Despite the fact that the Switch is not young anymore, it is quite relevant, and it will be so for a long time to come. First of all, because Nintendo has essentially no competitors in the handheld market, so there is no need to adjust to rival releases. Even Sony, which was once notable for its PlayStation Portable and PS Vita, has long gone off the rails and completely ignored the handheld segment.
If your Nintendo Switch is not connected to Wi-Fi, you won’t be able to play online, access multiplayer, or use voice chat, although you will still be able to play most games. So, here is how to fix the error when Nintendo Switch cannot connect to the Internet.
How to restart Nintendo Switch
As with any electronic device, rebooting the Switch is an important first troubleshooting step to correct any temporary problems. Pressing the physical power button on the Switch or using the sleep icon on the Home screen does not completely shut down the device. Thus, there is a good chance that you haven’t turned the system off completely in a while.
If you want to restart your Nintendo Switch, you have to follow these steps:
- First of all, press and hold the physical “Power” button in the top left corner of the system for a few seconds.
- Then, choose “Power Options” and click “Restart”.
- Finally, the system will reboot. Give it time, and then check to see if your Switch is connected to the Internet.
How to reboot Internet equipment
After rebooting the Switch, the next basic step is to turn off the power to the modem and router. If your modem and router have physical buttons or power switches on them, turn them both off for at least a minute. If your devices do not have a power switch, simply unplug them from the power outlet.
Either way, turn the modem on first, and when all the lights turn on, as usual, turn the router back on. If you have a combination device, you only need to reboot that device. Once both devices are fully powered on, try reconnecting the Switch to Wi-Fi.
How to review Switch’s network settings
If your Nintendo Switch is still not connecting to Wi-Fi after following the steps above, it’s time to take a look at your Switch’s Internet connection settings to see where the problem lies. To do this, open the “Settings” menu on the “Home” screen and click the Internet tab. There, select “Test Connection” to do a quick test to make sure everything is working properly.
If you don’t see the message “Connection verification was successful”, write down all the error codes, as you may need to look them up on the Internet later. To make sure you entered everything correctly, open the “Internet Settings” menu from the previous page. In this menu, select your current network, and then “Change Settings” to make sure the information is up to date. In particular, select “Enter” password to make sure you haven’t entered a Wi-Fi password for your network. If someone else is managing your home network, check to see if they recently changed their password. If that doesn’t work, select “Clear Settings” to erase the connection and set it up again, which may solve the problem.
