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Has your trusty Nintendo Switch been acting up lately, slowing down, or developing quirks that turning it off and on again just can’t fix? Or maybe you’re just ready to wipe your device completely clean for a fresh start? Welp, taking a sledgehammer to it and setting it on fire aside, resetting your Switch can be a simple and straightforward process to restore performance or erase any lingering personal data if you’re selling it off for an upgrade.
In this guide, we’ll explore the simple steps to both soft and factory resets, ensuring your gaming experience remains seamless and enjoyable. So, grab your Switch, and let’s get it back to running as smoothly as the day you unboxed it!
Understanding The Types of Resets
Before jumping into the step-by-step instructions, let’s make sure we understand the difference between a soft reset and a factory reset on the Nintendo Switch:
Soft Reset
A soft reset is essentiallyjust restarting your Switch as if you had turned it off and back on again. Here’s exactly what a soft reset does:
Factory Reset
A factory reset (also called a hard reset or full reset)completely erases and wipes your Nintendo Switch back to default factory conditions. This is best for fixing major technical issues or if selling/gifting your device to someone else.
Here’s what happens when you run a factory reset:
What You Should Back Up First
Performing a factory reset completely wipes all data off your Nintendo Switch. So, before resetting your console, you’ll definitely wanna backup any important data you don’t want to lose permanently:
Quick side note,keep your Switch plugged in or fully charged before you do this, cause we don’t want it conking out mid-reset.That never ends well. Please excuse us while we enter a flashback about this.
Performing A Soft Reset
Okay, now that you know what’s what, let’s start easy with the soft reset, which is, in other words, a simple restart. Not to go all “Have you tried turning it on and then off again?” on y’all but trust us, doing this works for most of the minor league issues. Here’s how you can do it:
Performing A Factory Reset
Soft reset didn’t work out all that well? No worries! Here’s how you go about completely factory resetting your Switch to erase everything:
In case you’re worried about time, don’t. We’re talking just 5 minutes to erase literally everything off your console. Yes, we know, brutal! But no worries, as long as you took our advice and backed up your save files, fave screenshots, and digital purchases ahead of time, getting back up and running is pretty straightforward too.
Just clear your evening schedule after the reset, so you’re able to cozy up and re-download your eShop library. Reconnecting online accounts and cloud saves takes a couple clicks too, even customizing all your settings just how you like ‘em again is kinda fun. Before you know it, it’ll be like you have a brand-new Switch again. Now let’s start botching up those save files all over again ;)
