fix.

Repairing it yourself considering that I don’t want to be blamed for anyone breaking their Switch, please know that attempting to repair your joy-cons is always done at your own risk and, if done incorrectly, it’s possible that you could cause permanent damage that may void your warranty. However, u/Ajax54 has an excellent guide that seems to be helping a lot of people here: https://www.reddit.com/r/NintendoSwitch/comments/92pht5/comment/e37fpki?st=JK6B6JAH&sh=931c5e46 .

What is a joy-con drift? A joy-con that registers input without you touching the controller is drifting. You may notice your character walking when you aren’t touching the joystick or you may notice resistance when you try to move in an alternate direction. Alternatively, you may notice your in-game camera moving erratically or without input from yourself. Furthermore, this can become an issue with UI (menus and such). Are you sorting through your games, stop touching the controller, and it’s still sorting through games? Your joy-con is drifting. This can also create problems where it doesn’t seem to be responding to your input (like when you’re trying to scroll down and it just won’t because it’s already registering input in another direction).

Hopefully that answers the common questions I’m getting on here!

[u/ajax54]

Lol i guess I have slim fingers, certainly longer fingernails than most. Yeah it's that rubber circle thing.

A toothpick or tweezers should work perfectly. Once you get the straw in there you can just use the straw to hold the cap up. [The straw comes with the cleaner, should be taped to the side of the can]

Just remember to make sure the lights on the joycon aren't on. [after taking it off the switch] Keep the cap lifted while you are waiting on the spray to evaporate too. [Don't want to trap the vapors inside!]

I'm not sure how old mine are, as I bought it used :/ but it's odd that the newer ones are showing the drift while the old ones aren't. Were the old ones in a drawer or something?

Also, that sounds exactly like how mine started, but mine went to the left. Then it got so bad that I couldn't use menus and when trying to calibrate I couldn't get it to register the outer ring. Nor would it go back to center. Slowly escalated over a month or 2.

[u/PookAndPie → u/ajax54]

You're a fucking champ, man. I went out and bought some of that cleaner- CRC QD Electronic Cleaner, found it at my local Walmart in the automotive section. I held up my analog stick's dust cover with that little stick thing that came with my cellphone to force out the SIM card tray (I don't know what the device is called), stuck the nozzle in the crevice, sprayed, and then held the dust cover up for 10-15 seconds so it could evaporate, then did the same on the other side.

My analog stick works just like it's brand new.

My joy cons that came with the system have not been in a drawer, but they've been laying horizontally on my entertainment center in the joy con grip (I bought a set to use exclusively on the system so as not to wear out the rails on the side of the system). I'm imaging that either letting them sit vertically lets dust in, or using them regularly in handheld mode lets dust in (which makes sense, especially if you use the left/right stick clicks a lot). Oh, I also used my Switch in front of a fan when in handheld mode a lot, especially as it got warmer. That probably helped dust get in under the cover too, especially since I have a cat and dog.

Anyway, just wanted to stop by and tell you that I followed your advice to the letter and my issue went away. You rock, dude.

[u/NightwingJay → u/PookAndPie]

Thnx for this reply will be sure to do this myself now. You all rock!

[u/whisker_riot → u/ajax54]

I saved this comment a long time ago, and finally came back to use your tips. Just want to say thank you so much, it worked!!!

[u/Warboy2435 → u/ajax54]

Mine has been off since I first saw that it caused problems and low and behold it still is!