When you’re playing a game on the Nintendo Switch, you may get to a point where you want to take a really awesome screenshot. You could be dramatically fighting monsters or watering some flowers you’ve planted on your own private Island. Either way, once you’ve captured these important moments you’ll probably want to get them off your console.

Now, you can choose to send your photos directly to your social media account from the console. However, this guide is focusing on transferring the images to a smart device. The process is the same for both the Switch and Switch Lite.

What Do You Need To Transfer Images From Your Nintendo Switch?

  • A Nintendo Switch Images in your Switch Album that you want to transfer A Smart Device with a camera A QR Code reading app/ability on the Smart Device

How To Get Your Images

You’ll need to make sure you’ve downloaded a QR code reading app to your Smart Device or that your device has that ability built-in.

Go to your Album.

Find the image that you want to transfer.

Click on the image and then click the A button to select it. You’ll notice that a menu at the bottom will say now say hide, delete, back, posting, and editing.

Press A again.

Then, you will get a small menu on the left-hand side of your screen.

You need to click on the Send To Smart Device option.

You will then get the option of transferring individual photos or multiples.

You can only transfer 10 images at one time.

Connecting The Device To The Switch

When you’ve done selected your image or images, you’ll be taken to a screen that has a QR Code on the left-hand side. You will need to open your QR code reader for your chosen Smart Device.

Scan the first QR code.

You’ll see a message appear on your smart device about connecting to the Switch.

Your device will then try to connect to your Nintendo Switch.

You should be able to hit connect (in a similar menu to the one on the left of the image above) and give it permission to access your Switch.

What To Do If The Device Won’t Connect

If it doesn’t connect then you can click the + button.

After you click on this it will give you a small screen of information.

You’ll need to go into your wifi settings on the smart device.

Where you will usually see the options for wifi connections, there will be one that says Switch alongside a few numbers.

Click on this and you can enter the password shown on your trouble connecting screen.

Then, your device should connect with the Switch.

  • If it doesn’t then you will need to disconnect everything and start over!

Transferring Your Images To The Device

After it connects, a second QR code will appear on the right-hand side of the Switch screen.

You will need to scan this one now with your Smart Device.

You should be given a link to a unique URL.

Click on this and it will take you to your photographs on your device.

The following steps may differ as the browsers that smart devices use can vary.

You will then need to click on the images to open them.

Click on them again and hit the download image button.

IMPORTANT: Do not close this link, once it is closed your images will be gone and you will need to start again. 

Your images should be saved into your Smart Device gallery for you to use whenever and wherever you like.

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