The Joy-Cons on the Nintendo Switch are highly versatile controllers until they go wrong. Joy-Con drift can render them unusable, but it’s not the only way they can fail. When vital buttons on one of my Joy-Cons stopped working, I managed to find a way to use it again by remapping the controller.
The SL and SR Buttons on My Joy-Con Died
I have just enough Joy-Cons (alongside my Switch Pro Controller which the kids are absolutely banned from ever touching) to be able to enjoy multiplayer games with the whole family such as Mario Kart, Mario Party, and Overcooked!—at least I did until one of the Joy-Cons stopped working properly.
Nintendo Switch Pro Controller
As a first-party product, it should come as no surprise that the Nintendo Switch Pro Controller offers incredible performance, an ergonomic design, and support for motion controls and HD rumble.
The Joy-Con didn’t die completely; the majority of the buttons work absolutely fine. However, the SL and SR buttons are now completely unresponsive. The Joy-Con works fine if used with another Joy-Con in a grip, since the SL and SR buttons on the individual Joy-Cons aren’t used in this configuration, but doing so requires using two Joy-Cons for one person, meaning there aren’t enough left to go around.
The SL and SR buttons failing is a fairly common Joy-Con problem, usually caused by the cable that connects to the button board getting bent, which stops the button presses from being registered. You can buy replacement button boards and replace them yourself, but you’ll need to pay about $10 for a new board.
I Had Problems Syncing My Joy-Con With My Switch
The problem with the SL and SR buttons dying is that they’re the buttons you need to use to sync your Joy-Con with your Nintendo Switch. When you want to register your Joy-Con as a device that you’re using to play with, you have to hold down the SL and SR buttons together. Once you do so, your Switch will recognize your Joy-Con and you can use it in multiplayer games.
If the SL and SR buttons aren’t responding, however, then you can’t sync the individual Joy-Con at all. You can hammer SL and SR as much as you want, but the Joy-Con will never connect to your Switch, and you won’t be able to use it to play. It’s incredibly frustrating that the buttons that are most likely to die are also the two buttons that you need the most for your Joy-Con to be of any use at all.
I Wanted to Avoid the $40 Replacement Fee
This left me with a problem. We didn’t have enough working Joy-Cons to be able to play as a family, but buying a replacement Joy-Con from Nintendo would set me back $40, and I could almost buy a new game for the same price.
The most frustrating part was that all the other buttons were working fine. I could use the Joy-Con in the grip with another Joy-Con with no problems at all. It was only when all of us were playing that I needed the faulty Joy-Con to work on its own.
Had any other button failed, I would still have been able to connect the Joy-Con to my Switch. I could then still use it, even if some of the buttons wouldn’t work. That’s when it hit me.
You Can Remap Your Joy-Con Buttons
Nintendo makes it possible to remap the buttons on your Joy-Cons, so you can use your own configurations. If you play a PlayStation more than you play a Switch, for example, it can get annoying that the A button that you need to use to confirm decisions on the Switch is in a different place than the X button that you need to use on a PlayStation controller.
You can remap the A and B buttons to switch them with one another, so that the Switch controller matches the way that the PlayStation controller works.
If the SL and SR buttons were still working but the A button wasn’t, for example, I would still be able to connect the Joy-Con to my Switch. I could then remap the A button to another button on the controller.
Although the SL and SR buttons weren’t working, I could map them to other fully-functional buttons on the Joy-Con. That way I could trick my Switch into believing I’d pressed SL and SR, and I’d be able to sync the faulty Joy-Con.
How to Assign SL and SR to Different Buttons
You would think that since the Switch has a dedicated “Controllers” tab, you would find the settings to remap your Joy-Con buttons here. For some reason known only to Nintendo, the option is actually found in the System Settings.
I wanted to map SL and SR to buttons that were less likely to be used in games but were still reasonably easily reached. In the end, I opted to map SL and SR to the ZR and R buttons found on the shoulder of my Joy-Con, which are called ZL and L on the opposite Joy-Con.
Select “System Settings” at the bottom of the screen. Scroll through the left-hand menu and select “Controllers and Sensors.” Choose “Change Button Mapping.” Select the Joy-Con that you want to remap and select “Change.”
Select the “ZR” (or “ZL”) button and choose the “SR” button from the options. Select the “R” (or “L”) button and choose the “SL” button from the options. Select “Done” to save your mapping.
Since you may want to use this controller in a grip with another controller using the original mapping, select “Save as a Preset” so you can quickly switch back and forth between the different mappings. Choose a slot and give the mapping a name. You can then access the same mapping at any time from the “Load a Preset” option.
Syncing My Joy-Con With My Switch
Now that the Joy-Con is remapped, you can sync it with your Switch. You’ll then be able to use it on its own.
Select “Controllers” and choose “Change Grip/Order.” Press both the R and ZR buttons (or L and ZL) and you should see the Joy-Con synced in one of the four slots. It will display an icon of a wrench, indicating that it is using a custom button mapping. You can now use the Joy-Con to play your Switch.
We Can Now Play Mario Kart Again
By remapping the SL and SR buttons, I was able to sync my faulty Joy-Con without having to buy a new one or replace the button board. It meant that we could all play Mario Kart as a family again.
It’s not entirely perfect, however. When playing Mario Kart with a single Joy-Con, you use the SL button to use items and the SR button to drift. However, these buttons have been remapped to R and ZR on the faulty Joy-Con.
It makes things a little more awkward when playing Mario Kart, but I found that if I hold the Joy-Con at a slight angle, the buttons are easy enough to reach.
I soon adapted to the new configuration and was able to drift and use items at will. Even with the unusual controls, I still managed to be victorious over my children, much to their dismay.
It’s incredibly frustrating that a simple bent cable can make your Joy-Con unusable. Thankfully, by remapping the buttons, I was able to get it working without having to buy an expensive replacement or replace some of the components.
It’s still annoying, however. I’d already lost one Joy-Con to the dreaded Joy-Con drift, and nearly lost another due to not being able to sync it. I really hope that the updated Joy-Cons on the Switch 2 are less prone to failing, although the new Joy-Con connectors that protrude from the sides of the Switch 2 look worryingly flimsy. Time will tell.
