• Light/Dark
  • Ever wanted an RSS feed of all your favorite gaming news sites? Go check out our new Gaming Headlines feed! Read more about it here.

My Joycons are drifting. What is the best method for fixing it in 2020?

ListeningGarden

ListeningGarden

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,496
Shadow said:
How does it work with special joycons? Like my sister has the special Splatoon reversed color joycons that came with the system, will I get those back for sure? I remember reading on their site that they could just give you the default gray joycons instead, which would really suck. It's why I haven't bothered with it other than standard color versions.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

This is a good question - if I somehow end up with the Animal Crossing special edition, I'd consider it absolutely unacceptable to be sent any other Joycon back because of an inherent flaw in the controller's parts. Anyone have any experience with this?
 

Tarinus

Member
May 19, 2018
68
This fixed my drift issue. I just lifted the little skirt at the bottom of the stick, gave it a squirt with wd40 contact cleaner and wiggled the stick and it's been absolutely fine since. I think for the £4 I paid it's worth it even if it ends up happening again later.
 
Xenoblade 3

Xenoblade 3

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,953
New York City
Shadow said:
How does it work with special joycons? Like my sister has the special Splatoon reversed color joycons that came with the system, will I get those back for sure? I remember reading on their site that they could just give you the default gray joycons instead, which would really suck. It's why I haven't bothered with it other than standard color versions.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Hmm I havent considered that. I wouldnt want to lose some unique joycons either. I guess you could email them to ask about it.
 
darz1

darz1

Member
Dec 18, 2017
7,077
Compressed air didnt work for me. I have been replacing my joy con analog sticks with a repair kit off ebay. Its pretty easy to do but maybe I should get some contact cleaner instead if that really works.
 
ragingbegal

ragingbegal

Member
Oct 27, 2017
795
badboy78660 said:
While I *knocks on wood* haven't suffered the dreaded drift myself, I've seen this get recommended as a fix

579339cf-dff1-4077-93d3-b66c5f8b53da_1.635adfc4c55a0362523d7bf2cdec3372.jpeg
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Electrical contact cleaner spray worked for me. Only regret was I didn't try it sooner.
 
Dec

Dec

Prophet of Truth
Member
Oct 26, 2017
3,521
If you are willing to send, have them repaired
If not, contact cleaner.
 
Grue

Grue

Member
Sep 7, 2018
4,893
--R said:
If you live on the US, you can just have them repaired for free. If you don't (or you just don't wanna send them), this worked for me.

Click to expand...
Click to shrink...


I couldn't help but imagine his chair was in fact Deadpool bending forward, arse-cheeks where the headrest is.

Once you see it, you can't unsee it.
 
Ludon Bear

Ludon Bear

Alt Account
Banned
Mar 4, 2020
161
Contact cleaner.
The reason the Joy-cons drift is, because the controller-stick are too close to the controller case, so that small particel parts of it (or just dust) get lose and hover of the controller contacts. That's why they drift and there is no long-term way to fix it. It is a design flaw. Nintendo needs to completely redesign that part of the Joy-Cons ...
 
Pau

Pau

Self-Appointed Godmother of Bruce Wayne's Children
Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,838
Giever said:
Be careful if you go the electrical contact cleaner route. I tried it before Nintendo offered free repairs and, while it helped with the drift, it left my + button fairly inconsistent.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
My minus button stopped working a while ago... didn't know it was related. Ugh. This is ridiculous.
 
Rodney McKay

Rodney McKay

Member
Oct 26, 2017
12,189
Giever said:
Be careful if you go the electrical contact cleaner route. I tried it before Nintendo offered free repairs and, while it helped with the drift, it left my + button fairly inconsistent.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Yeah, I tried it before sending mine in and it messed both of them up. One of them stopped registering that it was connected to the Switch.

Thankfully Njntendo didn't seem to look into that and instead just sent me a new pair. I know they were new because they came almost immediately after I sent mine in, and they worked perfectly.
 
Martin

Martin

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,432
Because we don't have the free repair here in Europe I did this:


Now it works perfectly, but if you don't have the right tools or know how, don't do it!
 
Cleve

Cleve

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,022
Replacing the sticks with kits off amazon was so easy and quick. I'd recommend that as an option to anyone that doesn't want to send them in.
 
Benny Del Toro

Benny Del Toro

Member
Aug 9, 2018
666
Shadow said:
How does it work with special joycons? Like my sister has the special Splatoon reversed color joycons that came with the system, will I get those back for sure? I remember reading on their site that they could just give you the default gray joycons instead, which would really suck. It's why I haven't bothered with it other than standard color versions.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
I would imagine that the least they can do is to make a case swap in those situations.
 

ParanormalFupa

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
6,141
Contact cleaner has worked for me. Ultimately it's going to keep happening to all joycons so it's only a matter of time even with new ones. They are really easy to open up and clean/repair too so I would recommend that over dealing with shipping.
 
OtterX

OtterX

Member
Mar 12, 2020
1,795
Send them in to Nintendo for free. Anything else is just a bandaid.

Edit: Oops. Forgot they suspended that due to Covid.
 
Last edited:
HeRinger

HeRinger

Member
Oct 28, 2017
4,302
I had both my joycons drifting bad and electrical contact cleaner solved the problem months ago. It hasn't returned yet. Plus, it also helped with my L button malfunction! Thing is pure magic.
 

almutama

Member
Oct 27, 2017
303
I have no idea what to do if mine started drifting. I don't live in a nintendo supported region, so I guess its either buying a new joycon or ordering a repair kit with 30+ dollars shipping.
 
Tremis

Tremis

Member
Oct 29, 2017
886
Tried most solutions and ended up ordering a 10$ kit and just replacing it myself. Very easy to do.
 
StayMe7o

StayMe7o

Member
May 11, 2018
1,016
Kamurocho
My left Joycon started to drift so I'll try the contact cleaner solution. Pretty crazy that my PS2 controllers and SNES controller still work fine after all this time.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.