How to jailbreak your Nintendo Switch

Planning on jailbreaking your Switch? Here's how to do it.

In the last six months, serious advancements have been made in the world of Nintendo Switch hacking. While there has yet to be a fully realized custom firmware released, some folks may want to get to grips with what it will eventually take to install said firmware once it becomes available. If you want to get ahead of the curve on breaking your Switch out of jail, this is the place to be.

There are a few things to keep in mind before you get started. First of all, it's important to remember that there is risk involved when attempting to strong arm a piece of hardware into doing something for which it was never intended. You, of course, will be voiding any warranties and you will also be running the risk of damaging your Switch. Therefore it would be recommended that you attempt these adventures on a secondary Switch or one which would not be devastating to lose. Second, at this point in the game, there actually isn't a whole lot you can do. Until the day comes when full and stable custom firmware is out, you are mostly just practicing.

Now that we have all that out of the way, let's get on with the fun part!

What you will need

• A Switch that you can afford to risk
• A jig used to force the Switch into safe mode See at ebay
• A USB-C to USB-A cable See at Amazon

Booting your Switch into safe mode

1. Ensure that your Switch is shut off completely.

   

2. Short the pins on your Switch with a Jig. There are a few ways of shorting the pins on your Switch but the safest and most effective, and method is to use a jig which you can find in multiple places on the internet for cheap. If you dont want to spend any money, you could also build your own jig with a paper clip. There is a pretty in depth tutorial on building a paperclip jig here

   

3. Finally, push the power button and the volume up button for about 5 seconds. If your screen is black and you don't see the Nintendo logo, that means you did it correctly.

   

You can now move on to steps to complete the process on either Mac or Windows.

Mac users

If you are a Mac user, you are in luck as the process couldn't get much easier.

1. Using the UBS cable, plug your Switch into your computer.

2. Use your web browser to visit the Web Fusee Launcher here.

   

3. Select the button that says "Do the thing!"

4. Select "APX" and confirm. Once you see the {re}switched screen on your Switch, you know you have done it!

   

To get back to normal remove your jig and power off your system by holding down the power button. When you turn it back on it will be like nothing ever happened!

PC Users

1. Using the USB cable, plug your Switch into your computer
2. Download Zadig USB driver installer here
3. Run Zadig once you have it downloaded
4. The selected device from the drop-down on top should be "APX" (that is your Switch).
5. Select the driver "libusbK (v3.0.7.0)"
6. Now click the "Replace Driver" button
7. Download TegraRcmSmash from the download section here.
8. Download the sample payload here
9. Now all you have to do is drag the Fusee.bin file onto the TegraRCMSmash.exe

Once you see the {re}switched screen on your Switch, you know you have done it!

To get back to normal remove your jig and power off your system by holding down the power button. When you turn it back on it will be like nothing ever happened!

Now that you know how to set your Switch free it will just be a simple matter of injecting a custom firmware once it gets released. Custom firmwares will allow users to do just about anything under the sun. I for one can't wait to start playing Commodore 64 games on my Switch.