Five months on, no fix in sight for Android 11 controller woes

Google released Android 11 in September last year to its Pixel phones, other manufacturers have since pushed the update to their devices over the following months, while many devices are still awaiting their turn. However, as useful as the latest version of Android is in terms of features, there seems to be one unresolved bug that is driving gamers up the wall.

According to a report from XDA, several Android users have been complaining that their phones aren’t recognising controllers, including those connected via Bluetooth. It cites an Android issue tracker entry that has received several replies from mostly Pixel users, but also some Oneplus and Samsung users as well.

While the company had acknowledged the issue way back in August last year, there seems to be no fix in sight nearly half a year later, the report states. Users have also found some quick hacks to get around the issue. However, none of these is a substitute for a proper fix and the solutions itself can be bothersome when you have to regularly apply them.

One of the fixes suggested in the report includes disabling a particular accessibility service that allows the controller to work properly again. However, re-enabling that same service (without even closing the game causes the controller to stop working again, which is a bizarre sort of bug. However, users cannot be expected to disable accessibility services just so that they can play a game.

Affected controllers include not only the Xbox One controller and Sony’s DualShock 4, but also (surprisingly) the Google Stadia controller - which really speaks volumes about the kind of quality checks that the software goes through before release. Either way, we hope the Android development team is able to narrow down the possible causes and get rid of the connectivity issues so we can get back to playing.