Third-Party Nintendo Switch Docks Could Be Bricking Consoles

We've known this for some time. The Nyko portable dock has a notorious reputation, though this is slightly different. You should always buy 1st party products(even though they're more expensive) to be safe.

No way I'm touching one of these third-party docks, just isn't worth the trouble to me.

This is why I only buy officially licensed Nintendo products.
Always done so, forever will.

Perhaps there is more to the dock then Ninteno have been letting on. Still, it would be nice to have an official dock that puts the console on display like the charging stand for the Wii U Gamepad.

Nevertheless, I don't recall ever buying third party Nintendo accessories and I don't plan to start any time soon. I'm a little surprised that knock-off Joy-Con aren't yet out in the wild.

The official Nintendo seal of quality, I love it!

This is way more insecure than homebrew..

Y'know, you could look for 3rd party docks that are certified by Nintendo. If there are any.

Oh my, Brick...

I’ll stick with the official one thanks.

Since I had problems with 3rd memory cards on the ps1 I’ve only ever bought official accessories

Nothing to do with the Switch’ firmware. Just manufacturing issues of third-party docks.

@sillygostly I agree, it does suggest there is more to the official dock than meets the eye. I do sympathise with those affected by this problem.

Say what you want about the problem though, the fact is Nintendo should have already sorted out cloud saves - it's been a year since launch now. There's no excuse.

Wow he seems so chill! If my Switch went like that I wouldn't be that calm! 😅

Luckilly, the Nyko dock wasn't released in the UK. I would have bought one and brick my Switch.

@nocdaes totally agree, should be some way of backing up your saves files either by cloud or onto a micro USB. The fact that this hasn’t been addressed a year on kinda isn’t good enough

I'm not surprised.

While first party is the way to go, I thought Nyko products could be trusted. My Nyko wiimote charger and battery set has worked great. I also have a Nyko plug charger and cord set for my Switch and pro controller that kept my Switch powered up in tabletop mode last vacation (during a splatfest no less). So this news is awful and feel bad for those affected.

I generally stick with first party accessories.

This is why I bought an official dock when I needed a second one. I heard the rumors and it just isn't worth taking the risk.

Don't risk it, just by official products for now.

I was gonna risk it and get one anyway but now it's proven that all these 3rd party docks are crap. Most likely I'll get an official dock and one of those dock shells from amazon

Only use official Docks!

THE manufacturers use cheap Chinese parts every time - it's not worth the risk.

The Ojo projector is also high risk - don't touch.

i hardly ever use my dock as the t.v is in almost constantly being used for other things so i always end up playing in handheld anyways

Always use official products. If there isn't one to meet your needs, make sure it's officially approved by Nintendo. Easy peasy.

Use third party docks, tear down the Switch 2 or 3 times, use it for test ANY form of homebrew/pirated hacks.... yes this COULD break it.

I had the same issue as invictus4000. After updating to 5.0 one of our switches will no longer go into TV mode, this is with the official dock. Unlike invictus4000 however Nintendo offered to do the repair for free and said the issue may have been caused by the update. I'm weary of sending it in since they can't guarantee my save data will be intact, which is beyond ridiculous by the way.

They're going to hold cloud saves behind the online paywall. Expect them to come in September. Also I agree with everyone else, when it comes to charging/displaying a Nintendo product, only use Nintendo docks and cables. If you read reviews on cheap SD cards and cables made in China, many have several people complaining about electronic equipment being destroyed because they put out an irresponsible amount of heat or surge and dump too much power into a system at once.

Of course they would! Omg think about all the third party chargers you use for your devices, they always end up messing something up! Lol that’s always been my experience so I only purchase the companies product who made the device, it’s just safer in the long run.

I have the one Best Buy makes and never had any problems. Still, it being 3rd party still worries me a bit even though it seems to be the best 3rd party option on the market.

Im sorry but “whats up Dock” is the worst one yet. 😂😂😂

I worry about anything third party that is hooked to the Switch. Officially I stick with the big N.

To everyone saying "only buy nintendo products" etc. This happened to me while using the official dock so it's not just a 3rd party dock issue

And I think we learned today that being cheapskates can bite you in the ass.

don't dock em.

it's a portable system. i hope eventually N lets devs run the 'docked mode' in portable as long as you have it plugged in. that's pretty much all the dock is doing anyway. there's no active anything in there.

This happened to mine this morning. Frustrating. Reached out to Nyko as they're telling folks they'll reimburse for repairs on Twitter.

