Animal Crossing games are some of the most popular games for the Nintendo Switch but unfortunately, they are not perfect. One of the Animal Crossing issues that many gamers encounter is “communication error,” one of the connection problems that affect many consoles for a few months now.

If the game just updated and a code isn't working, wait for AC Reverse Engineering to update everyone on working codes for the new builds. If you have the updated code and it is not yet posted to the main page of this thread, feel free to share it. But don't ask me to get the new code if the devs haven't even gotten it yet. They're dead for 1.4.1. Animal Crossing: New Leaf (とびだせ どうぶつの森もり Tobidase Dōbutsu no Mori?, Animal Forest: Jump Out), known as Animal Forest: Pop Out (튀어나와요 동물의숲, Twieonawayo Dongmul-ui Sup) in South Korea, is a life simulation video game released in 2012 for the Nintendo 3DS. The player takes on the role of mayor of a new town, and with the help of the townsfolk.

Although this error does affect all Nintendo Switches out there, there’s a significant number of users that experience it. This is due to the fact that it can be caused by a few factors. In this guide, we’ll discuss the possible causes of this problem as well as the solutions that you can take if you’re affected by it.

Causes of Animal Crossing connection problems on your Switch

Animal Crossing connection issues seldom happen but if they do occur, they can be frustrating to ignore. Learn what can be the reasons for your particular issue below.

Server error.

Playing online depends on many devices along chain of your connection in order to work. From your console down to Nintendo’s servers, there are a lot of factors in between that can affect your online experience. Game servers don’t run 100% of the time and sometimes, maintenance will be conducted by Nintendo or game publishers to patch things on their end. This may disrupt their online service for brief period of time. If you are getting the dreaded communication error when trying to play any Animal Crossing game, you must check for possible server problems first.

Home network glitch.

The network equipment you’re connecting to can also cause problems when playing a game. An outdated router firmware can lead to connection problems with devices in the network. If your other devices like phones or other consoles are also having connection issues, you probably have a local network problem. Make sure that your wifi is up and running. If possible, try to reboot the router before testing the connection again.

If you have a Nintendo Switch wifi issue, visit this page to fix it.

DNS server issue.

In some cases, Nintendo Switch users were able to fix Animal Crossing connection problems by swapping the default DNS servers (automatically set up by your ISP) when you connect to your home wifi with that of Google’s.

A Domain Name Server or DNS translates the name of the website such as thedroidguy.com into an IP address that computers can read. Sometimes, an ISP’s DNS servers may encounter problems and this, in turn, can cause online gaming connection issues. Changing the current DNS on your Nintendo Switch to something new may fix your gaming problem.

Troubleshooting Animal Crossing connection issues

There are four easy ways to fix Animal Crossing internet problems.

1. Check for a server outage.

   If you encounter “communication error” or other errors when trying to play Animal Crossing, you want to make sure that it is not due to a server issue. Doing this will save you time and effort. If the issue is on the server side, all you have to do is to wait until the problem goes away on its own.
   There are a number of steps that you can try to check if the error you’re getting is caused by something outside your console or home network. First, you can go online and search Google for any “Animal Crossing connection issues.” You can also include in your search query the particular error code or message in order to know what it means. Problems that affect many users are usually known and reported so major tech websites will naturally pick it up.
   Another strategy that you can try is to try a third party outage detector site like downdetector.com to know if there’s any server issue or outage going on.
   Lastly, try to get official updates from Nintendo’s official Twitter support page.

2. Reboot the console.

   If you’re positive that there’s no known server issues at the moment, you can also reboot your Nintendo Switch. This will clear its cache and network card. Just turn the console off and wait for about 2 minutes. After that, turn it back on and see if the error is gone.

3. Power cycle the router.

   If there’s no server problem, console has been rebooted already yet the problem is still there, the next move for you is to power cycle your home network equipment like modem and/router. Shut down the equipment and make sure to unplug their power cable for about 30 seconds. Afterwards, plug everything back in and restart the connection.

4. Change DNS server on your Nintendo Switch.

   As mentioned above, some Nintendo Switch users were able to fix Animal Crossing connection issues by changing the DNS servers. You’ll want to do that now if the first three solutions above has not helped a bit. Here’s how it’s done:
   -On your Switch, Open Settings.
   -Go to Internet.
   -Go to Internet Settings.
   -Click on the Wi-Fi network you're connected to.
   -Select Change Settings.
   -Select DNS Settings.
   -Change from Automatic to Manual.
   -Change the Primary DNS setting to 008.008.008.008.

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