Automatically turn off Bluetooth controllers on sleep

[Megasoum]

Right now, when I put the deck into Sleep Mode, my XB1 controller connected via Bluetooth will stay on and start blinking because it lost the connection.

I need to hold the Xbox button for 10sec or remove the batteries to turn it off.

The deck should send a Turn Off signal to all the Bluetooth controllers currently active when going into Sleep Mode.

[Man's Best Friend]

Unfortunately I don't think Valve can actually do that even if they wanted to. Even the ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ documentation from Microsoft says to hold the Xbox button for 5-10 seconds until it turns off. In Steam the default controller configuration includes an option to turn the controller off by pressing Xbox+Y, but it too doesn't work. I've tried. I know the combination works in general because I have a PS4 controller paired as well, and it turns off with PS+Triangle, so Steam does have this capability. It's just the Xbox One and Series controllers do not accept this command over Bluetooth.

I can't seem to find any references to being able to turn the controller off through software except for when it's actually paired to an Xbox.

[Megasoum]

FWIW, when I use the same XB1 controller with my 8bitdo USB Dongle on my Switch, the controller turns off automatically when I put the Switch to sleep.

[Man's Best Friend]

Interesting. I wonder what the 8bitdo dongle is doing differently then. Perhaps it's emulating the full Xbox communications protocol that the Xbox itself uses. Originally Xbox One controllers couldn't pair over standard Bluetooth, but I don't know if that was a hardware or firmware change that allowed the second generation Xbox One controllers to use standard Bluetooth. Possibly it was both.

Have you tried using the dongle on the Deck to connect to your controller? I'd be interested to know if your controller shuts down then when the Deck goes to sleep. If it does, then that suggests that it's the dongle responsible for the controller shutting down. Actually I suppose it working on the Switch suggests it's the dongle either way since the Switch undoubtedly thinks it's a wired controller, and would have no reason to send a shutdown command to that. Unfortunately the only 8bitdo product I have is their arcade stick, and that dongle only works with that stick. To my knowledge at least. The stick has explicit Bluetooth and "2.4 Ghz" modes.

[Megasoum]

The 8bitdo dongle also uses Bluetooth to connect the XB1 controllers.

I just tried it on the Deck and the controller did NOT turn off automatically like it does on the Switch. I also don't have rumble at all on the controller when using the dongle (vs connecting the controller directly to the Deck's BT but that's a whole different issue lol).

[Man's Best Friend]

Fascinating. I suspect this might actually be a bug report then. A bug involving Steam as a whole, but a bug just the same because it's sounding like it should be able to do this. I should try my PS4 controller on my Deck to see what that does.

Update: this is definitely looking like a bug. Pairing my PS4 controller to my Deck, and then putting the Deck to sleep does indeed turn the controller off as expected.