Topic: Make Switch Lite primary Switch for child account

We have 1 Switch connected to the TV, and 2 Switch Lite. My account is the Admin of the family group, the two kids are supervised accounts and own 1 of the Switch Lite. eShop purchases have so far been made by my account. We also have Nintendo Switch Online subscription for the family so that their save games are synchronised and so they can play local (!) wireless games on Minecraft.

After paying for the apps and the online membership, I then found out that family members can only access eShop purchases on the primary switch (unless they would use my profile on the Switch Lite, which messes up save game synchronisation for everyone). This is frustrating and want to come up with some kind of solution.

I am thinking to change the configuration such that the child accounts are "owner" of the Switch Lites, and I am the owner of the Switch connected to the TV. Any future eShop purchase would then be made by the most likely gamer of that game (which is likely either of the kids). Which would allow them to play that game on their Switch Lite (with or without internet connection as it's the primary switch), or on the TV connected Switch as their secondary Switch. If the other household member wants to play the game, they could borrow the relevant Switch Lite and play with their own profile.

Some questions:

• Can a child account become the owner of a primary Switch?
• How can I associate purchases with a child account? So far all purchases automatically became associated with the admin account.
• How can I transact a payment for a child account?

For context: I have a US eShop account as we don't have a localised eShop available. I don't have access to US payment methods, so I use Paypal for payments.

@SuperSwitchtendo There's a lot to unpack here.

The switch ecosystem is not designed to share games across consoles of multiple owners. The system does allow a single owner to have more than one console, but only one console can be used at at time. Yes, buying a copy of a game for each console makes things quite expensive if you have kids/family members and more than one console. Cell phones and computers work the same way - each phone/computer needs to buy it's own copy of a paid app/game/software.

Hi Woomy,

I understand and empathize that it’s hard to share games across owners. Which is why I was thinking to separate the ownership and accept that the games would need to be played primarily on the primary switches.

Appreciate your other input, however I feel it’s not very accurate. Firstly regarding switch: I don’t think it’s correct to say only 1 switch can be used at a time. We can use two switches from the same owner at the same time without a problem, in fact Nintendo is quite permissive and you can even play the same game on two Switches. You can even play multiplayer games against each other with some games (for example Mario Kart 8 in LAN mode). Nintendo does also have a notion of a family, for example to share subscriptions (NSO has a family plan).

Secondly regarding phones and other devices: it’s not true that for those you have to buy multiple copies of apps within a family. For example Apple’s family sharing allows us to share purchases and subscriptions within the family. These are far more permissive than Nintendo, allowing online, offline, simultaneous use of any app at any time. I appreciate that Nintendo can set their own rules, however Nintendo has always been accessible to kids and being more permissive in sharing eShop purchases within a household/family would be nice.

I’m still also looking for the answers to my questions. I am a bit hesitant to try and reconfigure the accounts if I am not confident this will work.

@SuperSwitchtendo Forgive my analogy, then. With the Switch, if two consoles want to play Mario Kart 8 online at the same time (while the consoles are connected to the internet), the nintendo system wont let you share a digital game copy across consoles playing at the same time. Every two to three months, someone joins here because they discover they can't do that (can't share one digital copy of a game while connected to internet). And they are very disappointed they have to buy more than one copy of game. That's what I'm speaking about.

Regarding re-configuring your accounts, or purchases as an admin for a child, I don't know which regular forum users here have experience with 2+ consoles within a household.

@SuperSwitchtendo Nintendo support has a few pages regarding primary consoles, setting a primary console, de-registering primary console.

https://en-americas-support.nintendo.com/app/answers/list/st/...