Saturday, January 9, 2021

Xbox One Controller For Windows not recognised correctly via Bluetooth

problem: Xbox One via Bluetooth on windows not working as expected

The "USB Game Controllers" calibration window is missing the LT and RT triggers/buttons axis etc when connected via Bluetooth. It works as expected when connected via USB.

impact: Games cannot use the L2 and R2 axis/triggers

solution: update windows 10

I wanted to write down the steps that helped me get my controller working on USB AND Bluetooth. USB was fine but Bluetooth was not working as expected with the LT and RT buttons/triggers/axis were not working nor showing up in the "Game Controllers" calibration GUI under windows.

Quick note, even after following these steps with everything working as expected, connected via USB the controller shows up as a "Controller (Xbox One For Windows)", and via Bluetooth it shows up as a "6 axis 16 button gamepad with hat switch", at least on my system. After these steps, the LT and RT buttons/triggers worked as expected via Bluetooth.

  1. Install and use the Microsoft Store app called "Xbox Accessories" and connect the controller via USB-C and ensure the controller has the latest firmware.

  2. Upgrade windows via the "Update Assistant" download tool from Microsoft.

  3. After the update assistant is fully done installing/rebooting (its normally a few cycles), force a windows update to ensure you have the most recent cumulative updates. There is a specific cumulative update that includes the latest controller drivers with fixes the issue. Details here.

    Note: Step 4 might not be required, but I did them for good measure.

  4. I recommend to un-pair and uninstall (via device mgmt WIN+x, m) the previous Xbox controller Bluetooth device(s). Afterwards re-pair the controller.

You should be all set.

footnote: I cannot recall 100% correctly but I think the Bluetooth controller label first showed up with less axis in the "Game Controllers" window, and the the LT / RT axis was definitely missing under the calibration GUI.

citation:

When researching this issue, this thread was very helpful: https://redd.it/jrhkeu