Is your Nintendo account suspended? We’re getting many questions from Nintendo Switch users what they need to do after discovering one day that they can no longer use their account to play online or browse the eShop. In this guide, we’ll show you why an account may be suspended and what a user can do to have the suspension lifted.

What does it mean when your Nintendo account is suspended?

When your Nintendo account is suspended, all downloaded games in your library will be inaccessible and the said account will be unable to transact online. You can continue playing your physical games or those that are in cards. However, you cannot use the suspended Nintendo account to buy games from the eShop or do other online actions such as browse or download additional games.

You cannot also use the suspended account to play online with your friends.

What is the difference between Nintendo account suspension and permanent ban?

There are two important things that can happen on your Nintendo account: temporary suspension and permanent band.

Temporary account suspension, as the name indicates, is only enforced for a certain period of time and the suspension may be lifted once the user has corrected a violation. This is done by contacting the Nintendo support team.

Permanent account suspension is a total ban of a Nintendo account and cannot be undone. This can be caused by repeated violations of Nintendo user agreements. All downloaded games in this account will no longer be accessible too.

What is a hardware ban?

A hardware ban means that your Nintendo Switch can no longer be played online using any account. If you’re getting errors 2124-4007, 2124-4508 or “The use of online services on this console is currently restricted by Nintendo” on your Switch , you’re out of luck. Any of these errors mean that your console has been banned for good by Nintendo due to a Code of Conduct violation.

A permanently banned Nintendo Switch console can still be used offline although you may be limited to using only game cartridges or cards. You will no longer be able to use your console to go to Nintendo eShop using any account.

Reasons why Nintendo suspends accounts

Nintendo only bans or suspends an account for a reason. We know that a lot of people flock to forums to say that their Nintendo account has been suspended for no reason but that’s not true at all. All account suspensions are not done by a computer automatically but rather by Nintendo support team. You’ll need to contact this team so they can manually check the account and lift the ban if possible.

Below are the common reasons why Nintendo account is suspended:

Buying games from non-official sources.

Nintendo Switch games are expensive but we still highly recommend that you avoid buying digital games from non-Nintendo stores unless you want to risk account suspension. We’ve been getting a lot of reports from Nintendo Switch users that got their accounts suspended after buying cheaper games from websites like Gameflip.com.

Keep in mind that Nintendo may ban your entire game library and not just the game you bought from unauthorized stores.

If you really want to buy a digital copy of a game from a third party store, make sure to get a confirmation that you can get a refund in case Nintendo will ban or suspend your account. While this is hardly an ideal situation, this is a precaution in case to soften the blow in the event you’ll be hit by an account suspension.

Using an unauthorized credit card.

Nintendo may ban an account if the credit card used to buy contents from the eShop has been reported as stolen, or if a bank has flagged the card for fraud. If you have recently reported credit card fraud to your bank and you found that your Nintendo account has been suspended, you’ll have to contact Nintendo support to lift the suspension.

Code of conduct violation.

As mentioned above, any violation as stated in the Nintendo Code of Conduct can result in account suspension in the least and a permanent console ban at worst.

Adult content in your account.

In some cases, having adult content in your account or even sexually-suggestive profile name can get your Nintendo account suspended.

Nintendo is trying hard to make its gaming community as wholesome as possible so other users can report an offending account. Some games also have their own reporting mechanism so if another user thinks that you have adult content or has inappropriate content in your account, you may be reported.