I've had my Nintendo Switch for about seven years and used to play on it a lot, but recently, I haven't touched it for a few months. Typically, I'd leave it for 2-3 months and it would charge up just fine, but this time it's not responding at all for the first 30 minutes when I plugged it in. Eventually, it showed a battery icon, but there was no lightning bolt next to it. I left it plugged in for 16 hours now, but nothing has changed, and the controllers were not attached during charging.
Here's some context: for the last few years, my Switch has struggled to charge with an official cable—I could only get it to work with a weaker phone charger (like one from Samsung). Right now, I'm using an Apple Pro Mac charger (15V, 3A) after starting with the phone charger. If I need to, I'm open to replacing the battery myself, but I don't want to go through Nintendo since my warranty is long expired.
Overall, I'm just trying to figure out how to get my Switch to power on again. For what it's worth, I managed to get it to charge using the dock and the power adapter from my Meta Quest 3, but it's charging really slowly. I'm definitely planning to replace the battery when I can afford it.
5 Answers
It could definitely help to try a different charger. Mine would show a battery icon like yours after being dead for a while, but it would only start charging properly after about 30 minutes. A different charger might do the trick.
Have you checked the manual? I remember reading that the Switch might need to be at around 50% charge before you store it for a long time; if it discharges fully, it could just die and not turn back on easily.
Just curious—do you have any mods on your Switch? If it’s modded with autorcm, that might be a factor here!
I went through a similar issue, and charging it with a different charger (not the stand) helped me. Once I got it up to around 15%, it was able to charge normally on the dock again. Maybe give that a shot!
Funny enough, it seems like you forgot to actually ask a specific question! But I think you've got a good grasp on what needs to happen.
Exactly! I had a similar issue and switching chargers made a big difference for my Switch's battery recovery.