The Nintendo Switch isn’t immune to hackers. Recently, Nintendo revealed that 300,000 Nintendo Switch accounts had been accessed illegally. Nintendo is reaching out to those affected, but you can take extra precautions to keep your Nintendo Online account safe right now. With Two-Step Verification, nobody but you can ever access your Nintendo Switch account, and here I’ll explain how all of this works.
You can find details on the official Nintendo Support Site here. Two-Step Verification is an extra security layer, activating it means you’ll have to sign-in using your normal Nintendo Account password, and a code sent to your smart device. It can be a hassle, but the extra protection can give you peace of mind. As long as someone doesn’t have access to your smart device, they won’t be able to access your account.
More Nintendo Switch guides and PSAs on Gameranx:
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- How To Transfer Save Files & eShop Purchases To Another Switch Console
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How To Setup Two-Step Authentication
Before setting up two-step authentication on your Nintendo Switch, you’ll need to download and install the Google Authenticator app on your smart device.
Google Authenticator works on any smart phones, tablets or computers that support iOS or Android apps. Once you have the app, you can begin the process to activate two-step authentication on your Nintendo Switch.
- Sign-in to the Nintendo Account website here.
- Go to Sign-In & Account Settings, and find 2-Step Verification.
- Select ‘Edit‘
- Select ‘Send E-mail‘ to have a verification code sent to your e-mail address.
- Retrieve the e-mail, and input the verification code and submit.
- This will cause a QR Code to appear on your screen. Don’t close the site!
- Access the Google Authenticator app and scan the QR Code displayed on the website.
- After scanning the QR Code, a 6-digit verification code will appear in the Google Authenticator app.
- Input this code under ‘Step 3’ of the Nintendo website instructions.
- This will generate a list of backup codes. These codes are required to access your Nintendo Account if you don’t have access to the Google Authenticator app for any reason.
- You can copy / paste these codes to a file, or write them down. I recommend doing both, and storing the files somewhere safe! If you lose these codes and your smart device, you may be unable to access your Nintendo Account.
Once the backup codes are saved, press ‘Ok’ to complete the process. You can return to the settings later to re-acquire the backup codes if you misplaced them (but still have access to your smart device) or disable 2-step authentication.
