How to Fix an Xbox Wireless Controller that Disconnects or Buttons Intermittently Stop Working
If you have an XBox, you might have come across an issue where your wireless controller disconnects from the console mid-play. This recently started happening to me and it always seemed to happen mid-jump, so that when my controller reconnected, I proceeded to fall into whatever I was jumping over and died. This was incredibly frustrating and after having this happen several times in the exact same area, I stopped playing.
Luckily, there is a way to prevent your wireless Xbox controller from disconnecting or having random button issues when using an Xbox S/X console.
How to Fix an Xbox Wireless Controller that Disconnects or Buttons Intermittently Stop Working
The issue you may experience with your Xbox wireless controller is that in the middle of play, you receive a message on your screen to connect a controller. This interrupts game play and if you are in the middle of something, while the screen does freeze momentarily, it can be really hard to recover what you were doing just before the controller disconnected.
Obviously, this is really frustrating. In my experience, this happened several times while at the exact same place in a game, but it also happened in many other places - not just one, so I had to find a way to fix this.
In my case, I have the three controllers in the image above. The top controller came with the console. It was used regularly for several months, then rarely used over the last year. The controller in the middle has been used daily for over a year, and in all honesty, has been thrown a few times. The bottom controller has only been used about 15 times. When the middle controller started having issues, I tried both of the other controllers but ran into the same issues until I followed the steps below.
If you have disconnect issues:
- From within the Xbox menu, go to Home.
- Scroll all the way to the right to your profile icon.
- On the Profile & system menu, scroll down and select "Settings".
- In the Settings menu, scroll down to the "Devices & connections" tab and select "Controllers & headsets".
- This brings up the settings for the current controller. Click on the 3-button ellipsis under the image of the controller.
- Select "Update controller".
- Repeat this process for any additional controllers.
After the update(s) have been installed, the controller should stop disconnecting from the console. However, you may also have issues where there are random times when you are pressing buttons and nothing is happening. Follow the steps below to fix the issue where the controller randomly does not register that you have clicked one of the buttons on it.
To fix intermittent button issues:
- With the console and controller with the issue turned on, press the white Xbox button in the top middle of the controller for 10-15 seconds, until it forces the controller off.
- Power off the console.
- Unplug the power from the back of the console and wait 30 seconds before reconnecting the power cable.
- Power the console on and reconnect the controller that had the button issue.
- Check to see if the controller issues have been resolved.
It is unfortunate when hardware fails to work the way it should. In this case, the Xbox controllers can disconnect from the console mid-play, have buttons that randomly fail to register, or both. Luckily, for many people, updating the controllers and going through hard reset steps for the controllers and console can fix the issue rather than having to purchase new controllers.
As always, knowing how to fully reset hardware can sometimes be the most efficient, and least costly, fix!