Seemingly unable to use controllers with Steam under macOS Monterey. Has anyone had any luck?

[Wheeeil]

I don't want to make any assumptions so if anyone knows how to get controllers up and running under Monterey please shoot me to the right resource.

Here's the sitch, I have tried a few of the fixes I've found around the way, such as disabling SIP and attempting to allow Steam to install gamepad drivers which fails with or without SIP enabled under Monterey. I also modified a games Properties which does work for some games but not always.

It seems that at the end of the day Valve may need to update their drivers to fix the issue. If this is the consensus, all I want to say here is hey Valve, can we get some love please? I really want to see gaming take off on the Mac now that the M1 is here and my way of supporting it is playing and buying games from ya. M1 Gaming excites me!

Has anyone else successfully gotten controller support up and running under Monterey?

[147]

Yes same issue. I have tried XBOX One S Controller - doesn't work. I can connect it easy by bluetooth but it's not detected in any games nativly or using streaming platforms Stadia/Geforce now its just not detected. Tried also a Dualshock 3 on which i used to play on Big Sur buy now on MacOS monteray I cant even pair it. Controller is not detected by bluetooth in any way. So basicaly playing on mac becomes impossible now :D

[verdant]

I just bought a PS5 dualshock and installed the beta version of steam client. My controller on my new M1 iMac works perfectly every time as long as I launch from big picture mode. Simply pair with bluetooth. Launch Steam Beta and select your game and play. I've not run into any of my games that it's not supported in. Even games I'll stream from my windows machine work! :)

[EclecticRenaissanceFrank]

Give it up for a while. I returned a PS4 controller a while back & never gave it a second thought. Now, I have to return an 8 Bit Do controller. If you dig around for Monterey bluetooth problems in general instead of just the Steam controller, you'll find that people's bluetooth experience all over the place have been screwed. Apple took a scheisse with Monterey.

[SynVisions]

Trying with an elite series 2 controller. Controller works with macOS 12.1 for games from say the App Store (or basic OS interactions), but not in steam or steam games. I tried the steam beta client and it still does not work. This is with an intel mac (x86_64).

[verdant]

Hey Syn, I have the same problem on my Mini Intel 2018 server. It's because since big sur steam has dropped the ball on controller support. There's a way around it worked for me 100% on windows games in parallels: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-_AeGJcZg8s&t=488s

[Jabrwock]

I turned off Steam Input and it works for my XBox One BT. I'm still having the exact same issues with Steam Controller over Steam Link though, it looks like it's forcing Steam Input.

Even in Beta.

[Shadowfax]

Hello everyone, I have managed to use my xbox elite series 2 controller on my MacBook Pro (15-inch, 2019) Monterey 12.0.1.

I followed the instructions in this link: https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/2/3004429475624592660/

It did not work at first after I did as the link says. Then, I arranged my controller configuration as "Keyboard and Mouse Configuration". Then it worked. However, you will see keyboard symbols in the game and it thinks that you are using your keyboard (you are using your controller indeed, this configuration is actually designed for games which does support controller playing.)

At the end, Steam still needs to fix steam input system for macOS systems even though games can be played with a controller on mac because it is impossible to play with more than 1 input (such as 1 controller and 1 keyboard, or two controllers in coach gaming).

[lordnoize83]

I have an xbox wireless controller connected to intel imac macos12.1 with latest steam beta client and its very sporadic! Some games i can just move in the menu, some work fine, some just dont recognise the controller at all and some have controller glitches like random movements.

[amake]

On macOS 12.1 I find that my PlayStation 5 controller works consistently with some games (A Short Hike, Hollow Knight) as long as it's connected by USB. Connecting over Bluetooth doesn't work.

[Piplodocus]

My 5c on the above points:

* The latest Steam beta (7th Jan release?) didn't help me. If anything it was subtly worse.

* Affects all Steam games, but all non-steam games are fine (e.g. flawless every time with Star Wars Lego Castaways or some Sonic racing thing on Apple Arcade) and also flawless if I pair it to my iPad instead.

* It sends input to the game when not working, so it's not like it's "dead", just flakey, unresponsive, can't hold a direction or accelerator, like the messages are being corrupted or messed up.

* Sometimes it works fine for a couple of hours session. Most of the time it's unusable.

* All latest drivers/FW/OS for M1 Max MBP and Xbox controller (is it an S? X? Dunno, but the latest controller I bought recently off Microsoft's site and updated FW a week ago on a PC).

* Connecting with USB-C cable = no different (although I don't know if the cable was actually being used instead of Bluetooth as I couldn't see any difference in ).

There's talk of disabling Steam input above. If I try set it Forced: Off in big picture, or try loading the app directly outside of steam I usually get no controller support at all. So did some of you get it working by disabling Steam input, but using the standard Apple Xbox drivers? How?

(I don't want to try some workaround mapping buttons to keys because I want analog in most of the games I'm trying to use the gamepad for, else I may as well just use crappy keyboard input and ditch the controller altogether.)

[Piplodocus]

Oprindeligt skrevet af lordnoize83:

I have an xbox wireless controller connected to intel imac macos12.1 with latest steam beta client and its very sporadic! Some games i can just move in the menu, some work fine, some just dont recognise the controller at all and some have controller glitches like random movements.

Is that sporadic on a game by game basis? (i.e. do some games always work, some never, consistently) Or just it may work one day in a game, may not, if you try a different game it just sometimes starts working, but is more random than specific games?

Mine is usually flakey on all steam games I've tried with the controller, but equally sometimes works on all of them (but usually not). ALWAYS works for non-steam/Apple Arcade/etc.

[147]

The problem is in ussage controllers at all - not only native on steam. For example google stadia also don't recognise controllers same as geforce now. Monterey is just broken I think there won't be a workaround for this problem cuz so much time passed since OS release.

[aestone87]

I'm having the same issue and am pretty furious that Steam is now useless to me as a Mac user after the one controller I had (Ordo PS4 wired controller) finally broke after two years. I bought a 8bitdo controller after hearing it was Mac-compatible and while it is recognized under controller settings, it doesn't work in-game for Divinity OS2, Hades, and others. I've been scouring the internet for the past week trying to figure this out and Steam just seems to not care about Mac users anymore.

[Wheeeil]

Well I get the feeling that there are a lot more Mac users coming to Steam over the next several months with Mac sales on the rise. Best thing we can do is keep speaking out. I can't be too much longer before they realize that there's a wave of users on the way and a reason to better support us. At least I hope.

[carter guitar]

apple does not care one bit about gaming, that's not their target audience. in their minds, they are above gaming and that doesn't seem to be changing, and hasn't even changed before. this controller issue has been around for years at this point so i wouldn't hold your breath.

i didn't even know the steam controller API wasn't a mac thing. that's crazy and one of the best things about steam. you can keep trying to game on mac like many before you, but it won't be fun. we haven't even touched on the hardware side of things or game support in general.

you have the wrong tool for the job.