Nintendo Switch Wi-Fi Issue: Have You Tried Turning It off and on Again?

The Nintendo support pages are full of disgruntled Switch owners who are having Wi-Fi connectivity issues. The matter seems to have gotten worse recently, with Switch consoles across the world suddenly delivering DNS errors when trying to access the Nintendo eShop. Kotaku, though, has discovered a fix for this new headache, and it’s an old tech support favourite:

“To fix this WiFi problem, you have to reboot your Switch—not just put it into sleep mode—which means holding down the button on the top left corner of the system until you get to Power Options, then selecting Restart or Turn Off,” Kotaku’s Jason Schreier writes. “Once you’ve rebooted it, you should be good. A simple reboot worked for everyone on Team Kotaku and hopefully it works for you too.”

Exactly why this is happening is still a mystery – it doesn’t seem to have any association with any software updates for the console – but, in the meantime, the advice above should help. But, while this system reboot is sure to correct a Switch that cannot connect to a Wi-Fi network, it is unlikely to fix the poor signal issues many users are experiencing.

Nintendo offers the following advice for poor Wi-Fi signal issues:

“If possible, place the Nintendo Switch within 10 to 15 feet of the wireless router to improve the signal strength during troubleshooting. It may be helpful to remove the Nintendo Switch console from the Nintendo Switch dock while troubleshooting, and then return the console when troubleshooting is complete.”

However, many reports attest that distance doesn’t seem to make much of a difference. Hopefully, Nintendo will issue a proper fix for the two issues soon.