Nintendo shares advice for those suffering from Switch battery issues

In recent months, some Switch owners (especially with relatively new OLED models) have highlighted issues with their system’s battery. An example of the problem could be that the battery drains quickly overnight when the console is in sleep mode, or potentially has less endurance than usual during gameplay.

Nintendo’s official customer service department has now shared a set of steps (in Japanese) which are pretty basic but worth following if your battery is unexpectedly draining. Below are the translated steps.

• Go to ‘System Settings’, ‘Sleep Mode’ and set ‘Auto Sleep (Console Screen Player)’ to ‘Never’.
• Have the plug disconnected from the dock in portable condition, with no AC power connected.
• Start a game and leave it untouched, for example on a title screen.
• Leave the switch alone with the screen on.
• Wait until the battery runs out (the screen turns black when the system shuts down).
• When the battery is dry, connect your Switch to charge and leave it for at least 4 hours.

If you are using the latest model, and to avoid potential OLED burn-in, we will add advice to follow these steps when your battery level is already relatively low so it is not on a title screen for also long before the battery dies.

Completely discharging a battery before recharging is a fairly standard piece of advice for drainage problems, but it’s definitely worth a try if you’ve been hit by the problem.