The joycons drift problem is extremely annoying

[Slushimi]

Let's preface this thread by explaining why I'm making it in the first place.

Because of the wonderful people in Era, I got Xenoblade Chronicles 2: Torna. I played the OG game before any of my joycons had a drifting problem. A year ago my first set of joycons started to drift. Heavily. It lead to me getting a new pair thinking that I had a bad pair. I was wrong. Only a couple of months playing with this set, they also started to drift. Because I believed in Nintendo, I got a third pair. Now after a month of not touching my Switch and booting it up for XC2:T, I've discovered that this pair also drifts.

I never had this much frustration with the drift problem until now. In XC2, the only way to attack is to stand still. With the drift problem I rarely stand still. I have to keep my focus on the character I'm controlling, just to make sure they don't go to Narnia.

I'm done with the Joycons and have ordered a 8bitdo adapter and the Hori Daemon x Machina joycons pro. Fuck you Nintendo for never fixing your shit.

 

[Puffy]

*downplays*

 

[Vector]

I'm strongly considering never buying a Nintendo product again after going through 3 pairs of joycons now.

It's disgraceful that they STILL haven't fixed the engineering flaw that leads to sticks drifting.

 

[Ahnez]

If it helps, mine was drifting very badly, and I just sprayed a bit of electrical contact cleaner under the flap below the stick, and it stopped drifting - completely

Its been 4 months since that, and it still works perfectly

 

[Zombine]

It is really bad. IMO RROD bad.

 

[EtrianFOE]

It doesn't excuse Nintendo for the shitty hardware but have you tried contact cleaner. I used it a few days ago and drift disappeared.

 

[ApeEscaper]

It's mid 2020 why don't Nintendo still do anything about this?

I'm still waiting on revised joycons which prevents this issue before buying another pair

 

[LiftGammaGain]

It is really bad. IMO RROD bad.

Click to shrink...

Its way worst in my view...and the reason I'm passing on the Lite.

 

[Slushimi]

If it helps, mine was drifting very badly, and I just sprayed a bit of electrical contact cleaner under the flap below the stick, and it stopped drifting - completely

Its been 4 months since that, and it still works perfectly

Click to shrink...

I tried to do this with my second pair, but they just ended up drifting again. Maybe I didn't do it right or I was just unlucky idk

 

[Couscous]

It became really bad for me and made playing Pokémon Shield such a hassle. Luckily, my brother bought new joycons for me as a christmas present.

 

[Greyline108]

The electrical contact cleaner lasted a few months for me. On my second application so far, so long as this it doesn't eventually permanently break down, I'm okay with it.

It sounds like it would be annoying in XB2. It became a huge issue with me in Dragon Quest 11, where directional input on the stick would skip dialogue boxes. That... was not fun to deal with.

 

[Jimnymebob]

Yeah, I got it yesterday on my left one.
It's certainly not from overuse, because outside of Pokemon and AC, I generally use my Switch like once a fortnight.

 

[wideface]

My partner bought a 2019 model Switch and the left joycon started drifting just a month later.

 

[NattyBo]

Have gotten it on my sons switch and my switch original joycons. It's really shitty and not what you expect from Nintendo

 

[MrMegaPhoenix]

I thought I had it but not sure.

I was playing divinity os2 and the left stick kept slowly moving left. But it's not doing it now.

If that is drift though, then yeah it's terrible and embarrassing Nintendo hasn't fixed it yet. Makes you feel what would happen with a switch 2, like 3 years of a hardware fault that still isn't fixed?

It hurts the image Nintendo wants us to view them as, less justifying their prices and such

 

[Crono]

Just got it on my left joycon. Has anyone replaced the joystick and of so where did you get parts from?

 

[I Wanna Be The Guy]

It is really bad. IMO RROD bad.

Click to shrink...

No it isn't. Microsoft actually reacted to RROD.