@redd214 Wait, Nintendo offered to fix it for free but you don't want to send it to them because of save data? Really??

Nintendo needs to step up and find a solution to saving our data.
Is there a way to save data and restore?

@Crono1973 yeah my kids have spent hundreds of hours in Zelda, mario, Minecraft etc. I don't want to have to them that all their progress is nuked because nintendo doesn't want to join us in 2018 and have away to back up saves

Excellent tagline.

Nah, I never buy third party product. If it isn't Sony, Microsoft, or Nintendo made... I don't bother.

@redd214 I am just glad that I never cared that much about old save files. Only the save file for the current game I am playing. I can't imagine not getting a free repair from the OEM because I couldn't bear to lose my save files.

@Crono1973 well I'm happy for you that you don't carry such burdens, take care! 😊

@redd214 I'm happy for me too. Take the free repair or you'll regret it later.

Neat to see Spawn Wave on NL. I check out both outlets daily.

Are any of the third-party docks any good? ..I'd love a little mini-dock just to have in the bottom of my bag to make plugging-and-playing on any nearby TV possible - but I can't deny that these horror stories are putting me off taking the plunge!

I'd be interested to hear any recommendations!

Have you guys heard anything about the best buy Insignia docks? I picked up one of those because it was more portable (and a backup cheaper dock) Has worked like a charm but now I am worried...

@NaviAndMii You can buy a dock shell on amazon and then disassemble your official dock and cram the components into the much smaller shell. Spawn mentions it in the video. It takes a fair amount of work but that way you can at least have a much smaller dock you know will be 100% safe to use.

Nintendo needs to put out an official dock that isn't an "open clam" design. Of the few times I've put the official dock in a bag/suitcase with other things, the front has a tendency to warp and bend inwards from pressure, and then I need to go through the process of un-warping it. I started putting rolled up cloth of various sorts in the center to help alleviate the problem when packing, but c'mon. It shouldn't be so much hassle just to take the dock along to show the Switch to other people on the big screen. That's why there's a demand for third party docks in the first place, it's hardly a money issue for most.

Short of a carrying case, I'm not buying 3rd party for anything.

@Lebon14 I thought about Hori’s recently announced one but it may just be a stand / charger.

Whilst not essential I would like a more portable dock for when I visit family overseas.

@JHDK Oh nice! That's actually a really good idea - cheers for that!

@Fuz Love that Clyde Radcliff avatar man. Creatures 2 is where my gaming career started.

@Mince-Pie That's cause he got a second Switch already.

@TrixieSparkle The dock's purpose was to turn the Switch into a home console so Nintendo will design it to look like a home console when the Switch is dock.

Ya, stay away from them

If you need a portable dock, buy a DIY shell and dismantle an official dock to put in the casing.

Screw portable docks though. That's why Switch has a screen on it. And if I really need one I'll bring my spare official one.

Well that's a bit of a crapper....Got a knock off chinese one from ali express guess that's me never using it again.

Haven't the reports of Nyko docks bricking Switch consoles been happening since before the 5.0 update?

@Spoony_Tech Have you used it since the update?

@Damo That's not entirely accurate.
I have one of those third party Switch docks where you just put in the PCB of the original Switch dock.
So despite being a third party dock, my Switch can't be bricked by the system update because my third party dock is still using original Nintendo hardware.

@msully91 Tbh I'm afraid to.

This wouldn't be so bad if cloud saves were possible...if Nintendo doesn't include cloud saves in it's online service there will be hell to pay

That's a real shame as my third party dock has been really handy. I'm afraid to use it now as I can't afford to replace my switch or pay for it to be repaired as it's outside warranty.

The guy that opens his switch and deliberately tries to fry it is now angry a 3rd party docked fried it... Color me Laughing.

My partner got one of these docks so that we could take his Switch (he's got all the party games on his) to friends' houses and to our family's houses over holidays. Worked great over Christmas and such. But we haven't used it since the 5.0 update came out. Luckily saw this and told him to not use it until hopefully this gets fixed. Luckily now most of our friends have Switch consoles so we can just use their docks when we go over. Guess we'll have to cart along one of the official ones when we go visit family though.

As much as Nintendo don't have to support 3rd party peripherals they really should take responsibility if the system update is causing it. The switch has a USB-C port, that's a universal standard. So, short of something ridiculous like putting 100v through it, the Switch should not be brickable by bad software on the other end.

