How to Update the Nintendo Switch Controllers

This guide will take you step by step through the process to update the controllers (Joy-Cons) for your Nintendo Switch.

As you’ve probably noticed, when there’s an update for the Nintendo Switch you’ll be notified each time you start playing a game. However, when there’s an update for the controllers (called Joy-Cons) you don’t receive any kind of notification at all. That means you have to manually check to see if there’s an update for them. Follow these steps to update the Nintendo Switch controllers.

1. Start by making sure your Nintendo Switch is connected to the Internet.
2. Go to your Nintendo Switch “Home Screen” and select the System Settings button.
3. Scroll down the column on the left side of the screen and select the Controllers and Sensors item.
4. Locate the Update Controllers option in the Controllers and Sensors section and select it.
5. Your Switch will now check to see if there are any updates available for the Joy-Cons. If there is, it will automatically download and apply the update.
6. Once the process has completed select the OK button. Depending on the update, your Nintendo Switch may restart.
7. That’s it! You’re now using the latest software for your Joy-Cons.

Note: if you came here to try and fix a problem with your Joy-Cons (probably “drift”) and updating the software didn’t resolve the issue, head over to the Joy-Con repair page on Nintendo.com and start the process to have Nintendo fix them for you.

If for some reason Nintendo won’t fix them for you, or you don’t want to wait for them to do it – you can repair them yourself (I did!) using a repair kit from Amazon and a helpful YouTube video. It’s remarkably easy to do even if you have no previous experience repairing stuff like this (if I can do it you can too).

ps. before you go, check out these Nintendo Switch wallpapers :)