Exactly the same issue for me. I don't want to send it back and lose 50 hours of Zelda data. Pretty disappointed with how many issues this console has.
I have done quite a lot of testing, including chargin joy-cons separately. Initially I could play zelda for three hours or so. Suddenly, about a week ago, not even two hours. Having the console off, charged independently overnight, with a 100% of battery and joy cons 100%, I can only play Zelda now little more than an hour before the console goes to sleep (not just the icon of low battery) and I cannot turn it on again until I plug it. Nintendo has not replied to me yet, so simply returning it to the retailer. I will have to start Zelda all over again, but I do not trust this to be an isolated issue, so I will wait for a later production batch... I would say, be careful going beyond your 28 days with your retailer to fall into the 12 month Nintendo warranty. The issue with the batteries seems to appear after initial usage... so not looking good...
Sad to read this, sir.
Really sad.
I can't figure out how this problem can be so big and how they didn't notice it before launching the system.
My battery still works well, even if its number are absolutely not to be trusted, but, man, all our experiences made everything really, really hard to bear.
Seems my second Switch is affected to by the battery issue! Bahh Getting seriously fed up and disappointed in Nintendo.
Yesterday evening I played Zelda undocked and my battery went from 100% to 64% within 10 minutes!
Then it drained to 1% within an hour! And here comes to strange thing, as I discovered on the official forums, I could keep on playing for at least another 30 minutes with battery on 1%, before I gave up as it got too late and had to sleep.
So it seems the whole battery circuitry is messed up and unable to read battery status correctly! With a LiOn battery inside the Switch, this is scary stuff!
Its on the charger now and I hope it was just an initialization issue, since I have never drained the battery since I got it (played docked most of the time) and that after a new full charge it will drain a lot less quicker and show more accurate battery data (some people experienced this happening, so fingers crossed).
If I have to turn this Switch in again, I think I will be done with Nintendo. Just the idea of having to start all over again in Zelda (after clocking over 80 hours now) .....no thanks.
I am currently seriously angry at Nintendo for this cluster screw up with the Switch with all these issues and NOT having something simple in place like save game backup!
I would be less frustrated and annoyed to turn in a console if I at least could save my save games! /FACEPALM
@Alessandro_P
Yea - I think your battery is totally fine, it's just the darn on-screen indicator that's wonky. And that can be super annoying, definitely.
Well, we are working with Li-Ion batteries and this can be a dangerous assumption!
If the problem is more serious under the hood and there is a potential risk of the Switch to continue charging when at 100% than this can be very dangerous!
Also, continuously discharging a Li-Ion battery to 0% will surely kill your battery in no-time, since Li-Ion batteries should never be discharged to 0%. It will kill it's lifespan significantly. You might be looking at a dead battery within months.
So lets pray it's just a glitch with the battery indicator and not a real firmware issue, as if it affects the charging state than it can ruin the battery to the point of it exploding or catching fire, as we have seen with mobile phones.
So I am really worried how Nintendo is keeping dead silent on this issue, even when there is a 10+ page thread on their official forums with lots of people complaining since launch!
@Alessandro_P
Yea - I think your battery is totally fine, it's just the darn on-screen indicator that's wonky. And that can be super annoying, definitely.
Well, we are working with Li-Ion batteries and this can be a dangerous assumption!
If the problem is more serious under the hood and there is a potential risk of the Switch to continue charging when at 100% than this can be very dangerous!
Also, continuously discharging a Li-Ion battery to 0% will surely kill your battery in no-time, since Li-Ion batteries should never be discharged to 0%. It will kill it's lifespan significantly. You might be looking at a dead battery within months.
So lets pray it's just a glitch with the battery indicator and not a real firmware issue, as if it affects the charging state than it can ruin the battery to the point of it exploding or catching fire, as we have seen with mobile phones.
So I am really worried how Nintendo is keeping dead silent on this issue, even when there is a 10+ page thread on their official forums with lots of people complaining since launch!
You are absolutely right. It's incredible that this problem is not aknowledge by Nintendo in any way.
They did it for the left joycon issue and other stuff, why are they ignoring the battery completely?
I feel extremely unsafe because of that. And that's sad.
Well, I have done some testing and the problem seems to be when you completely turn off the console.