You wouldn't expect your laptop to fail permanently when you plug in a dodgy USB stick.

@Spoony_Tech I have been looking around for any insignia dock mentions and the only dock that keeps coming up is the Nyko one.

@msully91 I'm going to go try it right now and I'll edit this post when I see what happens.

I did try it out and zero problems for the 10 minutes or so I played on it. I did some research before I purchased it and it had the highest rating of any 3rd party dock I could find and it's also one of the cheapest. Still it's not first party and I guess there will always be a part of me that will be sceptical.

If only nintendo made some cool docks, I've still got my original, but if they came out with some of the cool ones like other 3rd parties are offering would be nice.

It's almost as if the official Switch dock is more than just "overpriced plastic."

This is why i don't buy 3rd party accessories.

Mine seems to be working, I'll tested for 5 minutes and the switch still worked after rebooting so fingers crossed.

@Rika_Yoshitake Yeah! He should have kept his mouth shut and not let anyone know that his dock fried his Switch! What a whiner!

@LoboBloodmoon I learned back in the SNES days that even third party controllers just aren't as good as first party ones. I did once get a PS1 controller as a gift that allowed me to use the analog sticks in Final Fantasy 7 which was nice but otherwise I stick to first party accessories.

I should mention that the boxes for the licensed third party accessories for the Switch look very similar to the first party stuff. I can easily see people picking up a third party accessory on accident and I am sure that's the point.

@chardir Isn't this more along the lines of a power supply than a data device?

When you cheap out, you always end up paying for it in the end.

ah this sucks. i bought the nyko dock a while ago. luckily ive hardly used it, figured the extra power supply would still come in handy at any rate. anybody know if the power supply alone is safe to use? im assuming its the dock specifically that is causing the problem?

I haven't downloaded the newest update yet nor do I have a 3rd party dock.

I almost never use third-party accessories. I think I only have one third-party accessory, and that's an Action Reply Device for my DS Lite, and that has causes some of my games to crash.

The only system of mine that has ever been bricked, though, was my original-model Wii, but that was due to lightning striking my house, and my Wii wasn't plugged into a surge protector.

#DoNotForgiveNyko

@nocdaes @sillygostly It's similar to how a bad quality (or a wrong) charging cable can fry your systems. I don't think it's because ''there's more to it''.

I don't like 3rd party stuff. Especially controllers... you can feel the difference in quality. Official products FTW

@Crono1973 A dock that's not approved by Nintendo fried his Switch, so yeah he is a whiner.

I've never trusted the quality of 3rd party accessories. Lots of Christmas and birthday presents over my life have failed miserably because people figure controllers are all the same.

I waited for the Nintendo Dock to go on clearance at my local store before I grabbed a 2nd. I'd like a 3rd but these off brand dock issues may keep it from going on sale again anytime soom.

I've noticed since the 5.0 update that it takes significantly longer for my official dock to recognize the switch is in it. I've only ever used the official dock, and play 99% of the time docked, so it's pretty noticeable. Upwards of 10 seconds, and sometimes requires me to remove and reinsert it to be recognized.

I have owned the Nyko dock since it came out. I have never had a problem with the port. I can only think that people were not properly using it (by not inserting the stabilizer piece properly). The ONLY issue I have had is that after 1 update, it wouldn't automatically switch over to the TV when docked. Nyko addressed this with a quick update. As for 3rd party options, even Nintendo uses third parties now... Nyko is really the only 3rd party I trust though.

It amazes me that retailers still carry these things.

Back when I first got my Switch I had considered getting one of these, but then I started reading reviews and saw way too many horror stories about the thing killing systems.

@Rika_Yoshitake His 'whining' is now helping lots of people not to make the same mistake.

I initially thought about buying one of those because of the portability aspect. Pretty happy I didn't do it.
Maybe a smaller first party dock would be in order now. And cloud saves... right, Ninty?

@redd214 Yeah, the guy on the phone told me that my save data would be fine and that they would transfer everything to a new system if necessary. I did remove my micro sd though before sending. Here's hoping...

Lol people who think Nyko products are good

My trust is in Nintendo products. Third-party has too many issues sometimes.

I assume it's more Nintendo than the dock. You forget this update also makes most 3rd party wireless controllers. A bit to coincidental for both to have damaging effects in the 5.0 firmwarw. Definetly Nintendo.

I don’t trust third party accessories and I don’t need another dock anyway

I do not use third party docks and, since 5.0.0, my Switch started to suffer some boot errors while docked.

