PSA: Remember To Update Your Joy-Con And Pro Controllers Today, As Well As Your Switch

I was able to update my joycons but my pro controllers are up to date apparently. I've never updated my pro controller before so thats weird, what am I doing wrong?

I think the Pro Controllers can update wirelessly. As long as they're active and paired up. I believe I did it twice with JoyCon detached. And I'm pretty sure it wasn't the JoyCons that were updating.

Wish they’d make the LED light a lot more. The light up disc slot was one of my favorite parts of the Wii.

This is really helpful, I had forgotten!

We have 2 "faux" Pro controllers, wired and wireless. I'm going to assume neither of them will update, but now I have to go check it out just to see what the system says when I try.

Neither faux has ever had drift, so they may be cheap, but at least they work properly.

On second thought, our PowerA wireless controller uses 2 AA batteries, so it doesn't even have a USB port.

You can update the Pro controllers too? Huh. Okay then.

oh yeah, there is plenty of upgrades to be done on these... I already had to change analogue joysticks because of "joycon drift", SL/SR flat ribbon flex cable, plastic locks

@ryancraddock I definitely followed the steps you laid out and also don't seem to have an update for my pro controller. Both sets of joycons updated fine, but the pro says it's up to date.

@USWITCH64 Life is fake news bro.

@Zyph No, the pro controller can't update wirelessly. At least, that's my experience:
I turned on my Switch using the pro controller in wireless mode, and the option to update controllers only updated the two joycons attached to the console.
After that, I plugged the USB cable into my pro controller, i chose 'Update controllers' again and only then did the pro get updated.

It lost connection on second Joy Con on update, but when i pressed update again it worked.

@Joker13z well yeah, the matrix is real, we ain't nothing but a battery!

Terrible advice. The only reason to update your controllers is IF you have issues. You have no idea what they’re doing. “Since we don’t know what Nintendo is up to, Wait and see what the others say first” would be good advice.

@phamster That's the same attitude they gave Eratosthenes, too

My pro controller was up to date as well!

@Audiobrainiac I don’t know if you’re joking or not... but I loved that blue light on the Wii too lol

My controllers update themselves automatically, no need to go through the menus.

@HobbitGamer Too deep, man. Too deep...

@MartyFlan @Audiobrainiac I like the blue light as well. I also activated it on my modded Wii, to indicate GameCube games loading, so every time a game either boots up or loads new segments/levels, the blue light flashes in sync with the loading progress.

@USWITCH64 I believe it. Now we just need to find Morpheus and take the red pill. Then get all kinds of kickass downloaded into our brains and get back in the Matrix.

Hell yeah I'm down. When do we leave to find him? haha

@Branovices @Moonlessky I had the same issues - Joy-Cons updated, but the Pro Controllers wouldn't despite being plugged into the dock. I'm guessing that the firmware was updated previously, but that must have been quite some time ago.

Huh, weird, my system hasn't prompted me to update Joycons. Maybe it happened automatically with the system update, I haven't used non-mounted controllers since the update.

Good luck to people with a large Joy-con collections (talk about a good problem to have).

Isn't it automatic?

@USWITCH64 Don't worry, our simulated reptilian overlords are watching over us here to keep us stimulated.

@USWITCH64 fake news is fake

Thanks for the heads-up. I've only just finished replacing the joystick in my drifting joy-con - s'all working now.

@chardir The Pro Controller can only update itself when wired to the console through the USB port. And the JoyCon don't update themselves automatically either, unless you have changed some setting that I'm not aware of. I've got automatic updates switched on, but still had to update controllers manually.

@NEStalgia I just followed the steps mentioned in the article, and that worked just fine for me. Never got a notice, though, other than the system update notice itself, once I booted up the console with the Pro Controller wired to it.

Turn on the Pro Wired Communication setting.

@Crono1973 Is that for me? If so, then thanks. Question, though: seeing as it says "Pro Wired Communication setting", that would still imply that I need to use the charging cable, or not?

