After owning a Switch since launch day, my favorite pair of neon yellow Joy-Cons recently started to suffer from the dreaded “Joy-Con Drift” that some people have unfortunately experienced.
I tried a few options like opening the affected Joy-con and cleaning it with rubbing alcohol and duster. But still, I would be playing something and randomly have my joystick thinking I was pressing up. (Particularly not fun in Smash Bros.)
So I scoured the web for an answer and stumbled across someone using contact cleaner to remove the crud that had built up inside the Joy-Con.
I chose WD-40 Specialist Electrical Contact Cleaner which came out to about $5 online. Make sure it isn’t just WD-40, but Electrical Contact Cleaner. Any brand will do though.
One spray under the flap that meets the ball of the joystick, a few dozen clicked in rotations later and this thing felt like brand new. I noticed before it was fixed that there was a bit of scratchiness when clicked in around certain areas. This completely disappeared after I was done and I was pretty amazed at how simple a fix it was.
Best of luck to anyone experiencing Joy-Con drift and don’t lose hope on a pair of Joy-Cons till you’ve at least given this a try! 🤘
