What to Do If Joy Cons Motion Controls Don’t Work
Like many people, I took Skyward Sword HD to relive one of my favorite Zelda games (that’s right, that’s great). While some critics scolded the original’s motion controls, I never had a problem with them. I had a blast aiming my bow and arrow in real space, and physically changing the stroke of my sword to match the enemy’s defenses. But with Skyward Sword HD, I felt like one of the complaining about OG; gyroscope-based motion control was painful to use.
The problem became so serious that the game became almost unplayable. Every time (and I mean every time ) I used something like a slingshot, the grid could be anywhere on the screen. Link will do circles in the game, and I will do circles at home as I plunge into madness.
I compare it to Joy-Con drift , but for driving control; Joy-Con drift causes your sticks to not work, and gyro drift does the same to your physical movements.
Resetting the gyroscope was a temporary (but useless) solution.
The only solution the game itself offers is to reset the gyroscope by aiming the controller at the TV and pressing Y. Each time you press Y , the game sets your current Joy-Con position to center. You can change this at any time, in case the gyroscope breaks down. Just in case .
It works anyway! Firstly. But after waving the Joy-Cons several times, I found that my “centered” position was not at all like that. So, I pointed my Joy-Con towards the TV, pressed Y , did a few more movements, lost sync and enjoyed this mind-numbing loop until I just couldn’t take it anymore.
So how to prevent gyroscope out of sync?
Dear reader, I have found a solution; I needed to use a Joy-Con bracelet. No, not an actual strap. I’m talking about all the plastic accessory that connects to the Joy-Con rail. Nintendo simply calls it a “wrist strap,” as if there are no buttons attached to it either.
But I digress. Wrist straps ? I never use these things! Firstly, I’m not going to toss my Joy-Cons on my TV like it’sChristmas 2006 , and secondly, they are a little bulky. I prefer to play with separate Joy-Cons without the extra width that the straps add.
But when I added wrist straps to my Jon-Cons, my gyro controls were suddenly much more accurate. My experience was day and night; wrist straps, my gyroscope stayed where it should. I am still amazed that such a simple addition is the solution to my gyroscope problems.
It’s unclear why the wrist straps add consistency and precision to gyro control. They can help prevent your hand from blocking the signal from the Joy-Cons to the switch, as shown here , or perhaps these accessories will make your hand position more consistent by keeping the gyro controls where they should be. Anyway, I can now play Skyward Sword HD while keeping my sanity.
More tips for finding and fixing unsynchronized motion controls
This may not be the solution to your problem. You may have tried adding wrist straps to your Joy-Cons but are still experiencing gyro drift. Maybe you are already using bracelets, so I just wasted your time on my long story of adversity and adversity. Luckily for you, there are other troubleshooting tips you can take to fix gyro issues.
You may need to recalibrate the motion controls of the Joy-Cons to get started. To do this, go to Settings> Controllers and Sensors> Calibrate Motion Controls> Calibrate Controllers . Now press and hold the Left Joy-Con ( – ) or Right Joy-Con ( + ) to calibrate that controller. Place the controller without a wrist strap on a flat surface and wait for the Switch to calibrate it. Select ” OK ” to continue and repeat for the other Joy-Con.
If you notice that the Joy-Cons is still not working after calibrating the motion controls, it’s time to troubleshoot your environment. Make sure your Switch is close to it and your Joy-Cons should be in line of sight. You should also make sure that it is at least three to four feet away from any other wireless devices such as wireless speakers, printers and telephones, or other devices such as laptops, tablets, or even a microwave oven (don’t Playing by the microwave ”is probably good general advice anyway).
This article was updated on Aug 24 at 5:20 pm to clarify possible reasons why adding bracelets improves gyro control.