Steam causes Xbox One wireless controllers to instantly power off (Win10)

[justageezer]

Recently I've experienced an issue with my Xbone wireless controllers (1 standard, one Elite), whereby during a gaming session the controller would turn off 2 seconds after being powered on if either it went into sleep mode due to inactivity or sometimes just powered off on its own.
After some googling I found that some Oculus Rift users had been having exactly the same issues, and at least one had narrowed the cause down to Steam. As I have no Rift I tried stopping Steam and it solved the issue.
That is, after the controller has entered 'sleep mode' for whatever reason if Steam is running pressing the Xbox button will make the controller power on and 2 seconds later turn off again. If Steam is stopped the controller will power on correctly, and then Steam can be stqaqrted and a game played normally - until the controller goes into sleep mode again.
Rebooting the PC also fixesx the issue - but stopping Steam is obviously quicker.
I'm using the Xbox wireless receiver (not sure if the Elite controller even supports bluetooth), the latest controller drivers downloaded through the Win10 Xbox Accessories app, and both controllers work faultlessly on trhe Xbox One.
As a search of the forums didn't turn up anything I thought I'd post on the off-chance that a) Valve weren't aware of the issue and b) that Valve will please fix the issue, and c) in case anyone else wsas having the same problems.

[DarkHuD]

It's doing this to me as well. W10 fully updated, using the PC adapter. It also has the same issue with my DS4 with the DS4 sony adapter for pc, which is how it was easy to spot as not the controller but something else.

Regardless, I tried another xb1 controller, and the issue persists. When force closing steam, my controllers will stay on. The default timeout was at 15 minutes in steam, with all the options disabled, and steam was still the cause. Dunno why, but this is some annoying junk to deal with.

Playing GTA V, need controller for best flight mode, controller wont stay on. So I have to either quit the game and hope the option solves itself with a restart, or force close steam.

yeah.. let's hope this gets fixed. I also spotted the OR people having this issue, but since I'm a 1440p144 gamer, this wasn't a cause.

[Karma Mule]

3rd person here with this exact same issue. At first I was rebooting, but then saw that Steam could be the cause and sure enough when I fully quit Steam my controller would stay on. Just noticed it starting to happen yesterday. It seems to start happening after the controller first times out after 15 minutes of genuinely being idle, and once THAT happens I have to restart or close steam.

So, if I want to play a Steam game I have to really make sure I don't let it go 15 minutes idle, otherwise I'll have to reboot. Fortunately right now I'm playing non-steam games so I can just close steam.

Not sure if it matters but I'm on a windows insider build.

[justageezer]

Thanks for the confirmations.
I can now add that this occurs even when the controller is plugged in and charging, as well as when it is fully charged, so it has nothing to do with the actual battery state of the controller, but something Steam is doing is causing the controller to instantly power down when being awoken from sleep mode.
This does not affect the initial connection, which will work correctly even with Steam running, only waking the controller after it has powered off with Steam running is a problem.
My gaming sessions are now:
Play until controller randomly turns off or it goes to sleep due to inactivity,
Switch to kb&m (usually mid-battle),
Save game and exit to desktop,
Stop Steam,
Re-connect controller,
Restart Steam,
Restart game,
Reload save - win battle :)
As I can't play the game without Steam running I'd really like to be able to play it - without the above hassle - with Steam running.
Valve - I'd really love a fix for this :)

[Forcen]

So, have you disabled all the controller stuff in the steam controller settings?

[justageezer]

Just to clarify my previous post, my controller was plugged in to a USB charging point and not the PC, so it was still wireless. AFAIK this doesn't happen to wired controllers, it is purely a problem with, it seems, Steam telling the controller to power off if a) it's wireless and b) it's previously been asleep.
There does seem (for me at least) to be a second issue of the controller powering off on it's own even if it hasn't been inactive, but this is harder to nail down and I'll have to do some more testing.
Speaking of which, must just pop off and slay a dragon or two...

[justageezer]

Issue occurs for me with Steam set to turn off controllers after 5 mins (default) and with it set to never turn off controllers. It does correctly identify my hardware as an Xbox One controller and apparently I have the latest firmware - I'd just rather some that worked properly.

[Forcen]

Are the steam settings for controllers disabled or not?

[Muppet among Puppets]

Steam settings, controller, settings, unmark all

[DarkHuD]

Originally posted by Muppet among Puppets:

Steam settings, controller, settings, unmark all

For me, I'd already had all that unset. I've since re-set and un-set all that again over a few restarts, and with things disabled/undone. That doesn't fix the issue. Force-closing steam is the only solution for me, and that's not a real solution.

[Forcen]

Try the latest Steam beta.

[DarkHuD]

Originally posted by Forcen:

Try the latest Steam beta.

I normally am always in the beta channel. I'd gone between beta and latest standard release when trying to fix the issue. No dice.

[justageezer]

Same as DarkHuD, none of the checkboxes under controller settings made any difference for me. I played around with the options for turning off the controller - which I'd assumed meant 'after so much inactivity' and not 'mid-game' - and when set to 5 minutes my controller would stay on for hours or until I let it go to sleep, however with it set to never turn off the controller it actually turned itself off after about 5 minutes (mid-game). Twice. I then tried 2 hours and after ~150 minutes it was still working. Insufficient tests to be conclusive, but there's obviously an issue with how Steam talks to wireless (non-Steam?) controllers. And tbh it's really [expletive deleted] annoying.

[DarkHuD]

Originally posted by justageezer:

Same as DarkHuD, none of the checkboxes under controller settings made any difference for me. I played around with the options for turning off the controller - which I'd assumed meant 'after so much inactivity' and not 'mid-game' - and when set to 5 minutes my controller would stay on for hours or until I let it go to sleep, however with it set to never turn off the controller it actually turned itself off after about 5 minutes (mid-game). Twice. I then tried 2 hours and after ~150 minutes it was still working. Insufficient tests to be conclusive, but there's obviously an issue with how Steam talks to wireless (non-Steam?) controllers. And tbh it's really [expletive deleted] annoying.

When I'm playing a game and this happens, the only fix is to force close steam via the task manger. This is a newer issue for me. It didn't do this 2 months ago that I can remember.

[justageezer]

I also think this is fairly recent, though last time I gamed on the PC I was using a wireless 360 pad - since getting my Elite controller that hasn't seen much use, but I'll see if I can test if that's also affected.
I haven't tried quitting Steam with the game running - that might be quicker than exiting to the desktop to quit it, but we shouldn't be putting up with software from a gaming company that breaks game playing. C'mon Valve, I love your games - and I loved Steam until you broke it for me.

[Forcen]

Make a bug report for the beta: http://steamcommunity.com/groups/SteamClientBeta/discussions/0/864957817327818370/

Link the thread here and everyone who's affected can go and enter their system info.