Your unused joycons are DYING - here's how to save them

[@crystalchaos462]

Lost my original set because of battery bloat. Nintendo should include a "shipping mode" button combo for long-term storage.

[@z3razerviper]

Or just let us disable the find feature.....I dont know anyone who has ever used it.

[@Marcheziora]

This applies to ALL battery operated technology. I've had my DSi fully charged and I haven't uses it in 10+ years only to find the battery empty and slightly bloated and now doesn't last long like it used to.

[@J0rdan912]

Well, after 10 years any battery without checking up and charging from time to time will go bad, even instructions says to check and charge your devices so they don't go below certain critical level. No matter if it was in shutdown or standby state. You should be happy it didn't leaked or exploded in your drawer like some crappy cheap replaceable batteries in old toys or TV remotes.

[@SilverTester]

​@@J0rdan912guys, remember to always remove batteries (if possible) from devices you are not going to use frequently. I almost lost a tablet like that. By batteries, you should also include AA and AAA batteries, as they might leak and permanently damage internal components.

[@J0rdan912]

@@SilverTester You're definitely don't want to remove batteries from PS4, PS5 or Nintendo controllers, they're one of the worst in terms of teardown and repairability. Also there is pretty much no reason to keep those controllers for years, unless you really want to keep one or two just for the sake of old times.

[@hiuman6483]

VK does what Nintendon't!

[@jestfulcompany9589]

I took out my old Crystal 2DS and the battery was so bloated it cracked half of the battery cover clips off 😔 Probably should have taken out the battery like the other person said, but I thought these were "safer" than normal AAs and such 😬

[@ovowesley]

Wow so informative and directly to the point. I always questioned this myself because I have a lot of brand new switches and I always worried about the joy cons never showing any sign of life but now I know how to even charge them and let them in deep state further that’s great thank you

[@guilhermelopesfotografo]

Excellent observation and great tip! But any rechargeable battery will drain, even if not used, regardless of whether the device is on standby or not.

[@lewis9s]

Joycons trying not to be awful controllers and break or drift challenge (IMPOSSIBLE)

[@codyjackson5799]

It looks like they've since added support for Official Pro, NES, SNES and N64 controllers, but not the Sega Genesis controller cause they don't have one to test it out

[@matt92hun]

They drain even if you turn it completely off, remember to charge them every once in a while.

[@UnglJacku]

Thanks man! I can finally preserve my Skyward Sword Joycons' batteries without worrying too much.

[@Flpstrike]

Nintendo must be fu$$ing kidding, I need a tool to shutdown the damn Joy-Con? oh come on...

[@dogg-paws]

There hasn't been widespread report of swollen batteries, so you should be fine.

[@J0rdan912]

@@dogg-paws Yet

[@MegaZeta]

Yet again, I’m glad that I pirate Nintendo games and only use these devices with a PC.

[@dogg-paws]

@@MegaZeta

[@SilverTester]

A 3rd party unofficial tool, you mean.

[@DimzNoms]

THIS is an amazing service you have highlighted! Thank you!

[@lookatme6032]

i did it on 2 pairs of joy cons (1 of them being totk special edition) and my 3 pro controllers. I tested 2 joycons (including totk) and a pro controller if they can open again (before i use the tool on the rest ofc) and it works great. Why did you say to not use it on pro controllers? Am i missing something? Thanks alot btw!!!

[@EnigmaBarry]

Thanks for telling us about this as well as the Joy-Con shutdown program!

[@nich98]

Thanks for this info. I connected brand new joycons one time to test them and put them in the original box. Now the are discharged, would use this tool before putting them in the box again.

[@Urekkato]

WOW all this time I have been charging my Joy cons and wondering why they're always dead. I'm doing this ASAP thanks VK.

[@thebeatsaberrepairguy3386]

Anything with a lithium ion battery will do this, not just Joy cons, even when they are powered off the batteries are still going to drain I mean, it will do something, but it’s not gonna prevent them from swelling After not being charged for a while

[@sor3999]

They will much drain slower when completely off. But the reality is you can't store any lithium battery powered device for too long. You have to take it out at least every 6-8 months and charge it to 80% then put it back. Also never leave Alkaline batteries in their devices. Outside of the device the battery can last 10 years. Otherwise they can expand and break and leak.

