Switch 19.0.0/1 update sleep/heat issue tests

Until I can fully confirm issue as identified or Nintendo fixes it this will be a running update so if this is an issue for you please keep an eye out for edits, they will be notated at the bottom similar to a change log. Final update 11/04/2024: Issue confirmed. As long as WiFi is connected to a network there is a chance for your switch to not sleep correctly and draining battery. If it is in a case when this occurs your case will turn warm as it insulates your switch. There is no setting you can turn on or off to prevent it except disconnecting Wi-Fi OR shutting Wi-Fi off with airplane mode.

As some of us have been suffering and/or made aware of heat/battery life/sleep related issues since the latest 19.0.0 update not yet fixed in version 19.0.1 I have been testing since the update to try and isolate the issue and I believe I have a good idea what it is now.

This is a summary and findings result of the previous post hopefully to be of benefit to others: https://www.reddit.com/r/NintendoSwitch/s/0VFCS7nh89

As I personally own a V1 OG switch (US region) and a OLED (JP) region, have immediate access to a V2 switch (US, family switch), and can readily borrow another V2 and a Lite (US), this testing was done extensively with 3 switches and partially experimented on the other 2, so do please take these results as potential findings and not definitive.

Anyways testing is basically turn one setting on or off, put console to sleep, wake it sleep it every once in a while and see if it heats up and drains battery during sleep. If it does we chalk off this setting and move on to the next test until it stops exhibiting the issue for 3 days.

From the results I have seen on the units I have on hand this seems to be related to notifications and NSO membership, and WIFI no longer going to sleep as before.

The fix (that worked for me):

Turn off "Maintain connection during sleep" Turn off "Platinum Points notification" Turn off under friends notification "Online Users" "Friends online"

Or

Airplane mode: turn on Bluetooth, NFC, keep WIFI off.

It seems the number of accounts you have on the console, number of friends, accounts that have NSO all are a factor in this. The more the worse the issue gets, and this seems to explain why not everyone is experiencing the problem in the same degree.

My guess is this: the more friends, NSO accounts you have the more frequently your switch is polling for updates, and at one point the switch stops staying in sleep correctly because of the polling. This behavior and the WIFI no longer turning off in sleep is causing the heat up and drain because it's not actually sleeping. Each individual friend and platinum points account is being polled for updates individually and maybe not at the same interval so the longer the list the worse the issue gets. If you have no friends and NSO on the account or a offline switch it probably isn't going to affect you. An account with no friends and only platinum points doesn't seem to be causing too much impact either.

In my particular case I have 2 accounts both with NSO and about close to a dozen friends on the list so on my own switches I can consistently trigger the issue.

I did also notice on the Lite was the only switch I was unable to get the issue to go off, and I did not have enough time with it on my hands to verify if this is because switch lite behaves different as it is not a dockable switch. I do have a switch lite coming in for myself so IF anything changes I will update results for that.

Hopefully this will be of benefit to others that am suffering with switches heating up in sleep docked or not and high battery drain while in sleep.

NOTE: as this IS an ongoing issue please do let me know if what worked for me doesn't work for you, I'd like to do further testing if that's the case.

Edit 1 10/31/2024: crossed out disable notifications

Unfortunately for me both of my switches using the notifications off setting last night decided to wake up mid sleep and turned into a hand warmer, OG switch dropped to 23% from full charge and OLED to 12% AND drained my mobapad battery as well. For the time being airplane mode/WIFI off is the only good method.

I have additional reasons to believe if you have a game on pre-order (in my case M&L RPG) it's another element of getting your switch woken up. My switch lite is arriving today so I'll have another unit I can do further cross testing. It looks like Nintendo's fix of download during sleep has made it worse. per u/Agitated_Cap5738 he experienced the same drain last night as I had but has no preorders on account, unfortunately at this time the only workaround is to make sure Wi-Fi on switch is completely off during sleep.

Additional note: per conversation with others outside of this sub it appears it's worth further investigating using 2.4G over 5G for Wifi, while it sounds a bit of a stretch it would make a difference I will be pursuing this route for testing...if I can get my JP OLED to actually connect and stay connected to NA/US 2.4G.

Edit 2 11/03/2024: turning off Wi-Fi (via airplane mode) will immediately remedy the heating issue in sleep, you can even turn wifi back on immediately after then put it to sleep. This does not stop the issue from recurring again.

Now that I have received my switch mini I have 3 switches on my hand for consistent testing. I have noticed whenever the issue occurs all the switches occur at the same time. It appears this issue IS triggered either by notifications OR software updates during sleep, but switch forgets to turn wifi off after so an manual intervention by switching airplane on then off to force wifi to turn off for even a second will remedy the issue. I have also wiped my OLED to see if the issue occurs on a newly set up switch: It does not. During the same timeframe both my V1 and lite started heating up and had battery drain. OLED of course started draining right after.....it appears no switch is safe from this.

I have slimed down my friends list on my NSO account to only IRL friends to see if reducing the friends/notifications if the issue is reduced in frequency. This no longer matters as a freshly wiped also can trigger the issue.

Edit 3 11/04/2024: as further confirmation, I am able to trigger the issue with the V1, lite, AND OLED regardless of any other condition besides the Wifi being off. Even with a fresh wipe it still triggers the issue. None of the settings being on or off (notifications, auto-update software, maintain Internet connection) can prevent it.

At this time I am going to say this is literally Wifi just not going to sleep correctly and keeping the switch awake when putting the switch to sleep. I do have full access to the V2 for a few days (this switch I am personally not logged into so it has completely different set of accounts, one online 3 offline) so I will be putting it thru it's paces to finalize findings on all switch models.

Final Edit 11/04/2024: it is strictly chance your switch may not go to sleep correctly EVERY TIME you put it to sleep. No settings can fully prevent except disabling WIFI on your switch.

Post Final Edit 11/21/2024 (sorry not sorry): so the reason why not everyone seems to be experiencing the battery/wifi issue is because...... apparently if you use your switch normally by waking it up, play some games or cruise shop or collect platinum points then put it back to sleep after say 7-10 minutes, then most likely it will NOT trigger the issue.

Apparently the issue tends to show up if you wake it up and put it back to sleep too quickly within a couple minutes. For whatever reason. So if you wake it up just to check time and put it back to sleep, or wake it up, never get past lock screen, goes back to sleep automatically, you are much more likely to trigger the issue.

The console is probably running some delayed background scripts as part of the waking procedure that takes a certain amount of time to complete, and if you put it to sleep while it's still running then it doesn't go back to sleep correctly. If you wake it up for longer than 7-10 minutes then it'll most likely go to sleep fine.

Additional observations 12/26/2024: this issue is more prevalent on the switch designated as primary switch. As I now have the switch lite set as the primary switch for both of my accounts it occurs most consistently on that. Before when I had the primary set for the OLED it was occurring most consistently on that as well. Overall battery drain during sleep without the issue has gone up about 2-3% a day as well.