This have not happened since last summer.

I do not rely on third party things, but something is Broken with 5.0.0.

@Crono1973 He made a video trying to get people to buy that Cheap Knockoff 3rd party dock that appeared on Kickstarter months ago... Simply because they sent him a free one... STOP dude honestly, he's a youtuber he doesn't care about your opinion just your clicks.

@Rika_Yoshitake You seem to know alot about this guy, more than I know. You must be giving him clicks.

I think a lot of this is probably from bad USB C implementation. Especially the power portion.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB-C

USB C is scary as hell when you look at the specs and modes. I mean it has 24 pins...

I am definitely sticking with only Nintendo items accessories and chargers, this is so much more complicated than the old USB standard.

Some people have had laptops fried and such with bad USB cables and power supplies.

This is why I only buy official stuff or licensed products for any of my game systems Usually if something is also quite a bit cheaper, like the nyko dock is, there is a very good reason why it's so cheap.

@mailman Excellent question! I don't have one of those, just a regular Sandisk one. To be fair though: the officially licensed ones are also made by Sandisk. There's nothing different or special about them.

@hYdeks a lot of the price of the official dock is the built in markup though. Walmart makes a profit of $22.50 on every dock sold, so Nintendo probably makes equal to that or more profit from every dock sold, which would mean at least $45 of the docks $90 price is simply markup.

It’s a pretty common thing that retailers make almost nothing on the base product and bank on the accessories super high markups to really make money. That’s why HDMI cables are $40+ from a retailer and $3 online.

They Nyko dock issue is likely just bad USB-C implementation. Like someone above mentioned C is actually pretty scary. I fried a Pi experimenting with a USB C port I wired wrong by not completely understanding the documentation I was looking at, and when I say fry I don’t mean bricked it, that thing went up in smoke. Also when I bought my first phone that used USB-C charging the person at the store told me so not buy third party chargers for this phone they will ruin it, if you need another one buy the official one. They phone store didn’t even have generic chargers which I thought was odd. I thought he was just full of it until sure enough I found all the reviews for third party chargers were complaints it ruined a device.

I had one of these and it did brick my switch. Had to send it to nintendo (Thank god for the warranty still being in effect) and while they got it working again I lost all of my save data in everything I owned. Don't buy a third party dock and make sure you have an SD card in it too.

@Crono1973 No, Reddit trashed him already. All the info is there lol

@Destron yup, you are right, but I always go official anyways just because I trust Nintendo and they companies they license too. I've had problems with Nyko, Biogenik and other third party companies before that I have stopped supporting them unfortunately. About the only thing I go third party for it stuff like screen protectors and such.

My OFFICIAL Nintendo dock has never worked and when I sent it to Nintendo, they said they changed some parts but it still doesnt work. I am/was extremely disappointed.

@hYdeks absolutely, to be clear I wasn’t saying people should buy 3rd party stuff. Just reflecting on the price be quality. The argument could also be made that 3rd parties are trying to go for the same types of profit margins but at a lower cost, and the only way to do that would be to use cheap, substandard components.

I have not bought anything 3rd party since the SNES days when I bought a cheap controller and it was crap. Aside from like cases and the obvious things of course.

Even if you think it’s great right off it won’t last long.

I pretty much never play mine docked, 1 dock is more than enough for me.

@NaviAndMii well there are these shells where you have to insert the tech you take out of a nintendo dock, that's probably the best option.

@My1 Nice! A pre-made 'mini dock' shell could be just the thing I'm looking for Thanks!

Well I jynxed myself. Bricked my switch using the Nyko dock. I went to the Nintendo website to create a repair, but it said I was out of warranty. I bought my console last April so I knew it was BS. I decided to call. I played dumb and said it just happened out of no where after updating. They easily waived the fee and stated its a known issue.

I may have a solution for the switches which don´t recognize their dock since update 5.0.

My problem was that the USB c cable could charge my switch just one way and not both and in my dock, it was the wrong way. My switch didn´t get voltage and was so unable to recognize the dock.

My solution was to open the dock an put the USB c connection point the other way in the switch. An easier solution is to buy a USB c cable extension, one end you need to put in the dock and the other end you need to connect with your switch, one way it will work and the other won´t.

I hope I could help some people. (-:

This happened to me. My Switch is currently out for warranty repair thanks to one of these docks. I wonder if Nyko will replace it free with one that actually works?