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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 t༒o 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.

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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 f𓄧actory reset on the Nintendo Switch:
Soft Reset
A soft reset is essentially just restarting your Switch as if you had turned it off and back on again. Here's exactly what a soft reset does:
- Quickly reboots the console's operating system.
- May help resolve minor software glitches.
- Does NOT delete or erase any of your saved data, downloaded games, settings, etc.
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 yo💞ur device to someone else.
Here's what happens when you run a factory reset:
- All saved games and gameplay progress are permanently deleted.
- All downloaded software and games are erased.
- Any customized settings, user accounts, etc. are all wiped out.
- Essentially restores the Switch to an "out-of-the-box" state.
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 𒈔you don't want to lose permanently:
- Captured Screenshots/Videos - Your Switch stores all your captured screenshots and gameplay video clips. Use the Switch's built-in album data transfer tool to copy these files over to a computer or microSD card that you can keep separate during the reset process.
- Game Save Files - For any physical or downloaded games that have save data you want to keep, first enable the "Save Data Cloud Backup" option in your Switch's System Settings menu. This automatically uploads save data to Nintendo's online cloud servers for safe keeping. Here's a pretty nifty tip, disable auto-renewal for this cloud backup service once you're done, so you aren't charged ongoing subscription fees just to re-download saves for games you may no longer own post-factory reset.
- Nintendo Account Info - Jot down the email address and password associated with your Nintendo Account, and that way you can easily re-link your account to your Switch after the reset.
- MicroSD Card Data - In case you have any additional games, DLC content, or other personal data stored on a microSD card inserted in your Switch, temporarily transfer that data over to your computer. This keeps that external data protected during the reset. OR...just take the card out and put it back in once you're done.
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.

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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 yꦑou tried turning it on and then off again?" on y'all but trust us, doi🦩ng this works for most of the minor league issues. Here's how you can do it:
- Hold Down the Power Button: Just press and hold down that little power button on the top edge of your Switch. Keep holding for a few seconds until a menu pops up.
- Access Power Options: This menu will give you a couple of options, one of which is "Power Options." Go ahead and select that.
- Restart the Console: On the Power Options menu, choose the "Restart" option. This will make your Switch take a brief nap and restart fresh and ready to go, a pretty painless process overall.
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 everythi꧋ng:
- Navigate to System Settings: From the Switch's Home screen with your game tiles, look up at the top left. See that little gear icon? Give that a tap to jump right into the settings menu.
- Scroll Down and Select 'System': Now keep scrolling alllll the way down through the various options until you find the plain old "System" selection. Go ahead and tap on that.
- Choose 'Formatting Options': Okay, keep scrolling down through the System menu, and you'll eventually find the "Formatting Options" choice.
- Select Full Factory Reset: Here's the big moment you've been waiting for! In that Formatting menu, select the option that says "Initialize Console" (fancy way of saying factory reset.) Just a heads-up that this will 100 percent completely and totally erase everything off your Switch, so no takebacks! Once you confirm the reset, it will make your Switch fresh and clean as if you just took it out of the box.
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 can 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 𒆙fun. 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 ;)