[@thechugg4372]

Btw guys your wii remotes are dying. Please take those batteries off before its too late!

[@JessicaFEREM]

it would be cool if someone made a rail for deep sleeping the joycons quickly, like it quickly pairs the controllers, deep sleeps them, and you could either leave them on the rail or take them off and put more on to deep sleep

[@Chrisezo]

How times have changed, I have a Blue GBA SP and an original gray phat Nintendo DS, and those had been in storage for like 7 years, but the other day when there was a massive power outage that lasted for about 3-4 days, I took both of those devices from storage and they turned on with no problems whatsoever, and they even gave me a couple of hours of playtime too, yet my Nintendo Switch if I store it for like a month, when I take it out of its storage bag, its completely dead to the point where I have to leave it plugged in to the wall for about 2-3 hours, because for some reason these devices don't even give you some kind of notification that its charging if the device is completely dead, so the first time that it happened to me I was freaking out since I thought that my Switch was a faulty unit or something, until I had waited 1-2 hours and it had the indicator that it was charging, whoever designed these devices this way has a special place in hell waiting for them, and that also goes for whoever made the Joy Cons so cheap, and lacking so much in durability since all of my controllers did end up with drift issues even if I was mostly using a Pro Controller... Oh and I feel bad for my buddy who has a Switch Lite, because his joysticks started drifting, and since they are built in he has no choice but to open up the console, but he's hella afraid of opening the system up himself to fix it, and he's paranoid about sending it someplace to get it fixed, since he doesn't want to lose his data or risk losing the device itself.

[@Lynk56]

I think something might have been wrong with your switch or the charger bc mine always lights up when it detects it’s being plugged in to a charger and comes back on within five minutes

[@Ukysseus]

Wow thanks, more people should be aware of this issue!

[@Busyshark92]

Batteries discharge even when completely off unfortunately.

[@marcgove5000]

Commenters are saying the batteries will still discharge in this mode, which is true, but they will discharge MUCH slower than in standby. This is to avoid the battery being completely empty after a few weeks of sitting.

[@alioth2021]

Might need to use this. I swap out the joycons on my switch every other week to prevent battery degradation.

[@WheeledHamster]

Oh fuck I forgot about this, I have some sitting in the drawers right now because I used a different pads now. Thanks for the reminder.

[@jarde1989]

Replacing the battery is pretty easy tho

[@jkoz4]

Sure, but if I don’t need to spend money I’d rather not.

[@zadock6370]

same goes to pretty much anything in the joycons as well. those things are far more repairable than people give them credit for.

[@ShiningSakura]

@@zadock6370 You would be surprised how difficult it is for someone to install those ribbon cables alone.... watched friend struggle to replace just one of those buggers and it took them I kid you not.... half an hour of struggling to wave the white flag and have me jump in and fix it in seconds for them. They were quite tech savvy and diy loving kinda guy.... but for some reason they couldn't figure out a simple ribbon cable for a joystick repair. Go figure; that's why people pay to get it fixed for them.

[@zadock6370]

@@ShiningSakura you are not wrong. some of those cables are a pain to get back in. despite that, it is infinitely better than having to desolder and solder something

[@ShiningSakura]

@@zadock6370 Here here on cables being easier than soldering. Speaking of which I am still cursing nintendo for their stupid decision on making the R button the only one that is soldered to the main board vs a cable like ALL the others. Why.... just why. That sucker gets dropped and broken frequently ( compared to the other buttons when one does get broken) and its a pain to fix.

[@theforgottenmovies3265]

Oh, that I didn't know. I have two controllers with Joy-Con drift but I have think about to start use them again when I got Hall effect to them. But it was not so easy to buy them.

[@JessicaFEREM]

This is a reminder, if a battery is bloated, drain them to empty, and STOP using them and remove the batteries, and put them in a sealed glass jar or buried in the back yard. they can and will explode if you continue to charge them.

[@Winky813]

Good video 👍, will be sure to give that tool a download

[@morterox2]

Dude, do you ALWAYS have to save us all when Nintendo doesn't? It is becoming repetitive

[@dogg-paws]

I take it batteries must be a nightmare to you, this happens all the time

[@dogg-paws]

@@morterox2 Are batteries a nightmare for you? This happens all the time.

