controller not working only in steam games

[luna]

Hi, so about a week ago my xbox series x controller started to no longer work with any steam game, other platform games work just fine. Steam detects my controller, i can use it in big picture mode, i can calibrate it and etc., but whenever I try to play a game (yes, they do have controller support), no input is registered. I tried both wired and wireless, also tried using other controller, still no luck. I tried turning on and off "xbox configuration support" in controller tab, tried every combination of those settings, but also no luck. My controller is also up to date both with my mac (didnt work before an update, doesnt work after the update). Steam has also been completly (deleted all of the possible files) reinstalled. Do u have any suggestions on what to do?

[Carl Cox - Live at Ibiza 2016]

very interestiing

[Piplodocus]

Same here. Not sure if Steam broke it in an update though (as suggested by OP) because I hadn't tried before this last week.

Controller worked fine with my iPad Pro. Also works fine on my new Macbook M1 Max with non-steam games (Lego one I tried with my free Apple Arcade Trial and something else I tried). But I bought GRIS and DiRT on Steam this week and they're the first 2 games I've tried on the Mac with Steam and the controller.

The controller seems to work ok in menus/Big Screen mode, but once I enter a game it goes wrong. The joystick won't properly move left/right in GRIS (moves but stops straight away). In DiRT rally the accelerator shoulder triggers and steering in DiRT is super ropey and unplayable. So it's obviously getting some input from the controller when Steam Xbox controller is enabled but it's not useable and I can only randomly rev, not accelerate properly and the steering is sometimes moveable but ultimately undriveable. :(

Troubleshooting Info:
Dec 16th version of Steam
MacBook Pro M1 Max (32 core), 16", 32GB RAM
MacOS Monterey v12.1

[Piplodocus]

Just found my Xbox controller had an available FW update... but no different. So everything is the latest SW/FW, rebooted, etc. Still kaput. Back to mouse and keys then (not the best for platformers/driving games) :(

[Piplodocus]

Seems to be working now:

I re-downloaded the Steam.dmg and reinstalled off the site. Went into Big picture and GRIS and it was still wonky. Used the Xbox button on the controller to go into the Steam overlay and buggered about with controller stuff there. Switched about some knobs, but no joy. Found controller options was "forced on" or something (had tried various options there before) and switched to forced off (had to restart the game and got none at all), then changed it again from neither forced back to Xbox controller restarted GRIS and it seemed normal. Went into DiRT Rally. Fine. Checked the Controller setting in the overlay again for controller and it's set to Xbox too. But I'd tried it on that before. So maybe the reinstall + correct settings fixed it.

So I can't really say I know how I fixed it other than reinstall Steam and buggered about in more menus via the Steam overlay, rather than in those same settings I'd already fiddled with outside the game in the launcher and it worked finally. 🤷

[Piplodocus]

Nope. Broke again. I looked on the internet. Went back in steam big picture, tried CS:GO, was awful for <1 min and remembered why I use a mouse/keys for that(!), then tried GRIS again and I'm back to square 1. Well seemed to work for 25mins!? 🤦🏻

[Miguel]

Same issue here. I just purchased an Xbox Series X/S controller. I'm not able to make it work.
My controller is working fine under Steam Big Picture (in the menus). But it's not detected in Eastward.
I tried the trick above without success

MacBook Pro (15-inch, 2019)
MacOS Monterey vs 12.0.1
Xbox Controller Model NO 1914

I plugged my Controller on a Windows laptop to check for firmware upgrades, it was already up to date. Bluetooth pairing with the MacBook is pretty straightforward, no issues there.

[lordnoize83]

I have an xbox wireless controller connected to intel imac macos12.1 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.

[Piplodocus]

Since I last posted it's sometimes worked and been fine for a session, other times it's unusable. So seems flakey AF. :(

Never had a problem in non-steam games so it definitely seems a steam implementation.

Any way too contact Steam support? I couldn't seem to find one. FPSs I use mouse/keys for, but some games a controller is straight up better.

[luna]

Had a talk with steam support, they said watch for updates and thats it:) issue is still there for me.

[Piplodocus]

Mine has mostly been back to not working. But yesterday managed to get a couple of hours working again. I noticed I seem to often have multiple controllers listed, a load called "#xbox360_controller" in rearrange controllers before. Yesterday noticed when it was working I only seemed to have the single normally-named one listed. Today it was working again: couldn't seem to see more than the regular single controller. Now it's broke again and has a load of "#xbox360_controller" entries in "rearrange controllers" again. :/

In system Bluetooth it only ever shows the single controller and always works fine with the non-Steam games still. So hopefully those Steam updates don't take too long.