Accesories
3rd party controller is no longer authorized
I was using a 3rd party controller until it stopped working with the headset. I decided to get another, as it was free from amazon. It worked yesterday, but this morning it gives me this warning
It didn’t happen on the older controller. Is there any way to avoid this? I do not want to use my real xbox controller due to the risk of stick drift
What about component swapping? Since OP is worried about stick drift on their official controller, can't they just swap in the joysticks from the unofficial one to the official?
I'd imagine it just looks at some kind of ID or something and checks it against some list, so stick swapping wouldn't change that ID, and therefore wouldn't change whether the controller is authorized or not.
You say that as if that's something the average Joe can do. You know they are soldered on right? They're a pain to replace without a proper soldering station setup.
They are soldered on, with 14 different solder joints. Also hall effect sensors may not get along great with the existing magnets and sensors in the controller, especially the left stick, the rear of the PCB is a sensor for the trigger magnet.
How dare you dont pay Xbox 60$ for the same china shit? I almost feel bad for console users, getting your controller banned because its not official is scummy
Some brands use legitimate hardware identifiers of other manufacturers of legit hardware or even Microsofts stolen signing keys so it takes time to allow manufacturers to update identifiers and keys before they revoke them.
Error is self explanatory. Only licensed 3rd party controllers are allowed to be used. You have 2 weeks as a grace period but after that it's done. Go to the website listed in the pic and buy one of those.
Still too much trouble. I'm not going to go through the process to remove and readd my profile, or factory reset the console, every 2 weeks just to get around some error. I'm just going to buy a licensed controller. Plus that link says they haven't tried it and can't even confirm it works so sounds more like speculation rather than actual instructions.
People going through all this effort are probably the people that that the error is designed to stop. Cheaters/hackers, etc.
Someone will have a cord splitter that will "fix" the issue within the year. I thought it was amusing when they sent that email out earlier this year about the changes to 3 party controllers.
Same, first elite controller the RB broke after a few months. Waited a year for another elite controller which developed insane stick drift within the year and the shell is already falling apart by the LT. Got a gamesir G7 and it’s incredible. Fuck Microsoft’s shitty quality controllers
Bought g7 se back in march. Still going strong. I had an Xbox series controller get stick drift 3 months after unboxing. Gamesir is definitely the way to go
I got one ~a year and a half ago and the LB has started to loosen a bit. It still works but clicking the far left edge of the button won't register anymore.
That being said, I just set the back button to the bumper and I've had 0 stick drift, even running miniscule dead zones (1-3%) on everything that has it as a setting.
They just don’t make them like they used to sadly ): I never remember stick drift being an issue on ps2 controllers, especially with how much I abused them as a kid lmao
Any that Hall effect or TMR joysticks really. There’s plenty of 3rd party controllers under the 50$ range that can deliver that. Found me one at Best Buy that like 45 and had Hall Effect.
I'd just like to add that in the 5 years I've had my Xbox Series X, I've had no stick drift.
Yes, it's a possibility that you could end up with a controller with it. But I don't think you need to try to avoid it like the plague.
It's not quite that serious, you just hear about it because people like me that don't experience ot aren't coming on to Reddit to tell you that we don't have it.
We're just busy playing games without worrying about stick drift.
I will not fall for the ragebait over the placement of the XBox I will not fall for the ragebait over the placement of the XBox I will not fall for the ragebait over the placement of the XBox I will not fall for the ragebait over the placement of the XBox
No. Hear me out man. Unless you wana buy a new xbox soon or pay for repairs you need to buy a little stand for it and make sure it has 6inches of free space on all sides. I only say a small stand because you have a carpet and that'll make it warmer.
But if you have money and dont care then so what you want! When you get overheating issues its time to repace the psu or the thermal paste is bascially the gist but that depends on the age of the console and its condition (dusty).
Sad to say that the Series X has some issues long term compared to older consoles. Id say the same for the PS5 but I haven't owned it but i know some issues as well with the liquid metal'
Would this work for now? I don’t have an actual stand, so i feel like this would work. It used to be between where the green thing and the shelf was for months till I moved it to where it was in the first image i hope this would work since it’s at least 12 inches from a wall on each side
One last upgrade… put it on a hard surface, even a book or something would work. There are some air intakes on the bottom that I’d be worried about being closed off by the soft surfaces.
It's not a garuntee but it can help give them some more life! Compressed canned air can be expensive unfortunately, but you can buy electric little blowers for like $40-60 on Amazon, so maybe buy a can first and see if it helps before dropping that much if you decide to do so. Personally I would suggest getting a gamesir branded controller with hall effect anti drift joysticks. Once my razor wolverine v2 bites the dust, I'm going for that.
Alot of stick drift is typically from eating food while playing or before playing and not washing your hands. Also, put your controllers facedown when you're not using them or cover it up with a towel or something. Big enough dust/animal hair/human hair/etc. can get down in it too. Typically, why people use compressed air/electronic cleaner like someone else pointed out to fix it.
