Xbox Series X|S controller issues on PC (non-Steam)

[TheodoreWaffles]

Repeating the same suggestion does not fix the issue. It is on the FFXIV client side. No other games are having this problem. it's not the driver.

[Virulence]

Good afternoon and thank you for the reply.

Virulence, I am able to provide basic trouble shooting such as reinstalling the drivers, updating windows and making sure it is calibrated properly. You could try disabling any other devices that are plugged into the PC except for the controller to see if that helps. However, ifthe issue is not present when the controller is plugged into the PC through a USB cable, you may want to use that as a temporary solution for now.

Thank you for visiting the Final Fantasy XIV Technical Support Forums

As Packetdancer posted above with more technical details, Square Enix might get some insights for this. Basic troubleshooting is way past for now, there might not be anything wrong with the Users end.

[Mannarise]

Hey y'all! I'm the person who created the Reddit thread and I wanted to come and add a +1 to this thread as well.

I want to emphasize that especially after reading user Packetdancer's take, I'm 100% sure this issue is exclusive to Final Fantasy XIV in the way they described it:

Anyway, it's worth noting that the Series X controller does not have the same button mappings at a HID report level. If a game is using XInput (i.e., Divinity 2), then the Series X controller should show up fine because Microsoft does provide an XInput driver for it. If a game is trying to access gamepads directly as HID devices in order to use extended features, then they'll need to add custom mappings for the Series X controller for it to work correctly.

My gut feeling here, not having dissected FFXIV's input functionality, is that for USB gamepads it just uses it as an XInput device, thus letting Windows map the HID reports to sane, recognizable XInput values. However, I'm guessing that with wireless controllers it iterates through them to try to recognize them individually, so that it can spot a PS4 DualSense controller (which doesn't function wired on Windows, so will only ever be wireless) and use their own custom code. But as the Series X controller has a whole new product identifier, FFXIV probably has no idea what to do with it, so doesn't use it with XInput and instead reports it—admittedly accurately—as an unknown controller with 6 axes and 16 buttons.

So, unfortunately, likely the best approach here is either "wait until SquareEnix makes FFXIV recognize the new device, and either has mappings for it or handles it as an XINput device" or else "use a program that lets you remap buttons such that you can make the buttons be what FFXIV expects from a generic gamepad in the meantime."

Dynratygus, as much as I appreciate the support you are able to give, I was told by Square Enix Support to come to these forums to report this issue. I would like to know whether or not this issue is going to be able to get rolled up to a higher channel that can hopefully affect change with the way the game recognizes our controllers. Playing wired is not ideal whatsoever when my controller works perfectly via Bluetooth on every other game I play on my PC. :-(

[Virulence]

Dynratygus, as much as I appreciate the support you are able to give, I was told by Square Enix Support to come to these forums to report this issue. I would like to know whether or not this issue is going to be able to get rolled up to a higher channel that can hopefully affect change with the way the game recognizes our controllers. Playing wired is not ideal whatsoever when my controller works perfectly via Bluetooth on every other game I play on my PC. :-(

Dynratygus, I apologize if I came out quite rude before. To put it into other words, what we wish for now is not a troubleshoot, we only report a new known issue that is likely to happen because of the release of new stuff, and that Square Enix could put into thought and consider this in a serious manner. Not suggesting a turning-it-off-and-on fix that might work with issues exist not in new stuff like what we have here.

[TheodoreWaffles]

Is there any update on this?! For a service we pay monthly for I would expect them to be able to keep up with the latest tech or at least provide an ETA on a fix.

[TheodoreWaffles]

Any update yet? I'm tired of playing wired.

[Packetdancer]

Not SquareEnix, obviously, but I'm fairly sure that if you pair it with the Xbox Wireless Adapter instead of via Bluetooth, it will show up as an XInput device the same as if it were wired, and FFXIV should use it correctly.

Paying an additional $30 to use the wireless controller you bought is admittedly not ideal, but...

[Inkin]

I have the exact same issue. I wrote a thread asking for help on reddit earlier, and I really wished I knew about this beforehand because I pretty much bought this controller for FFXIV like other people in this thread.

I understand the issue is not major since only a "handful" of people might be trying to use this controller and that it's relatively new (still about a month, though...), but it would be great if you could report the issue to the devs in that it's most certainly a client-based issue as the controller works fine on everything else.

[TheodoreWaffles]

So have you given up on trying to assist us considering your last response is from 11/24 and its now 12/8? Can we get an update?

[EatForMoxie]

I've had the exact same problem mentioned in the thread since a few hours ago.
My Xbox one controller was working fine with Bluetooth through the 8BitDo USB Adapter in FFXIV, and still works perfectly in any other game.

Currently FFXIV is the only game that doesn't recognize my inputs at all unless wired (I've tried 7 other games, all of them working flawlessly). The "8BitDo Receiver" option shows up in the Gamepad settings, but none of the options I tried have produced any response from the game.
If I try to wire the controller while the game is still on, the "XBOX Controller for Windows" option shows up along with 2(?) 8BitDo options but the controller isn't responsive for either of them, which means that I need to plug the controller in first, then start the game.

Any update on a fix?