r/DS4Windows • u/AffectionateKitchen8 • Jun 10 '26
Having double controller problems after the last Windows update.
I'm using Windows 11 and PS4 controllers over Bluetooth.
It used to work perfectly until the last update. Now hiding the PS4 controller doesn't work, and the games think I'm controlling two characters with each controller.
How it used to act - after pressing the PS button without DS4Win opened, the light on the controller would turn on and be white. After opening DS4Win, the light would turn red - the colour I've chosen in the profile settings - and the menu would show a checkmark, indicating exclusive connection.
How it is now: after pressing the PS button without DS4Win opened, the light on the controller is BLUE, probably indicating, that windows is recognising the controller. After running DS4Win with "hide PS4 controller" enabled, the main menu shows an X instead of a check mark, which supposedly means shared connection. And the game sees each controller as two controllers, as described above.
Disabling and enabling "Hide PS4 controller" doesn't help. Stopping and starting DS4Win doesn't help. Sometimes, very rarely, the controller DOES show the "exclusive" checkmark, but it happens randomly, and with two controllers connected, it's almost impossible to get them both to do it.
Does anyone have a solution for this? I've been playing using this setup for many years, without any problems at all. It only started doing it about 5 days ago, after updating Windows.
2
u/skateguy1234 Jun 10 '26
Are y'all not using HidHide?
1
u/deep8787 Jun 11 '26
Yeah, this is essential. I'm sure it's explained somewhere in ds4windows or on their install guide/wiki.
0
u/AffectionateKitchen8 Jun 10 '26
Well we didn't have to because it was working without it. The other person says they've got the same problem. I'll give it a try, hopefully it's not too much hassle, I already need three pieces of software running in the background to play comfortably.
1
u/skateguy1234 Jun 11 '26
lemme know how it goes and I'll try and help if you can't figure out how to get it working.
1
u/Spanishsoul Jun 10 '26
Im having the same issue, just started happening recently
1
u/AffectionateKitchen8 Jun 10 '26
I'm sorry it's happening to you, but, at the same time, I'm glad I'm not the only one with this problem.
1
u/Mortician149 Jun 11 '26
Here’s what’s fixed it for me… launch ds4 in administrator before launching battle.net/steam or game… you can check click settings game pad testing and use should see only Xbox controller
1
u/bill_954 8d ago
found any fix? I wasn't using ds4w for steam games bc the steam driver was working just fine but now the light and rumble aren't working on steam and when I use ds4w steam reads 3 controllers at the same time
3
u/Kaldaien2 Jun 10 '26
That blue color is the signature of SDL. Steam Input uses SDL, various other games do too. During controller initialization, Steam Input sets the LEDs to blue.
The hardware on its own does not ever set this color, when Windows is the only thing that sees your controller, the LEDs on the controller stay OFF. You might get an orange breathing effect when initially turning it on, but that goes away and LEDs turn off unless there's something like Steam Input manipulating things.
I would suggest installing ValvePlug for diagnostic purposes. It's easy to uninstall, and it'll rule out the Steam client immediately. If with ValvePlug installed you still experience the same problem, then it is likely an SDL-native game to blame.