 

[NattyBo]

Just got it on my left joycon. Has anyone replaced the joystick and of so where did you get parts from?

Click to shrink...

if you're in the US Nintendo will repair it for free

 

[RockmanBN]

*downplays*

Click to shrink...

"Never had it so it must not be bad. They're probably mistreating their controllers."

 

[J_ToSaveTheDay]

For a product that is enjoying immense success and coming to be relied on by many presumably satisfied users, it is pretty unacceptable that Nintendo continues to fail to address this very known issue at its root in the controller's flawed design. They've had tons of lead-time at this point to get to it.

 

[JohanKRS]

Mine also started when I was playing XC2... When you NEED to stand still to attack you really feel the pain of a drifting Joy Con...

 

[Kouriozan]

Nintendo is usually good with build quality, that make the whole thing even more infuriating, when those stuff ain't cheap.
Just imagine playing the Switch in 2030, that would be nearly impossible.

 

[jchap]

I fixed mine by replacing the stick with a 5 dollar amazon replacement. Works great now.

 

[TheGreatMightyPoo]

At least the uproar(and especially lawsuit) will result in them putting forth effort to fix it for the next Switch.

 

[Deleted member 32135]

if you're in the US Nintendo will repair it for free

Click to shrink...

Which is stupid since they are recognizing a problem that every Switch user can face but are limiting the support to it to just one territory.

 

[upandaway]

It's a ridiculous flaw in the product and insane that it's not fixed yet, but why are you guys replacing the whole thing? There's mountains of resources online for how to temporarily fix drift in joycons... it sucks, and I hate it, but buying new joycons?

 

[Sparks]

Whatever, its not that big of a deal, just buy new joycons they are only like $5.

(cries in too much lost money)

It's pretty obnoxious going through these things and all the "fixes" are very brief solutions.

 

[Opposable]

wait until the 'it's not that bad' posters enter

you're 100% correct OP

 

[TechnicPuppet]

It's a pain in the fucking arse because they are so expensive.

 

[etta]

It's the one scary thing when considering getting a Lite since it can't even be replaced.

 

[Jawmuncher]

Yeah my joycons now are getting hit with it. Thankfully i'm only playing Animal Crossing at the moment, but it's destroying being able to play DMC 3 on the go.

 

[Zombine]

"Never had it so it must not be bad. They're probably mistreating their controllers."

Click to shrink...

This was me initially. I'm so careful with my consoles and controllers and out of nowhere my left stick started to drift.

Honestly, there needs to be a class action lawsuit.

 

[minimalism]

It's the one scary thing when considering getting a Lite since it can't even be replaced.

Click to shrink...

You can absolutely replace the sticks. They're like 5 bucks a pop on Amazon.

 

[Slushimi]

It's a ridiculous flaw in the product and insane that it's not fixed yet, but why are you guys replacing the whole thing? There's mountains of resources online for how to temporarily fix drift in joycons... it sucks, and I hate it, but buying new joycons?

Click to shrink...

Dude I know, but I believed in Nintendo and thought it was just faulty hardware. It was my mistake to think this way, but I know better now.

 

[Aurica]

Y'know what's weird? I finally got it on my left stick with all this AC playing a few weeks ago, and I just kept playing a ton for several days after that despite it pushing me into the wrong places and fucking me up a ton... and then it went away. That has to be abnormal, yeah?

 

[Brofield]

Only now in my four pairs of joy cons I have one that is finally starting to drift. Of course, it's the Super Mario Odyssey red ones I ordered from Japan that's starting to tilt forward on the left joycon.

When Nintendo reopens their repair centres I'll send it in immediately, but I swear if they just send back anything but that specific colour there is gonna be hell to pay. I sincerely hope that class action lawsuit goes through to ensure that hardware quality control isn't skimped in the future.

 

[TheGreatMightyPoo]

Y'know what's weird? I finally got it on my left stick with all this AC playing a few weeks ago, and I just kept playing a ton for several days after that despite it pushing me into the wrong places and fucking me up a ton... and then it went away. That has to be abnormal, yeah?