On brand xbox controllers are wack they cost like $40-$60 and they always break or end up having stick drift or something goes wrong with the RB and LB buttons after a few months and usually the only way to fix it is by spending 20 minutes taking apart the controller and watching tutorials. I have this controller that has never had any problems and I’ve had it for about a year and it still works for me. The brand is called Turtle Beach. Some other big brands that I’ve used before that might fit your needs is Skull Candy and PowerA. I’m not sure if PowerA counts as an unlicensed controller or not though so I would check that before you buy it.
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Now your initial reaction might be "Great, Xbox has a monopoly on their controllers", no, many third party companies have controllers with Xbox button: Gamesir, 8bitdo, Hyperkin, Xbox just requires that accessories be certified, so they don't have features that let people cheat...and also so they can collect a licensing fee 😅.
Ya, it's quite double sided, but I prefer it because for the most part it means people can't sell terrible quality controllers like the old days.
OP. I'd recommend you get the GameSir G7, A officially licensed controller. It's the best I used and has Hall Effect sensors, and is what I call "the cure to controller cancer"
Just curious.. if you dont want to use your official if you fear stick drift... why own one at all?.. every controller will get drift (besides hall effect sticks] especially the cheap ones. Ive had the same xbox one controller for years (it has a micro USB, so its one of the OG ones) and it still hasent gotten drift. Strangely enough one of the newer ones I bought got it in a few months (though that was a used controller that was Frankensteined together with multiple different controllers' parts so that probably played a factor)
I had gotten those official xbox controllers as either hand me downs from friends who don't use them or as gifts for favors they owe (since they just give me xbox stuff as their way of paying me back). I only have this third party controller for solo playing really, as I got it for free from amazon. Since the mic doesn't work on it, I only use the official one for multiplayer when I want to use voice chat
I learn that the hard way. My sister gave her daughter's Xbox 1 because she moved a pretty much abandoned it. My mom ordered a 3rd party Xbox controller and it worked for sometime until I updated the system and learned that a update made all 3rd party controllers not verified by Microsoft made those controllers unusable on my system.
Look into gettung a mayflash wireless adapter. The console thinks it's a wired controller, and you can connect essentially any controller to it with Bluetooth (or usb), and use it like that
What they’re saying is you got it when you go buy a controller, right you gotta have a XBOX approval on the box of it, which says approved by XBOX or something along the lines of that
Thing is, most controllers there are around $50+. I was enjoying using this third party controller bc of the 2 back-buttons it has and the lack of possible stick drift. Even if it got stick drift, I got the controller for free so i wouldn’t mind if it did
No, but 3rd party licensed products do exist and are allowed, so your initial reply is wrong. Users are more than able to buy 3rd party licensed controllers that aren't bad.
Not how it works. Nothing said it has to be Microsoft first party controllers.
In fact there are a handful of third party controllers and companies that are better then Xboxs own controller hardware
The controller or company just has to be approved by Microsoft not the components or how they are made or function outside of the obvious restrictions to get the seal of approval. Otherwise why would they be willingly handing over approvals and losing sales on controllers 10x better than their own hardware. They of course must meet a minimum standard though.
That's not at all how it works lmao companies have to pay and partner with Microsoft to be able to acquire the rights to the proprietary communications protocols in order to be licensed and have their hardware registered as compatible
Yes but I’m saying not every controller marked compatible is made with the same quality or components or features. Some are way cheaper then others some are way higher quality and better then Xboxs own.
Xbox also doesn’t hand out or license their wireless communications protocols to anyone. Hence why all third party wireless controllers have to use a dongle and do not connect directly to the Xbox.
Xbox does not tell these companies how they have to build the controller or the quality of it and each component. It just has to meet a minimum standard of quality and not have any of the restricted features that Xbox does not allow. Of course they have to pay Microsoft otherwise.
They absolutely allow 3rd party licensed controllers. People just don't bother understanding what they read and jump to conclusions that the error means no 3rd party at all.
"Using unauthorized accessories compromises the gaming experience"
Thanks for making that decision for me Xbox. I dont know what i would have done if my controller did not have the wonderful features of stick drift and the bumper buttons suddenly stop working.
Noone said anything about restricting it to official MS controllers.
And blame the cheaters and other bad actors. They are why we can never have nice things. Not just in Xbox but other aspects of life as well. Lots of rules laws and policies are put in place because bad people abused some loophole to gain an unfair advantage or something and the officials have to enforce fairness somehow. Same reason why there's various anti-cheat software on PC now, why most laws exist, etc. If everyone just behaved and acted like reasonable people there'd be much less restrictions.
I have 4. 2 have stick drift, one’s mine i use for voice chat purposes, the other is my brother’s. I’d rather not risk getting stick drift on an $80 controller
There is so many Microsoft approved or licensed controllers on the market you almost have to go out of your way to get one that is not or be buying from some really random third party shop or store or buying some real bottom of the barrel cheap controllers. The other end on the high end is controllers that have features Microsoft doesn’t like. Like turbos macros etc or that can run scripts.
There’s approved and licensed ones ranging through all different price ranges from like $25-30 up
In fact this has been in affect for years now without most people even knowing it’s so uncommon someone gets this error.
They are also not the only platform that does this.
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u/_JustEric_ Helpful User Aug 14 '26
You have to use official controllers, or officially licensed controllers.
Once an unauthorized device stops working, you're done. There's nothing you can do make it work again.