Switch 2 Pro Controller drift: why it happens and how to fix it (UK)

Why the Switch 2 Pro Controller drifts

A standard analog stick works out its position from a small contact sliding along a carbon track. Every flick, every lap of Mario Kart, rubs that track a little. Over months the track wears, the reading at rest slides away from centre, and once it slides past the game's deadzone (the small area around the centre the game ignores) your character starts walking on their own. That's drift.

The Switch 2 Pro Controller uses this type of stick. Nintendo rebuilt the controller, and the sticks feel great out of the box, but they still read a track that wears, so drift is a matter of use and time rather than a fault in your particular pad. Anti-drift sticks work differently: TMR and Hall effect sticks read a magnet, nothing touches, and there's no track to wear down.

How to check your Switch 2 Pro Controller for drift

1. Update first. Make sure the console has the latest system update; Nintendo asks for this before calibrating.
2. Watch it at rest. Put the controller on a table, open a game or menu where the left stick moves something, and don't touch it for 10 seconds. If the cursor or character moves, or the camera creeps, that's drift.
3. Recalibrate on the console. Go to System Settings, Controllers & Accessories, Calibrate Control Sticks. Push the stick you want to calibrate fully in one direction and hold it for a few seconds, then follow the on-screen prompts. Nintendo's own steps are here.
4. Still wandering? Reset and recheck. Put the console in sleep mode and wake it, press the SYNC button next to the controller's USB-C port once, then press any button to turn it back on. Try step 2 again.
5. Got another pad too? Our free Gamepad Tester shows the raw stick reading for the original Switch Pro Controller, DualSense and Xbox pads: with your hands off, a healthy stick sits dead centre at 0.00, and a drifting one rests off centre or creeps.

If the drift comes back after calibrating, the stick is worn. Calibration re-centres a stick; it can't replace a worn track.

Fix it yourself, or have it fixed?

You can buy replacement sticks and do it at home, but be honest about the job. The Switch 2 Pro Controller isn't built to be opened:

• the faceplate is glued, so it has to be released carefully without cracking the shell or bending the clips;
• the ribbon cables inside are fragile and easy to tear, and a torn ribbon turns a stick fix into a much bigger repair;
• the whole controller has to come apart to reach the sticks.

If your controller is still under Nintendo's warranty, contact Nintendo first. Out of warranty, or want drift gone for good, that's where we come in.

How we fix Switch 2 Pro Controller drift

On our bench in London, we take the controller apart, release the glued faceplate, protect the ribbon cables, fit the new sticks, reassemble it and test both sticks on our Gamepad Tester before it goes back to you.