Nintendo Fixes Switch Joy-Con Connectivity Issue with Foam Square

If you have a Nintendo Switch game console and you have been having an issue with your left Joy-Con controller losing wireless connectivity to the console, a fix has been applied to some controllers by Nintendo. ArsTechnica reports that one Switch user called Nintendo customer service about the issue and Nintendo footed the bill for overnight shipping.

Within five days the controller was back in the user’s hands and the fix was very simple. Apparently all Nintendo had to do was attach that little foam square that you see inside the black circle on the image for this story. That black foam is sitting on the controller board where the Bluetooth antenna trace resides. The thought is that the black foam is metal coated and is intended to reduce interference from outside sources.

According to the owner of a repaired controller, when the black foam is removed the controller stops working. New controllers at retail now have a different label on their control boards compared to the launch units meaning that they are different somehow. Nintendo told Ars in a statement that there was no design issue with the Joy-Con controller and no proactive repair or replacement program is underway.

Nintendo says that a manufacturing variation resulted in wireless interference in a small number of Joy-Con controllers and that the variation had been addressed at the factory level and wouldn’t be an issue moving forward. Nintendo is telling consumers to contact customer support for repairs and saying the controller should be back in less than a week.