My red set of joy cons have been playing up with drift recently so I left them on a shelf and used the blue. I updated the red and the drift is gone.

Not sure if the update fixed the drift or not, but I'm not complaining either way!

@ThanosReXXX It's for anyone having trouble updating the Pro Controller.Yes, you need the cable.

@Crono1973 Ah, okay. Well, it was switched off on my console, and updating the Pro Controller went just fine regardless, but thank you anyway.

Too bad my dock doesn't work. No led light on the pro controller for me.

@ThanosReXXX My system has definitely updated my joy-cons without me deliberately requesting it. Probably only when connected, and possibly just a required update for software rather than every latest update? Not sure about pro controllers.

Oh I didn't know there was a JoyCon update.

Nintendo accepted the service request to fix my left joycCon Drift issue.

Bought my Switch on launch day in 2017 - but they fixing it 100% free! Even sent a free UPS label to send it in 👍

@chardir Might have been that setting that Crono1973 Mentioned. On my Switch, it was turned off, maybe yours was set to on, although it's supposed to be for Pro Controllers only.

So, you never got a notice, even that the controllers were updating or anything? How else would you know that they have been updated, unless you checked it in the settings?

@ThanosReXXX Yes, it pops up on screen that it's updating the controller. It only takes a few seconds. I'm just not sure exactly when it's triggered, either when switching on a joy con or when docking it with the console.

@phamster I am actually with you as I suddenly ran into regular connection issues with my right joycon when Switch is docked after updating last time while before I never had any issues and nothing changed in the environment apart from the update. I can only link it so far to the update which I regret doing ever since.

Hopefully this latest update will fix joycon drift, although I won’t hold my breath.

You don't actually have to plug anything. As long as they're paired and on, you can update all your joycons and Pro controllers wirelessly.

I have 4 bad Pro Controllers collecting dust. Wonder if these will work now. They no longer have forward motion in games. Have tried resetting many times.

@Joker13z I nearly had him, but my joycons made me drift the wrong way and I lost him.

Thanks for this i update my console but not my joy-cons so again thanks for this

@RadioHedgeFund Lmao ok you made me laugh out loud at work. Achievement earned for you.

@Zyph Pro Controllers only update wired. Hook to usb on doc or use usb-c to usb-c for portable direct connection.

@MartyFlan Totally serious about it. It’s neat.

@MrGawain I had a left blue that had the drift, tried everything, nothing worked so I put it aside. I read about the update, and now the drift seems to be gone too. I'm still keeping an eye out for it to come back. But it would be so nice if it is fixed.

Since updating I can’t split the Joy con for two player games, the right joycon doesn’t have any green lights and won’t recognise its self as a single controller. Anybody else having this issue?

Now that I think about it, does the Joy-Con Grip that came with the console have an update as well? I completely forgot about it because I don't normally use it. I use my Switch in handheld mode.

Thanks for the article, love the PYT reference

@Moonlessky same here. Now I'm wondering how we can check the FW that's currently installed in the ProCon...anyone knows how to do this?

@Kochambra Yea it seems the pro controller only updates when wired.

Is it possible they're patching to mitigate this issue?

https://www.google.com/amp/s/arstechnica.com/information-technology/2019/08/new-attack-exploiting-serious-bluetooth-weakness-can-intercept-sensitive-data/%3famp=1

https://www.bluetooth.com/security/statement-key-negotiation-of-bluetooth/

I tried everything; I can't get my pro controllers to update. Tried with different cables, on all 3 usb ports of the dock, even with a usb-c to usb-a adapter on the undocked switch. I guess they are all up to date. weird.

Thanks for this, I didn’t realise I had to manually update the joycon/pro controller! I’m now drawn to the blue ring like it’s a ‘precious’ lol

Update to do what exactly?

I updated both my pairs of joycons and found it interesting how the left joycons only took a couple seconds while the rights were significantly longer, implying a larger update. New code for the notification light functionality, I guess?