this post was submitted on 16 Jan 2025
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The drift that joycons get is almost always just caused by dirt/gunk under the joystick flaps. If you spray a little electrical cleaner up under the flaps it fixes the drift immediately. Might have to repeat it 1-2 times a year.
It's always bothered me how big of deal joycon drift is when it has such an easy fix. Obviously it would be better if I didn't happen at all, but it seems silly that people are throwing away good controllers that only needed a 5 second cleaning. Only thing I've ever had to replace any of my joycon controllers over is problems with the rail connections to the switch, where it swaps back and forth between wireless and direct connected. But my original 2016 joycons are still going strong, just stuck as wireless only joycons.
Not only did I keep them clean like all my other electronics, I had taken them apart to do a deeper cleaning after responses like yours when I posted about it on Reddit. The drift still persisted. I wasn't just tossing out $70 controllers because they were dirty.
Even if that was the culprit, it still speaks to low quality when other controllers don't need to be cleaned so often.
Opening up the controller and cleaning the joysticks directly might have actually made it worse. The joysticks have their own lubrication, if you clean the directly you can remove that and ruin them.
My experience has been that cleaning up the joysticks with the controller closed up is safe and generally fixes any drift or sticking buttons. Opening up the controller and trying to clean it with the same spray can be damaging and isn't recommended.
And to be clear, the actual stick mechanism can break down and cause drift too. But every case of joycon drift I've ever seen between my couple sets and friends' sets were always fixed by a quick spray of cleaner.
You're vastly downplaying the problem. There's a reason a class action lawsuit went forward with tons of evidence backing up that it wasn't simply the user's error in properly maintaining the joycon. I've bought a joycon and had it started drifting within weeks before, even before I had kids. The sticks were just poorly designed, simple as that.
I'm not claiming it's a standard maintenance practice, most people won't have the spray, and aren't accustomed to needing to needing to maintain a joystick like that.
But it is truly a simple, cheap, easy fix for almost all cases of joystick drift (not just on joycons, but all controllers). I really think nintendo should have worked to spread the knowledge, and provided free cleaner to people with issues.
That was not the problem in "almost all cases." Seriously, look up the class action lawsuit regarding it.