It then seems for some strange reason it fails to read out a correct battery state when you turn back on the console.
After playing over one and half hour at 1% battery, the console finally turned itself off and I fully charged it back up until it read 100%.
When I turned off the console and back on again, it suddenly dropped to 68% or so, while the battery definitely is still at 100%.
So as test I put it on the charger again and indeed after charging for couple minutes it suddenly jumped to 100% and stopped charging.
Now the last two days I have left the console in sleep mode and a day later it only depleted a couple % battery and was around 96% when I woke up the console.
So as long as I don't completely turn off the console and put it in sleep mode only, it seems to read battery status correctly.
My son's Switch seems to be behaving similarily btw. So it seems quite a widespread issue and most People probably don't notice it, because they just put their Switch in sleep mode only (intentionally or unintentionally).
I really hope this can be fixed with a firmware update and that it isn't a hardware issue.
PS. It's the hottest topic on the official Nintendo forums right now and not a single response from Nintendo!
@Jeronan Sure fact is, the update of this week didn't fix anything. Still, what you say is a perfect description of the situation: turning the console off makes everything nuts, at first sight, when it really isn't.
Probably, as you said, nobody turns off the thing: I guess most people now live with tablets and phone turned on in sleep mode 24/7 so most people probably didn't want to turn the Switch off or maybe they don't even know they can. Sad.
Yup. So for now, best thing you can do is NOT to turn off your console, but keep it in Sleep mode when you stop using it, until Nintendo acknowledges the problem and fixes it!
It's very sad indeed. But at least we have a workaround for now, instead of having to send it in and lose all progress with your games.
So we just have to keep hoping it's not a hardware issue.
I've been having these problems too. It's nice that people on this thread have been able too link these problems to completely turning off the console. I am too one of those people who still feels the need to completely turn devices off, although I have to say I don't do it with my phone or tablet. I'm going to treat my Switch the same way now and hope it helps. Still, I hope they fix it soon, weird problem.
Tried last night, powered down my switch at 56% to completely off, came back 3 hours later and looked and was still at 56...Going to experiment more and see if anything changes
Just a thought as I am also getting the battery issues. I noticed, mine started after I added the Micro SD card as it downloads an additional update. I'm wondering if those of you are having the battery discharge also have SD cards and anyone who doesn't, whether you use an SD card or not. May have just been a coincidence with mine, but wondering if that update could be the cause.
Hi all, I have now received my Switch back from Nintendo, repaired and with a cover letter. They explained the fault was an "Operating System Problem". On initial testing, the battery display & battery length seem to be working fine. I will send another message soon to reconfirm my findings.
OK guys, I can confirm that after charging my Switch fully to 100% I turned the system fully off. I turned the system on 16 hours later & the display still shows 100%! I also tested the battery power too. Basically if you have any battery display or length issue, Nintendo will fix it. Make sure you send it to them & get it fixed. No firmware update will correct it. They fixed mine & I didn't lose my save data. I'm now very happy & in love with my Switch again!
Hi everyone, I'm part of this growing club to it seems! I haven't noticed battery draining while switched off, it is purely when used in handheld mode.
I've had the Switch since launch and up until a few weeks ago I had no problems whatsoever. Recently, however, the Switch has drained from 100% to 1% in around 40 minutes each time. I'd lose 1-2% every minute, even if not playing a game.
Up until today I would charge the Switch as soon as I got low. Today I kept playing even when I received the 1% notification and lo and behold, I got another hour worth of playing time on 1%!
So it very much seems a battery notification / software fault instead of a hardware problem.
I've read through this thread but has anyone had any concrete success curing this yet?
As read by others, I almost always switched my console off instead of putting it to sleep, from what I've read this seems to be one major culprit?
Hopefully, since it must be a software fault, Nintendo can release a patch for it once they have acknowledged and diagnosed the problem ☺️
OK my little chimps. Results after 1 week after getting my Switch back from Nintendo are all good. Battery display & actual battery power are all good. No complaints from me. I will give another update next week. I have had no issue with either so far.
@BambooBadger I had the same issue yesterday. I took my Switch off the dock with 100%, played about 15 min and 55%. I waited 15 min and 1%. After that, I played more than 1 and a half hour with 1% and no further issues.
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Topic: Battery depletes while turned off!
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