Your Nintendo Account sign-in through Google or Apple stops working on January 26, 2027, according to Nintendo’s own support notice. If that’s how you log in today, you need a password or a passkey on the account before then. It takes about five minutes, and doing it now beats doing it in January with a reset email stuck in spam.
Quick facts
- Cutoff: January 26, 2027, though Nintendo warns the end time may be delayed.
- Who’s affected: anyone who signs in to a Nintendo Account with a linked Google or Apple account.
- Devices named: Switch 2, Switch, Switch Lite and Switch OLED.
- Your fix: set or reset a password at accounts.nintendo.com, or add a passkey.
If you only remember one line from this post, make it the last one: get a password on the account while you can still sign in the easy way.
What changes for your Nintendo Account sign-in
Nintendo says it’s discontinuing the link between Google or Apple accounts and Nintendo Accounts, per its official support page. After the cutoff, you can’t log in with either one, and you can’t create a brand-new Nintendo Account with them either.
A smaller casualty: the My Nintendo Platinum Points mission for linking a Google account goes away too. Nintendo Life reported the change on November 11, 2026, and 9to5Google framed it as a deadline to switch before late January.
Here’s how each login method stands before and after the change.
| Sign-in method | Today | After January 26, 2027 |
|---|---|---|
| Email or Sign-In ID + password | Works | Works |
| Passkey | Works | Works |
| Google account | Works | Ends |
| Apple account | Works | Ends |
| Creating a new account with Google or Apple | Possible | Not possible |
The pattern is simple: anything that depends on Google or Apple goes away, and anything that lives with Nintendo stays.
The five-minute fix: set a password or add a passkey
If you signed up with “Continue with Google” years ago, you may never have set a Nintendo password at all. The route Nintendo’s notice points to is the normal reset flow, which also works if you’ve simply forgotten your password.
Here’s the order I’d follow:
- Open accounts.nintendo.com in a browser.
- Choose “Forgot your password?” and enter the email tied to your Nintendo Account.
- Follow the link in the reset email and pick a strong, unique password.
- Test it by signing out and back in with that email and password.
That last step is the one people skip. A password you’ve never actually used is a password you don’t know works.
Nintendo also lists passkeys as an optional, more secure alternative, with setup steps in its support articles. If your phone or password manager already handles passkeys, they’re faster than typing anything. Android users can even move passwords and passkeys between apps if you later change managers.
When the reset email doesn’t show up
Nintendo’s notice covers the usual snags. Reset emails can take a while, so give it time before requesting another. Add no-reply@accounts.nintendo.com to your safe-sender list, then check spam.
The harder case is when the email address on the account is one you no longer own. Nintendo says to contact its support team to update it, and that’s a conversation you want to have well before late January, not during the last week when everyone else is doing it too.
What Nintendo hasn’t said yet
The notice is short. It doesn’t say why Nintendo is making the change, and it doesn’t spell out what happens to purchases or save-data links beyond the sign-in restrictions. Nintendo Life makes the same point in its report.
The wording suggests the account itself carries on and only the login method disappears. That’s my reading, not Nintendo’s promise, which is one more reason to confirm you can sign in with a password now. Nintendo also says the exact end time may slip, so don’t treat January 26 as a guaranteed grace period.
If you send games to relatives through the eShop, your account is what makes that work, and we covered how Nintendo eShop gifting works not long ago. Losing access to it would be a much bigger headache than the five minutes this takes.
Frequently Asked Questions
Will I lose my games if I don’t switch my Nintendo Account sign-in?
Nintendo’s notice only talks about sign-in and doesn’t mention purchases. The practical risk is being locked out of the account, so set a password now and you avoid the question.
I’m already logged in on my Switch. Do I need to do anything?
Nintendo says you may not need to log in again on a device that’s already signed in. Anything that sends you back to a login page, like a new console or a fresh app install, will need a password or passkey.
I never set a password. How do I get one?
Go to accounts.nintendo.com, choose “Forgot your password?” and follow the reset email. That creates a password even if you never had one.
Is January 26, 2027 a firm date?
Not quite. Nintendo says the end time may be delayed depending on progress of the system change work, and it hasn’t given a time of day or time zone.
My advice is to treat this like a smoke-alarm battery: boring, quick, and miserable to skip. Set the password this week, test it, and drop it in your password manager. If you also want a passkey, add one once the password works, so you’ve got a fallback if either method acts up.
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