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Participant
October 27, 2025
Solved

Buttons Unresponsive in Games (Work Fine in Menus)

  • October 27, 2025
  • 7 replies
  • 1863 views

Hello!

The buttons on both controllers have stopped responding when I'm in games. However, they work perfectly in the home menu, settings, browser, and other non-game areas (e.g., navigating menus or the store). Re-pairing controllers and factory reset did not fix the issue.

Any advice?

P.S. Yes, it's v.81.

This topic has been closed for replies.
Best answer by steve40

Some possible solutions:

In this Reddit thread, the solution was to remove the batteries from the controllers for 5 minutes, then reconnect them, then disable all the Experimental Settings in the headset.

Another Reddit thread that says the issue was caused by the hand tracking setting. Solution:

These are the steps I took to fix it:

  1. Turn hand tracking off if it is on
  2. go to the Meta Horizon app on your phone (your headset needs to be on)
  3. tap the headset icon on the top left
  4. tap headset settings (gear icon)
  5. tap controllers
  6. tap left controller
  7. tap unpair controller
  8. do the same to unpair right controller
  9. re pair left controller by tapping “+ pair new controller”, and follow instructions (I.e. you will press menu and Y simultaneously until two things happen: a little white light on the ring of the controller appears and you feel a buzz -- don’t let do until you feel the buzz)
  10. re pair right controller the same way
  11. IMPORTANT - completely power off your headset by holding the power button for about 20 seconds, and then power it back on (the controls still won’t work properly until you do this)

Voilà!!  

(Note that I use hand tracking on my Q3 with no problem, so I would think that you could turn it back on after fixing your controllers.)

One user here fixed it by doing a factory reset.

More problems here but no clear solution. Hard power-cycling the headset seemed to help some users.

A strange solution that worked for some:

Open and play Meta Horizon World app and complete the tutorial. If you already did that, just run the game and your controllers will magically start working on all games again.

7 replies

MetaStoreHelp
Community Manager
October 27, 2025

Hi top_acm, 

We understand how this can be frustrating but don't worry we are here to help get you back to gaming as soon as possible. 

 

Could you clarify if this has just started happening and if its happening in all games or just one particular one? 

 

Could you also please confirm which device you are using? 

 

We will be happy to look into this further for you once we have this information. 

 

If you prefer to PM us you can use the below link: 

 

Please select our name to get to our profile page, or click here: https://metaque.st/CommunitySupport. Next, click "Send a Message" to privately message us! Please remember, you must be signed into the community first to send us a private message.

 

Thanks! 

If you're the author of a thread, remember to mark a reply as the Accepted Solution to help others find answers!
topacmAuthor
Participant
October 28, 2025

Thank you for getting back to me. It's frustrating, but I appreciate the help.

I haven't used my Quest 3 in a few months, and I turned it on today for the first time. It seems to have auto-updated (I have automatic updates enabled). Right away, the buttons on both controllers stopped responding in games. I tried playing First Encounters, but I couldn't get past the initial room-scanning menu because the buttons wouldn't work. I then downloaded Superhot VR Demo and couldn't shoot — the buttons didn't respond there either.

It's happening in all games I've tested so far. Outside of games (e.g., in menus or the browser), everything works fine. I've already tried re-pairing the controllers via the phone app and in-Quest settings, changing the batteries, a full factory reset.

Nothing has fixed it yet. Any ideas on what else I could try?

P.S. It looks like this case is not unique, unfortunately.
https://communityforums.atmeta.com/discussions/PairingConnection/trigger-and-grip-button-stopped-working-after-headset-and-controller-update/1331634/replies/1350210

MetaStoreHelp
Community Manager
October 28, 2025

Hi there top_acm, thanks for getting back in contact with us. 


We completely understand your frustration. Let's get you back into the Metaverse as soon as possible. 

 

Thank you for being proactive in trying to troubleshoot the issue. 

 

Would you mind sending us a private message so we can investigate this further for you? To do this, please go to our profile or click here. 

 

Hope to hear from you soon!

If you're the author of a thread, remember to mark a reply as the Accepted Solution to help others find answers!
steve40
steve40Answer
Honored Contributor
October 28, 2025

Some possible solutions:

In this Reddit thread, the solution was to remove the batteries from the controllers for 5 minutes, then reconnect them, then disable all the Experimental Settings in the headset.

Another Reddit thread that says the issue was caused by the hand tracking setting. Solution:

These are the steps I took to fix it:

  1. Turn hand tracking off if it is on
  2. go to the Meta Horizon app on your phone (your headset needs to be on)
  3. tap the headset icon on the top left
  4. tap headset settings (gear icon)
  5. tap controllers
  6. tap left controller
  7. tap unpair controller
  8. do the same to unpair right controller
  9. re pair left controller by tapping “+ pair new controller”, and follow instructions (I.e. you will press menu and Y simultaneously until two things happen: a little white light on the ring of the controller appears and you feel a buzz -- don’t let do until you feel the buzz)
  10. re pair right controller the same way
  11. IMPORTANT - completely power off your headset by holding the power button for about 20 seconds, and then power it back on (the controls still won’t work properly until you do this)

Voilà!!  

(Note that I use hand tracking on my Q3 with no problem, so I would think that you could turn it back on after fixing your controllers.)

One user here fixed it by doing a factory reset.

More problems here but no clear solution. Hard power-cycling the headset seemed to help some users.

A strange solution that worked for some:

Open and play Meta Horizon World app and complete the tutorial. If you already did that, just run the game and your controllers will magically start working on all games again.

topacmAuthor
Participant
October 28, 2025

Thanks, will give it a try!

steve40
Honored Contributor
October 29, 2025

I got my second v81 update last night (build 513123.22000.520). After restarting the headset my controllers stopped working and switched to hand tracking. After I selected my profile there was no controller firmware update and they remained in hand tracking mode. I put the controllers down for a minute then picked them up again, they stayed in hand tracking mode. After waiting another 2 minutes, I was about to go into settings to try toggling hand tracking, and the controllers magically started working again. I tested them in some games and they are working fine.