[@melonstuff9creative]

Nintendo fans doing what nintendon't

[@dogg-paws]

@@melonstuff9creative Are batteries a nightmare for you? This happens all the time. I mean, did you expect a company to support a device for over 10 years?

[@Sin_Alder]

You're aware that this is a problem for all batteries, right? Not just Nintendo's? And are you going to have beef with practically every single other company that doesn't tell you to occasionally charge batteries, or is it just Nintendo? Seems weird to single out Nintendo for this.

[@Lynk56]

Can I ask what the third party charging tool you used was? And is there a general rule of thumb for how often we should be checking on our tech?

[@bryancartagena3286]

Idk if I'm an idiot but I downloaded that blue folder seen in 1:06 but i can't find the exe file.

[@emmettturner9452]

What about NES/Famicom controller JoyCons?

[@Sopsys]

They are detected as regular Joy-Cons, so work as well.

[@onepiece190993]

Thanks, gonna use this with my OG Switch Joycons

[@VOLTRONDEFENDER4440]

this also works on the nintendo switch pro controller as well

[@Suedeash]

Gotta find my joycon charger

[@ovowesley]

Does anybody know if you can check on the new joy con if it still got a charge if you try to press on the pair button and see if it blinks and after that is it still in the sleep state again?

[@J0rdan912]

I wonder if some other controllers are acting the same way. Sometimes I see my PS4 and PS5 controllers are "connected" to bluetooth adapter according to Windows, but they are actually turned off, obviously. I don't know if it's just Windows UI bug or some controllers can actually in "standby state"?

[@SilverTester]

Are they connected or just PAIRED? They show as paired even when totally shutdown.

[@J0rdan912]

@@SilverTester Paired AND connected. I've seen some topics at Microsoft support and Reddit, but never found any solution. Sometimes bluetooth controllers are just stuck in connected state, despite being off, hogging number 1 controller slot and won't allow you to use backup or another controller. Aaand if you try to disable/enable bluetooth in Windows or physical re-insert bluetooth dongle, you have 50/50 chance to mess up your pairings or drivers, which is one big pain in the butt if you have like 4-5 gaming (and calibrated/customized) devices.

[@SilverTester]

@@J0rdan912 dude, i have never experienced anything like that and i've been using all kinds of BT devices. Maybe it's a perfect time to reset your OS?

[@J0rdan912]

@@SilverTester Me too until recently. OS is perfectly fine, also this is 2024, not 2004, you don't need to reinstall the entire OS to fix some issues. It's happening on both my gaming PC and laptop. Apparently some recent Windows 11 update or bluetooth driver were bugged.

[@SilverTester]

@@J0rdan912 well, a simple but more technical solution would be to either re-install or rollback the BT drivers. Maybe try a different BT adapter? Fully resetting the OS seems like overkill, but most ppl keep same OS for years and years, a reset every 6 months keeps things flowing and removes all the clutter any user accumulates. I keep most of my frequently used apps on portable versions on a separate drive, so a reset is not bothersome at all. Sucks that you need to re-install games though.

[@thomasfrazier3378]

Mine were totally dead... thanks for the reminder.

[@Thesakuraharona]

Well heck. Now I have to go find those and plug them in...

[@berrymckockiner5883]

Can you please do a button swap for the joycons but in the Xbox layout

[@elainerich7915]

0:23 hey what controllers are those on the switch?

[@VKsChannel]

Mobapad M6 HD s.click.aliexpress.com/e/_Dk0YxOf

[@j.r.shartzer]

Mine are still connected to my Switch (which is always in its dock), and I just use my one Power-A Zelda controller.

[@southernstyle8835]

You’re gonna do a review on the Gulikit TMR joysticks for the ps5?

[@VKsChannel]

Yes

[@nahuel5532]

I wonder if this works with the Pokeball Plus? I never play Let's Go Pikachu/Eevee. That thing is bound to get ruined.

[@dannyd4339]

By doing a massive lawsuit against Nintendo for scamming people?

[@DennisBM]

okay but why is their LED indicator different? is that a mod?

