Controller overlay not working in OBS? Fixes that actually work

Almost every controller overlay you add to OBS as a link, gamepad.lol and GamePad Viewer included, is a web page. OBS renders it with a built-in copy of Chromium, and that browser reads your controller through the same Gamepad API that Chrome uses. When the overlay breaks, the cause is nearly always one of a handful of browser rules. Work through them in order; most setups are fixed by the first two.

1. Press a button after OBS loads the overlay

Browsers do not tell a web page that a controller exists until you press one of its buttons. It is a privacy rule: without it, any site could list the hardware plugged into your PC. OBS loads the overlay page when it starts, when you add the source and whenever the source is refreshed, and each time the page starts out blind.

Press any button once and the overlay picks the controller up. You do not need to open the Interact window or click into the source first.

2. It only moves while OBS is the active window

If the overlay works while you click around in OBS but freezes the moment you switch to your game, update OBS.

This was a regression in OBS 31.0.0 and 31.0.1 on Windows. Those versions moved the browser source to a newer Chromium, and since version 117 Chromium reads controllers on Windows through Windows.Gaming.Input, an API that only delivers input to the app in focus. OBS 31.0.2 switched that path off for browser sources, so controllers are read in the background again. In OBS, open the Help menu and choose Check For Updates.

The same rule is why you cannot open an overlay in a normal Chrome window and capture that window instead: Chrome stops receiving controller input as soon as it is not in front. Other streaming apps built on a recent Chromium can behave the same way, and only their developers can change it.

3. Refresh the source after reconnecting the controller

If the controller dropped out, whether from a Bluetooth hiccup, a controller that went to sleep or a cable pulled by accident, the overlay can hold on to the old connection. Double-click the source to open its Properties, click Refresh cache of current page and press a button on the controller.

While the Properties window is open, look at Shutdown source when not visible. With it on, OBS unloads the page whenever you switch away from the scene, and it comes back blind, so you would have to press a button after every scene change. For an input overlay, leave it off.

4. The wrong controller shows up, or your presses do not

gamepad.lol follows the first controller the browser lists; overlays that let you pick a player number count from the same list. Anything Windows sees as a game controller takes a place in it: racing wheels, flight sticks, arcade sticks, and virtual controllers created by remapping tools.

The most common case is DS4Windows. It creates a virtual Xbox controller next to your real PlayStation controller, so the browser sees two, and the overlay may follow the one you are not expecting. Hide the physical controller with HidHide, which the DS4Windows documentation recommends for exactly this, or disconnect the extra device, then refresh the source.

Not sure what is connected? Open the gamepad tester. It lists every controller your browser can see and lets you switch between them.

5. Buttons light up in the wrong place

Chrome-based browsers know the layout of Xbox, PlayStation and Switch Pro controllers and report their buttons in a standard order. For controllers they do not recognize, which includes many generic and older USB pads, buttons arrive in whatever order the hardware uses, and an overlay lights up the wrong ones.

The gamepad tester tells you which case you are in: its button layout reads either Standard or Unknown. For an unknown layout, a remapping tool that presents the controller as an Xbox controller, such as x360ce, gives the browser a layout it understands.

6. The overlay is cut off or blurry

A browser source is a window with a fixed size. The Width and Height in its Properties need to match the overlay size in the editor, 800 × 500 unless you changed it. If they are smaller, part of the overlay is cut off.

If you drag the source much larger in your scene, OBS scales up a small image and every edge turns soft. Set the size you want in the editor instead and match the source to it.

7. The controller keeps dropping out

Wireless controllers turn themselves off after a while without input, and Windows can put Bluetooth adapters to sleep to save power. When the controller comes back, press a button, and refresh the source if the overlay stays still.

If it happens mid-stream, open Device Manager, find your Bluetooth adapter, and on its Power Management tab untick Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power. A cable avoids the problem entirely.

8. You stream from a Mac

OBS on macOS does not give browser sources access to controllers. We checked with GamePad Viewer in the same OBS to rule out our own code, and it stays still too. No setting fixes this today, for any browser-based overlay. We are building a small native helper that reads the controller outside OBS. On Windows, everything above applies and a link is all you need.

9. Your game runs on a second PC

A browser source can only read controllers plugged into the PC that runs OBS. In a two-PC setup the controller sits on the gaming PC, so the overlay on the streaming PC never sees it. The same native helper will send inputs across; until then, a browser-based overlay needs the controller on the OBS machine.

Still stuck?

Check the controller in the gamepad tester first. If it works there, the problem is between OBS and the page, and the steps above cover it. If it does not work there either, look at the controller, its cable or its driver. The OBS setup guide walks through a clean setup from scratch.