steam no longer recognizes joycon controllers after update

[Harpalyce]

hi all,

no other changes made to my system. same controllers, same process to connect them. pc says they are connected. steam says there are no controllers connected.

i've tried multiple fixes that i was able to find -

turning various settings in big picture mode off. turning various settings in big picture mode on. turning them off and on again. making sure the xbox extra drivers are installed. making sure the xbox extra drivers aren't installed. making sure steam is updated. updating steam to participate in the beta. making sure steam isn't participating in the beta. making sure windows is updated. making sure drivers are updated. making sure controllers are updated. making sure all the HID-compliant game devices in device manager are up to date. disconnecting and reconnecting all bluetooth devices. making sure xboxgipservice is running. making sure third party tools are not running. making sure the last traces of joyconvey + ViGEmBus are no longer installed. entering and exiting big picture mode. rebooting steam. rebooting the entire system. resetting the controllers.

i last encountered this problem a little over a month ago (perhaps more like month and a half). there what fixed it was opting out of the beta, as nintendo joycons had been entered into mainline support and were no longer beta only. i naiively assumed that maybe steam wouldn't break their own program when releasing that update for prime time, but, uh, well, looks like i'm booboo the fool.

as someone who is disabled due to nerve damage in my shoulder, being able to use joycons has let me actually play games i haven't been able to play in literal years. using the keyboard hurts and that includes typing this up, and after this i'm going to quite literally go cry in bed with an ice pack. i've been so excited to finally play some games i have been wanting to play without hurting myself, to the point of making my own keybindings from scratch for obscure titles... so steam breaking itself like this very much sucks.

has anyone encountered this "since last update steam is in denial that my controller exists" and figured out a way to fix it?

i would appreciate it from the depths of my screaming as i adjourn to go cry into an icepack until my hand stops burning with electric fire while my shoulder throbs.

[tintingaroo]

Check if the controller has been hidden via Steam. You'll get the Unhide Devices button on the Controller Settings screen (Steam > Settings > Controller > General Controller Settings)
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2434791325

[Harpalyce]

i've checked and i don't even have an Unhide Devices button whatsoever :') thank you though, after getting only radio silence from valve, it's a real relief that someone notices a little lol

[tintingaroo]

It's cool :)

Unhide Devices would only be there if a device was hidden via Steam's hide function.

Do as much or as little of the below as suits you - could just end up as something for Valve to address and be fruitless. Don't type much!

Your PC was showing them in joy.cpl ?

There are currently different issues with different controllers and Steam, but I've not yet come across another post re joy-con detection. I don't think it's your system/OS - your trouble-shooting looks to have ruled that stuff out to me; and as you had no change other than Steam... I'm thinking another Steam + controller issue. I'll see if I can get the experience of another joy-con user.

My other thought of what to try is to clear the bindings in config.vdf. I don't think I've ever seen that related to a controller not being detected though. I've seen it for odd bindings and certain controllers being shown by Steam as another controller type and things getting a little funky.
Can try it and if nothing then nothing.

1. Close Steam
2. Open with Notepad [STEAM INSTALLATION] / config / config.vdf
3. Search for: SDL_GamepadBind

You should see "SDL_GamepadBind" followed by controller mappings.

4. Delete the controller mappings so you'd have:
"SDL_GamepadBind" ""


Something else you could check:
If you launch Steam with -dev, you'll get the Console tab.
Go to the Console tab, and then connect the Joy-Cons to your system.
Is anything printed to the console when they connect?


If we get nowhere with our efforts and it's not readily addressed by Valve (if need be), I'm thinking DS4Windows, set it to output as the DS4 if you were using the gyro in your Steam configs (would lose out on rumble), or have it output as a Xb360 (or use the software you had before), Steam will see the virtual controller and we apply the joy-con configs to it... Could even have it show the virtual controller as a Switch Pro Controller, but might only be if emulating the XB360, not sure - will check it out later in the day.

[Harpalyce]

thank you so much for more to do!

i have tried the trick of wiping that bit of config - still no dice.

not sure where to check joy.cpl honestly - i'd just been happily connecting each joycon up as a separate bluetooth controller (one L one R) in windows, at which point steam happily went "oh yes i know this!" and beautifully handled the rest. (until it didn't. lol)

will check if there's anything on the console in a sec!

i admit there's totally third party tools and i may be quickly hurtling towards using them, but that will mean having to redo all my keybindings since now for two games i've done them from scratch... and that thought is starting to make my soul unglue from my mortal frame lmao. still doable though and better than valve's solutions lol

[tintingaroo]

To run joy.cpl press Windows key + R, type: joy.cpl, choose OK. Looking elsewhere I think the controllers may show up as Wireless Gamepad but I don't know.

Were you using HIDHide or did joyconvey use it (or HIDGuardian / have an exclusive mode), basically something to hide the joy-cons from other parts of the system? It doesn't fit the circumstance where Steam was the only update but in some other cases of controllers not being detected by Steam it has been because the hide has been left on and removing the tools doesn't undo it.


The configs wouldn't have to be re-made for different controller types. You can export them and then apply that config buuuut...you need the original controller type connected to access the un-exported config (at least via the UI, I presume it could be done with the actual files but I've not tried to work that out).
It's ok though:
If you decide to use DS4Windows or other, have it emulate an Xinput/Xbox device, then in Steam at Controller Settings, you'd select the controller > Define Layout > Save, and then you get the choice of what controller type it should be considered as. Choose Nintendo Switch Pro Controller and things should (at least mostly) be good. If the configs weren't making use of the gyro then that would be enough for that part, if they were using gyro then you'd export the config, switch the emulation to a DS4, and import the config. I'm not able to get Steam to show the DS4 as another device in the same way as before, so you'd be seeing DS4 prompts in the config, might be possible to switch it to a different device another way though.

I'm unsure if you'd want to swap the face buttons around at Define Layout or not - I'm getting confused flipping between the formats and trying to visualise things o.O
At the moment I think it depends if you have Use Nintendo Button Layout already enabled but it can be worked out if you decide to pursue this route.

Update:
Saw a post where the user mentions no rumble with their joycons https://steamcommunity.com/groups/SteamClientBeta/discussions/0/3710432845028740297/
So their joycons are being detected as before. The issue you face/faced could be local to you.