January 15, 2025

12 Settings to Change on Your Nintendo Switch

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The Switch is such a plug-and-play console that you may never have gone into the settings menu. Here are a few settings to review or change to get the most out of your console.

12 Changing Switch Privacy Settings

Decide who can see when you’re online and send you friend requests by opening your profile page using the user icon in the top left corner of the home screen and scrolling down to User Settings > Friend Settings.

You can also use this menu to re-release your friend code (and revoke your old one) and adjust your notification settings.

11 Block your gaming activity

You can also decide who can see what you play, or delete your gaming activity altogether (though you can’t selectively delete certain games). To do this, go to your page by selecting the user icon in the top left corner of the home screen.

Go to User Settings > Game Activity Settings to decide who can see what you’re playing or destroy everything.

10 RGB range in TV mode

The RGB range setting affects whether your TV displays the full range of RGB colors (0 to 255) or a limited range (15 to 235). There is no universal advice for this setting, so you may need to experiment. A good rule of thumb is that if your TV has its Black Level or Gamma Level settings (also set to full), it probably supports the full RGB range.

Naturally, this only matters in TV mode. Go to System Preferences > TV Out > RGB Range and change the setting to Full to enable full range. You may also need to enable a setting on your TV such as “HDMI Deep Color” for it to work properly.

Displaying the full RGB gamut will result in a wider range of colors, but you’ll have to judge for yourself whether the image looks better or worse. If colors on your Switch look washed out (shadow detail is lost, colors appear washed out), change the setting back to Limited or Automatic.

9 Reducing screen burn-in

Image retention, or “burn-in” as it is commonly called, refers to the phenomenon where images become permanently imprinted on the panel of your TV or monitor. This is mainly a concern for OLED display owners because they are much more susceptible to image retention due to uneven pixel wear.

Enable this setting under System Preferences > TV Out > Reduce Screen Burn-in and your Switch will automatically dim the screen after five minutes of inactivity. You might want to turn it on even if you don’t have an OLED display to make gaming in idle mode less distracting.

8 TV Power State Match

Your switch may turn on your TV when you start using it, and your TV may turn off the switch when you press the power button. Enable this setting under System Settings > TV Output > Match TV Power Status.

You will need you need to enable HDMI-CEC settings on your TV for it to work.

7 Change the order of user icons

Changing the order in which user accounts appear on the screen when you do something like launch a game or launch an online store can make a big difference. If you are a primary Switch user but your account is not the default choice, you should change it.

This can be done under System Settings > User > Change Order. As the “default” profile, you can start the game by pressing “A” twice on the controller, instead of manually selecting your account.

6 Switch to dark theme

Nintendo really missed the boat when it came to customizing the Switch (something the Switch 2 really needs to address). However, it’s worth switching from the standard “Light” theme to the “Dark” theme, especially if you play your console at night in a darkened room and don’t want to be blinded when you press the Home button.

You can do this in System Settings > Themes.

5 View your console’s battery percentage

By default, your Nintendo Switch displays a battery icon that gives you a very rough idea of the remaining charge. You can get much more information by turning on the battery percentage.

Go to System Settings > System > Console Battery (%) and enable this feature. The numeric percentage indicator will appear on both the Home screen and in the Quick Menu (accessible by holding the Home button).

4 Changing controller button assignments

Whether it’s for accessibility reasons or simply because you don’t like the way Nintendo consoles invert ABXY, you can change your controller mapping by going to System Preferences > Controllers & Sensors > Change Button Mapping.

The only caveat is that you can’t change the button layout of connected Joy-Cons. To do this, you will have to disable the Joy-Cons and use them in dual controller mode. Changes will also affect the Nintendo Switch Pro Controller and compatible third party controllers such as 8BitDo Pro 2.

You can change almost everything, including the analog stick function. Your changes will apply automatically across all games because they are saved at the system level. Changes are saved on the console you make them on, not on the controller (so you’ll have to redo the changes if you switch consoles).

Save your patterns and load presets using the Save as Preset and Load Preset options, or return to default settings using the Reset option.

3 Calibrating Joysticks and Motion Controls

Nintendo Switch is no stranger to horrifying analog stick driftwhat happens when analog sticks start behaving erratically and registering movement even when you’re not touching them. One of the easiest ways to solve this problem, at least in the early stages, is to use an analog stick calibration tool.

Go to System Settings > Controllers & Sensors > Control Stick Calibration and follow the onscreen instructions to Calibrate your Switch controller. If the stick is pulled in one specific direction, this may solve the problem for a short time.

Unfortunately, once you start to notice signs of joystick drift, the controller will already fail. You can try to repair your Joy-Con with spare parts and guide from iFixitbut it’s better to use The Nintendo Replacement Program allows you to repair or replace them free of charge..

You can also use this menu to calibrate your motion controls, which is handy if your Joy-Con isn’t performing well. a game that depends on an internal gyroscope, e.g. Change sport.

2 Optimizing touch screen for stylus

If you use a stylus with your Switch, you should consider optimizing the screen for your chosen input method. You can do this in System Settings > Controllers & Sensors > Touch Screen Sensitivity by selecting Stylus from the menu.

Although it may seem a little strange, in some games it is better to use a (capacitive) stylus. One example is Super Mario Creator 2 which included a limited edition themed stylus in select territories as a pre-order bonus.

1 Change the MTU value

Latency and poor internet performance are common complaints when it comes to the Switch. Increasing the Maximum Transmission Unit (MTU) value from the default of 1400 may help. You can consult This is a guide for Netgear to determine the optimal MTU size for your Internet connection.

If you are impatient, you can always try switching this value to 1500.

Mac or Linux users can follow the same methodology, but use the following command in Terminal instead:

ping -D -s 1500 www.yahoo.com

You are looking for a value that does not cause a “Message is too long” error. You can press Control+C to send a kill command and stop the ping operation.

Once you’ve found the appropriate value (for me it was 1472) and added 28 to that value (1500 total), go to System Settings > Internet > Internet Settings and select your wireless network. Click “Change Settings” and change the “MTU” to a new number, then click “Save.”