Stop joy cons from discharging like crazy

[marchrius]

Hi all.

I noticed that joy cons discharge like hell. I'm talking like, I leave them on a table for two weeks on a full charge and they die completely. I thought it was because they were still paired to the console and tried to unpair them, but nope. Unpaired, left disconnected from my Switch, dead in two weeks.

I don't really understand why my old phones can sit in a drawer, turned off and lose maybe 2% of their battery in six months and these joy cons have to die in 2 weeks.

I have 4 joy cons and two of them are very rarely used and I don't feel like charging them every week or so. So; when they are brand new and sitting on store shelves the battery of course doesn't discharge this fast, otherwise they'd all be dead in 2 weeks after being produced and that's definitely not the case. Correct me if I'm wrong but if I open the joy cons, physically disconnect the battery, then connect it again and very carefully close the joy cons without pressing any button, they'd be back in that "store" state and the battery should get depleted very slow?

in before "just charge them"; my spare, rarely used couple of joy cons are the zelda SSHD ones. They're expensive and I travel a lot and I don't feel like travelling across half europe with those extra joy cons just because Nintendo is stupid and doesn't allow me to truly switch them off...

 

[Shadow#1]

Hi all.

I noticed that joy cons discharge like hell. I'm talking like, I leave them on a table for two weeks on a full charge and they die completely. I thought it was because they were still paired to the console and tried to unpair them, but nope. Unpaired, left disconnected from my Switch, dead in two weeks.

I don't really understand why my old phones can sit in a drawer, turned off and lose maybe 2% of their battery in six months and these joy cons have to die in 2 weeks.

I have 4 joy cons and two of them are very rarely used and I don't feel like charging them every week or so. So; when they are brand new and sitting on store shelves the battery of course doesn't discharge this fast, otherwise they'd all be dead in 2 weeks after being produced and that's definitely not the case. Correct me if I'm wrong but if I open the joy cons, physically disconnect the battery, then connect it again and very carefully close the joy cons without pressing any button, they'd be back in that "store" state and the battery should get depleted very slow?

in before "just charge them"; my spare, rarely used couple of joy cons are the zelda SSHD ones. They're expensive and I travel a lot and I don't feel like travelling across half europe with those extra joy cons just because Nintendo is stupid and doesn't allow me to truly switch them off...

Keep the spares on a charging dock

 

[marchrius]

Keep the spares on a charging dock

no offense but this is the kind of answer I'm not looking for. Those joy cons are gonna stay in an apartment that at times is closed for 2 months straight, with water, gas and electricity unavailable. And I don't even have a charging dock.

 

[Glyptofane]

I don't believe there is a solution. The Switch hardware is simply and generally no good. I regret supporting it as much as I have, but am at least down to buying just some of the exclusives now.

 

[yuyuyup]

Great job Nintendo, I still use my wii remotes without the battery covers so I can conveniently kill the wii remote without it draining like crazy. And the Wii U gamepad is no better. They really don't give a crap about fixing that issue, only made it worse with non-removable battery.

 

[randy_w]

I've kept my joy cons disconnected for about 1 week before while my tablet is disassembled and waiting for part from aliexpress. Battery's still at full charge when I fixed my console and reattached joy cons. Try updating joy con firmware and see if that fixes your issue

 

[marchrius]

Great job Nintendo, I still use my wii remotes without the battery covers so I can conveniently kill the wii remote without it draining like crazy. And the Wii U gamepad is no better. They really don't give a crap about fixing that issue, only made it worse with non-removable battery.

the Wii U gamepad is the worst, abysmal battery and it drains like theres no tomorrow even when not in use. Just the same as the joy cons. I ended up unscrewing the gamepad back lid and disconnecting the battery. I don't want to replace the battery every 2 years because it keeps dying from staying at 0% charge for long periods of time, you know.

@randy_w they're already updated. Glad to know you don't have this problem though (hard to believe, try two or three weeks and I bet you'll find them dead or near dead. They all behave the same)

 

[lazyguy]

Welcome to modern electronics, where things don't turn off completely even when it's supposedly 'off'.
You also can't turn on things without having a battery plugged in.

 

[marchrius]

Guys, can you answer this simple question from my first post: if I open the joy cons, physically disconnect the battery, then connect it again and very carefully close the joy cons without pressing any button, they'd be back in that "store" state and the battery should get depleted very slow?

I'm already aware that I can keep them charged, that modern electronics don't shut off completely and all that stuff. I'm just asking you guys if disconnecting and reconnecting the battery could take them back to the state they are in when shipped from factory. Thanks.

 

[Shadow#1]

Guys, can you answer this simple question from my first post: if I open the joy cons, physically disconnect the battery, then connect it again and very carefully close the joy cons without pressing any button, they'd be back in that "store" state and the battery should get depleted very slow?

I'm already aware that I can keep them charged, that modern electronics don't shut off completely and all that stuff. I'm just asking you guys if disconnecting and reconnecting the battery could take them back to the state they are in when shipped from factory. Thanks.

Your gonna end up breaking something inside like those delicate ribbon cables

 

[marchrius]

Your gonna end up breaking something inside like those delicate ribbon cables

you're (not your) a champ when it comes to non-answers

 

[Shadow#1]

you're (not your) a champ when it comes to non-answers

your (not you're) a champ when it comes to non-answers

 

[wicksand420]

You could always mod your joycon to have a switch in between the battery and board to see if that works, but I think the batteries are meant to discharge after a while of not using them so the batteries don't have problems when storing your device.

 

[thesjaakspoiler]

The batteries could have been damaged by extreme cold or heat.
If they are secondhand, maybe they have been refitted with cheap-ass batteries that don't have the same capacity.

The Joycons of my Switch also were getting unusable after 3 years and I had to replace the batteries.

 

[impeeza]

you can use JoyCon Toolbox and send 0x08 command:

https://gbatemp.net/threads/tool-joy-con-toolkit.478560/post-9782543