WTH is wrong with my Switch? I don’t get friends’ online status/deets anymore!

[Dash Kappei]

This how it normally works (pardon me for the OS in Italian), showing details about who's online, what they're playing and the last time they've been online (minutes, hours, days, months...) and this is how it worked on my Switch too (until a few weeks ago).

This is how it was and how it should be:

Now tho, every time I'm online I get ZERO details, instead the only thing I get is the OFFLINE text and nothing about the last time a friend has been online and I also NEVER get to see any of my friends as ONLINE "playing game X" anymore, ever! Even when I know for sure they're online right that moment and I check 'em out, all I get is OFFLINE. I'm also apparently never properly online myself, if I check my profile I should be online but instead I get "offline since xxx time ago" which is usually when a game connected to post a highscore on online leaderboards and so on.

This is how it is now, devoid of online statuses and "last time seen online xx:xx ago" details:

I checked all the settings and I found nothing that could make this craziness happen, I thought it might have been my router/provider (and it couls be, you guys tell me) but then even connecting through my iPhone's hotspot with a totally different carrier and nothing changed.

Btw, I still get friends request and can accept them but alas no online status deets of course :/

Help me out guys, I'm going crazy here!

• I'm not banned and neither are my friends. Yes, I'm sure.

• I can access the eShop and buy games (playing Dead Cells right now, as are some of my friends

• I can receive, send and accept new friend requests

• I can play online multiplayer and post scores on online leaderboards

• When the system started working again properly, I hadn't touched/changed a thing. But I did try everything I could think of as far as OS settings (privacy/notifications/shutting it off completely...)

*Thanks a lot if you've made it through all of my post and reading all of it, really appreciate it!!

 

[DontBlink]

Maybe they have set their account to hide their online presence. You can have it so that only users you mark as "best friends" see your activity.

 

[Jackano]

Are you sure you're not banned or something

 

[Decarb]

All your friends are banned.

 

[Asbsand]

Your friends abandoned Nintendo.

 

[user__]

Maybe it has something to do with GDPR? I don't really know, just throwing a thought.

 

[Dash Kappei]

Maybe they have set their account to hide their online presence. You can have it so that only users you mark as "best friends" see your activity.

Click to shrink...

Are you sure you're not banned or something

Click to shrink...

Maybe it has something to do with GDPR? I don't really know, just throwing a thought.

Click to shrink...

Haha I wish but nope:(
In fact, the "working online details" screenshots were taken AFTER the not-working ones (but now I'm baxk again with it not working). Switch suddenly started "working" as it was when on a trip to Madrid a couple weeks ago (went to a sweet festival to see Depeche Mode, QOTSA, NiN, Jet, Underworld...) so I took screens to "prove" I wasn't crazy in remembering I used to get details on online status before.
Now it's back to not showing shit again.

I don't know what the hell it could be.

 

[FlaygletheBagel]

We're pleased to announce that seeing your friends' activities online is now part of the Nintendo Switch Online (TM) service. This new* feature will enable you to see what your friends are up to at any given time! A one-year subscription of Nintendo Switch Online will be available this September for $19.99.

 

[Blergmeister]

I do know that you're profile is not considered online until you are in a game with that profile. So for example if you were using a 2nd profile for an 2nd playthrough of BOTW then your "main" profile is not going online during that time.

 

[Tunesmith]

Haha I wish but nope:(
In fact, the "working online details" screenshots were taken AFTER the not-working ones (but now I'm baxk again with it not working). Switch suddenly started "working" as it was when on a trip to Madrid a couple weeks ago (went to a sweet festival to see Depeche Mode, QOTSA, NiN, Jet, Underworld...) so I took screens to "prove" I wasn't crazy in remembering I used to get details on online status before.
Now it's back to not showing shit again.

I don't know what the hell it could be.

Click to shrink...

This sounds like its a local issue with your connection, considering it worked normally when you were elsewhere.

I had a similar issue once temporarily but it fixed itself when I swapped from 2.4GHz wifi to 5GHz on my router.

 

[RocketDarkness]

Also, try turning your system on and off by removing it from the dock and holding the power button on the system. I think I had this happen once and this may have helped resolve it.

 

[Darktalon]

Can you access the eshop? Can your friends? If you or them are banned, well it looks exactly like that.

 

[Dash Kappei]

This sounds like its a local issue with your connection, considering it worked normally when you were elsewhere.

I had a similar issue once temporarily but it fixed itself when I swapped from 2.4GHz wifi to 5GHz on my router.

Click to shrink...

I thought about it, but then even creating an hotspot with my iPhone, which is on Vodafone's 4G) gave me the same issue I have with my fibre on a different provider...
What do you think?

Also, try turning your system on and off by removing it from the dock and holding the power button on the system. I think I had this happen once and this may have helped resolve it.

Click to shrink...

I only tried docked a couple times at launch, I'm exclusively a portable-mode player... tried turning the system on/off multiple times.
Short of doing a factory reset (which I wouldn't do -losing all my saves-, considering it worked before and after) I tried everything OS-wide.

Bear in mind that when everything started working as intended again, I didn't do anything different than usual other than being on a different Country lol

Can you access the eshop? Can your friends? If you or them are banned, well it looks exactly like that.

Click to shrink...

Can access eShop.
Can receive and make friend requests and add new friends to the list (which of course show without online-status as well).
Can play online multiplayer.

My friends (many on Era) can too.

 

[Dash Kappei]

We're pleased to announce that seeing your friends' activities online is now part of the Nintendo Switch Online (TM) service. This new* feature will enable you to see what your friends are up to at any given time! A one-year subscription of Nintendo Switch Online will be available this September for $19.99.

Click to shrink...

lol I'm the lucky sob who's beta testing this nice new perk for everybody else's Switches

I do know that you're profile is not considered online until you are in a game with that profile. So for example if you were using a 2nd profile for an 2nd playthrough of BOTW then your "main" profile is not going online during that time.

Click to shrink...

Yeah I know.
The weird thing is that even with the system online, playing a game with online features, as soon as I'm out of the game and in the OS looking at my profile, it'll show me as OFFLINE since 1 minutes or 2 or 10... depending on the last time said game used an online feature.
So, playing an ACA Neo-Geo title I will be shown "offline since X" where X is the time that has passed since the game connected to the online leaderboards to post/look a score.
If a game doesn't have online features at all, than I'm shown as "offline since X" where X is the time that has passed since I played the last game WITH online features (boards, replays, mp...). This is all while the system is connected online, with the full Wifi signal bars.

 

[Tunesmith]

I thought about it, but then even creating an hotspot with my iPhone, which is on Vodafone's 4G) gave me the same issue I have with my fibre on a different provider...
What do you think?

Click to shrink...

Could still be a localized issue. Hotspots can be bad too. Are you able to try hotspotting (is that a word lol) from a different location than at home? Just to test under a different IP/cell tower.

Edit: What NAT type do get btw?