[@VKsChannel]

Yeah I have made a video about it look for extremerate joycon led on my channel

[@pixelpuppy]

thanks for reminding me to charge my devices

[@jshu-_-]

VK has NOT been using joycons for awhile, so much so that he has a hard time putting them on the Switch now

[@reyperrito8329]

hi, is there something like that for the console itself? I don’t use my console and don’t want the battery to go bad. Please ulistrate me on this. Thank you

[@VKsChannel]

You can turn off the console completely by holding the power button for a while

[@reyperrito8329]

@@VKsChannel thanks but if turned off for months the battery won’t go bad?

[@cryz1035]

Valeu bro.. vai ser muito útil 👌

[@Linkenfant]

Is there any version planned to turn Pro Controllers off (deep sleep state) as well? That would be very useful!

[@Sopsys]

The linked version actually supports official Pro Controllers as well! I have a few and have shut them down with it as well. I have not tried the newer special versions that came after I created this in 2021, but I don't think they have changed at all. No guarantees, but I believe the worst that can happen is that the tool complains that it could not detect a supported controller. It has some logic to try to avoid doing anything on unsupported controllers.

[@Linkenfant]

@@Sopsys Thank you!

[@nightadmin283]

Now I know why my JoyCon can hold the charge so long. Because it is Switch-less hahaha.

[@theforgottenmovies3265]

My antivirus found a virus when I tried to download it.

[@bookwormbon482]

Omg

[@VKsChannel]

Its a fake positive You can verify it on virustotal.com

[@shincifer]

i dont have the jcoff.exe file? how did you find it?

[@VKsChannel]

See the description

[@shincifer]

@@VKsChannel nothing. theres only a link, thats where i downloaded the github app from. see everything but the exe file

[@D1nghead]

Do I need to worry about third party Joycons tho?

[@VKsChannel]

no because the third party ones won't stay in standby

[@DanHenry-v5x]

Lol, yep, still waiting to see how everyone responses to to finding out l their Switches Become unusable becuase theres no Battery Bypass and their Switches batteries are Dead, Will they Sell or Will they Mod????

[@kamm3021]

Hiw fast will they hack switch 2 🤔

[@iamdmc]

useful vid!

[@JB-wk5dw]

Thanks!

[@losermonkey666]

Thank you.

[@Yamnat-m4v]

Vk bro flydigi vader 4 review when ?

[@VKsChannel]

Its stuck in customs Unfortunately i have to wait until it gets released I am very upset because its about a month already, but it will get released at some point

[@tenebrasm]

My hero

[@mikaelamonsterland]

my joy cons will just not turn on even when connected to the system lol

[@rodrigo53]

I think my Pro controller is dying for not using it.

[@milkbookies4977]

you are actual godsend, geez Nintendo is so fussy to deal with

[@masterdna117]

"with the switch succesor coming soon..." Choom, I've been hearing that for 3+ years and nothing

[@gtrscort1]

I don’t even care at this point. If they come out with something, I don’t think I’ll be replacing my OLED Switch with it…nless it is a drastic improvement.

[@ZatralTMF]

To be fair anyone saying it was coming previous to 2023 was certifiably insane if they actually believed Nintendo would do that to themselves

[@Gianluca_GMS]

thanks nintendo :)

[@hastyhercules77]

ahem *chromebook users*

[@SilverTester]

I love nintendo games... but goddamn the more i learn about their brand the more i hate their shenanigans. This is why i rather avoid their hardware whenever possible. They are very anti-consumer.

[@Gold_Yoshi]

Legacy Console Edition show off

[@dorondavid4698]

You know what I realized yesterday as I was playing my 3DS? The buttons on the joycons are the SAME as the ones on the 3ds! That's it, that's what I realized

[@MilkerMurphy]

Nintendo has falken off with their hardware designs. What a piece of trash that will rot away in so many households

[@1moblin2]

joy cons are the worst & gimmick controllers ever created...miss GameCube & Wii U days when nintendo had real good amazing TRUE controllers. those nintendo controller days are long gone now

[@Dustrick]

Noice.

[@EhrgeizGod]

wtfffff

[@genericgamingyoutuber]

WARNING: this writes to the firmware/bios of your joycons, you can absolutely break them with this

[@bookwormbon482]

Thanks for explaining!

[@jamminjester5248]

Ok, it's official. Joycon are the worst controllers ever produced.

[@siliconknights]

i dont even use my switch let alone joy cons

[@markusTegelane]

I'm early

[@danielc5647]

try out gulikit tmr