Nintendo says to charge your Switch every 6 months

Nintendo says to charge your Switch every 6 months — or else

(Paradigm credit: Tom'southward Guide)

If you actually read your Nintendo Switch instruction transmission before diving into Jiff of the Wild, you may recollect that it encouraged you lot to charge the system once every six months, even if you weren't using it. Like a lot of good tech advice, it bears repeating, as Nintendo's customer service reps have only reminded us. If your last large Switch project was Fauna Crossing: New Horizons dorsum in March, it's time to plug your console in for a while, or else risk damaging its fragile battery.

While "charge your Switch every 6 months" is not new advice, our latest admonition comes from Nintendo'south Japanese customer service business relationship on Twitter. To paraphrase the tweet, run through Google Translate, Nintendo urged customers to accuse their Switches at to the lowest degree in one case every six months. Failure to do and so could render the organisation "unchargeable."

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ゲーム機に内蔵されているバッテリーは、あまり長い間、充電も使用もしていない状態が続くと、充電できなくなることがあります。半年に一度は充電してあげてください。 pic.twitter.com/Je8QNH5SNTSeptember 28, 2020

To recap some bones chemistry, batteries generate charge through an electrochemical reaction. While using the battery drains power quickly, batteries on standby all the same bleed power, albeit much more slowly. Left on their own for likewise long, batteries tin can lose the minimum charge required to kickstart their chemical reactions, meaning you'll probably have to supplant information technology. And replacing Switch batteries is a hurting, even for tech-savvy gamers.

Speaking from personal experience, you lot should take Nintendo's warning seriously. Even having non charged my Switch for a few weeks was plenty to completely destroy its battery, and Nintendo was profoundly unhelpful when it came time to become the console stock-still. Repairs are expensive, and you lot'll almost certainly lose all your save files. Furthermore, the Nintendo Switch's battery is extremely delicate, even by portable gadget standards. The fewer chances you have with it, the ameliorate.

If yous tend to use your Switch just for large Nintendo releases and leave it dormant in-between, your all-time bet may exist to keep it plugged into the dock when it's not in utilise. In that location's some contend every bit to whether or not this could weaken the battery over time, but generally, modern lithium-ion batteries don't overcharge the same way that one-time nickel-cadmium ones did, so you can probably leave your Switch in its dock for long periods without any sick furnishings. And even then — better a weakened battery than a totally dead one.

It's worth noting that this warning goes for pretty much any gadget you lot own, so if you've got an former handheld console sitting in a box somewhere, it'south probably time to dig it upwardly and plug it in for a few hours. Even if your ultimate program is to get rid of it, no one will want to buy a bricked gadget.

Marshall Honorof is a senior editor for Tom's Guide, overseeing the site's coverage of gaming hardware and software. He comes from a scientific discipline writing background, having studied paleomammalogy, biological anthropology, and the history of science and technology. Subsequently hours, y'all tin can notice him practicing taekwondo or doing deep dives on classic sci-fi.