How to Fix the Nintendo Switch's Battery Indicator

How To
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Is your Switch showing a low battery no matter how much you charge? Here's a fix.

If your Nintendo Switch battery has been seemingly dropping from a full charge to 5 percent in minutes, there's finally a fix -- as long as you have most of your day to spare.

Photo: Shaun Lucas/Tom's Guide

Photo: Shaun Lucas/Tom's Guide

1. Make sure your Switch has the latest 3.0.1 software by going to Settings > System > System Update.

2. Go to Settings > Sleep Mode and set Auto-Sleep to "Never" for both portable mode and TV mode.

3. Connect the AC adapter directly to your Switch until it's fully charged. Nintendo says to let the console charge for about three hours if it doesn't reach 100 percent right away. Using the console while it charges is just fine, if you want to play something.

4. Once the battery is at 100 percent, leave the console alone for one hour with the AC adapter still connected.

5. Disconnect the AC adapter and leave your Switch on the Home menu for "approximately three to four hours."

6. Once your battery is almost drained, turn off your Switch by holding the power button for three seconds and selecting Power Options > Turn Off. Then, leave your console alone for about 30 minutes.

According to Nintendo, repeating steps 2 through 6 several times will slowly improve your battery charge indicator. It's a slightly cumbersome process, but one that will hopefully stop your Switch from displaying a dead battery after a full charge.

Source: Nintendo

Michael Andronico
Michael Andronico

Mike Andronico is Senior Writer at CNNUnderscored. He was formerly Managing Editor at Tom's Guide, where he wrote extensively on gaming, as well as running the show on the news front. When not at work, you can usually catch him playing Street Fighter, devouring Twitch streams and trying to convince people that Hawkeye is the best Avenger.

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