Click to shrink...

Sounds more like a syncing problem.

If it drifts from the mechanism, I doubt it'll go away by itself.

 

[NintenDuvo08]

Its even worse for me right now because all three of my pro controllers decided they wanted to randomly start drifting and i can't even send them in for repair because Nintendo still hasn't reopened

 

[Dreams-Visions]

Only now in my four pairs of joy cons I have one that is finally starting to drift. Of course, it's the Super Mario Odyssey red ones I ordered from Japan that's starting to tilt forward on the left joycon.

When Nintendo reopens their repair centres I'll send it in immediately, but I swear if they just send back anything but that specific colour there is gonna be hell to pay. I sincerely hope that class action lawsuit goes through to ensure that hardware quality control isn't skimped in the future.

Click to shrink...

I'm imagining the backlog and subsequent wait you guys are in for. not like they're going to hire more repair people. Yikes.

 

[Opposable]

Xbox were clear with tips on how to prevent RRoD e.g. don't have it on the floor, make sure it's uncovered so it doesn't over-heat...

I don't think I've seen Nintendo address the problem at all or hint as to how the problem can be semi-controlled

 

[WarAdept]

If it helps, mine was drifting very badly, and I just sprayed a bit of electrical contact cleaner under the flap below the stick, and it stopped drifting - completely

Its been 4 months since that, and it still works perfectly

Click to shrink...

Did you have to completely open the Joycon shell to do this? I have 2 drifting left joycons, and so I'm left with my 3rd and last one left that doesn't drift.

 

[Aurica]

Sounds more like a syncing problem.

If it drifts from the mechanism, I doubt it'll go away by itself.

Click to shrink...

I don't think so. It lasted several days, and I'd never experienced it any other time. It was incredibly frustrating and only affected one specific direction even after several restarts. Maybe something got lodged inside that moved over time.

 

[TheGreatMightyPoo]

Did you have to completely open the Joycon shell to do this? I have 2 drifting left joycons, and so I'm left with my 3rd and last one left that doesn't drift.

Click to shrink...

You just have to pry open the flap underneath the analog nub.

No need to open anything up.

 

[TheGreatMightyPoo]

I don't think so. It lasted several days, and I'd never experienced it any other time. It was incredibly frustrating and only affected one specific direction even after several restarts. Maybe something got lodged inside that moved over time.

Click to shrink...

Yeah, could be.

I mean, sometimes blasting it with air works so it could have just been minor debris.

 

[Grapezard]

Sure is, and it's so inconsistent regarding which games are affected by drifting and which aren't.

 

[Doggg]

Yeah, my right joycon is completely messed up now.

 

[entremet]

Yep. I just bought a new pair. Too lazy to do DIY. Yes, I'm part of the problem lol.

 

[Ahnez]

I tried to do this with my second pair, but they just ended up drifting again. Maybe I didn't do it right or I was just unlucky idk

Click to shrink...

Weird, I did it for a friend around the same time as well, and as far as I know, it still works for him as well.

Did you have to completely open the Joycon shell to do this? I have 2 drifting left joycons, and so I'm left with my 3rd and last one left that doesn't drift.

Click to shrink...

No, there's a rubber flap below the stick, its very easy to see it, I just sprayed the electrical cleaner under it.

 

[etta]

You can absolutely replace the sticks. They're like 5 bucks a pop on Amazon.

Click to shrink...

Oh snap you can open up the unit, does it void the warranty?

 

[goodretina]

I went years without being affected, but Animal Crossing of all things brought on drift. I fixed it temporarily by updating the controllers, but it returned a few days later. Fixed it for another two days by calibrating the joysticks, and now it is just acting up whenever it wants. I'm not excited to spend a ton of money on another pair of controllers, especially because the Joy-Con is the worst controller in years.