Get Your Broken Switch Back in the Game in 30 Minutes
How To

Get Your Broken Switch Back in the Game in 30 Minutes

The Nintendo Switch is a remarkable device, in more ways than one. Despite being a kinda-portable, kinda-console system, it’s remarkably repairable. If you’ve got drifting Joy-Cons, a faulty game card or microSD card reader, or a lame battery, we’ve got the parts, fix kits, and guides to get you back up and gaming in no time.

We’re talking 30 minutes and less than $40 for these fixes. All of them give you back the thing you bought the Switch for in the first place: easy, anytime gaming.

Fix Broken Card Readers (and Headphone Jacks)

Switch micro SD card reader replacement with tweezers

There are good reasons to use the microSD and game card ports on your Switch. For one, the Switch only comes with 32 GB of internal memory—one or two open-world games, PC ports, or big fighting games, and that’s gone. It’s also easy to resell Switch games, especially Nintendo’s own titles, for sometimes two-thirds of what you bought them for (or give them to a friend for the cool price of free). Thirdly, it stinks to have to figure out which games you have to delete before you head on a trip, when you could just tuck a few cards into your bag, or keep them all on a big microSD and never worry.

Nintendo will technically fix your broken reader, but you have to mail it in (at your own shipping expense), they charge $50-$265, and you’re without your system while you wait. The same goes for the headphone jack that’s part of the same component as the game card reader. But we’ve got those parts, and guides to walk you through installing them:

Replace the Battery in Your Switch or Its Joy-Cons

Switch console battery replacement with spudger

If you bought your Switch right when it came out, it’s nearly three years old now, and its battery might be starting to show it. You might be tempted to buy that revised Switch with better battery life. Please do not put your Switch in the waste stream and spend $300 again, on almost the same exact device. Instead, replace its battery with one of ours.

Maybe you’re the odd bird whose Joy-Cons are constantly in use, away from the Switch itself, and their tiny batteries are the problem. We have that covered, too! For just $15, a replacement battery is yours. If you’re already heading into your Joy-Con to replace a drifting joystick, it might be smart to swap that, too.

Replace Your Joy-Cons to Fix Drift

Switch Joy-Con joystick replacement with Waluigi figurine in the background

While Nintendo is offering free repairs to most customers reporting drift issues at the moment, their graciousness may end some day. And getting your Joy-Con fixed officially, free or not, means getting an RMA approved from Nintendo, mailing them your Joy-Con, and waiting for the replacement. If you don’t have a Pro Controller or a spare Joy-Con handy, that makes many games awkward, or impossible, to play. Or—or!—you could replace your drifting Joy-Con joystick, and keep the tools you’ll use to do it, for $20. Our Joy-Con replacement kit and guides (left and right) will get you back up and running with no mailing, no loss of Switch time, and a gratifying sense of having seen the quirky insides of Nintendo’s weird little controller.