Controllers

Controllers for Mac

Motion and Settings

Tune motion, check battery readings, and manage controller behavior.

Motion cursor and scrolling

Supported on DualSense, DualSense Edge, DualShock 4, Switch 1 Joy-Cons and Pro Controller, and all Switch 2 controllers, over USB and Bluetooth.

  • Bind a button to Motion Sensor Cursor (or Motion Sensor Scroll). While active, tilting/rotating the controller moves the pointer (or scrolls).
  • Activation can be hold mode (active while the button is held) or toggle mode (press to turn on, press again to turn off); configured in Settings > Motion.
  • Settings > Motion also has sensitivity, dead zone, and invert X/Y options, separately for cursor and scroll.
  • Gyros have a small rest drift; the app auto-calibrates each controller's rest bias. If the pointer creeps, hold the controller still for a second or two.

Battery readings

Wireless controllers show their battery level on the connection line, like macOS Bluetooth Settings. Notes:

  • USB-connected controllers show no readout on purpose (they are cable-powered).
  • Switch 1 controllers report battery in coarse steps; Switch 2 levels are estimated from battery voltage.
  • DualShock 3, wired controllers, and most generic gamepads do not report battery.
  • A reading can take a few seconds to appear after connecting.

Keep controllers awake

Wireless controllers put themselves to sleep after inactivity. Enable Keep Controllers Awake in Settings to have the app ping them periodically. Note: some controllers (notably DualSense) may still sleep on macOS regardless.

Exclusive mode

By default every controller stays visible to other apps. If a game reacts to the controller directly while Controllers is also sending mapped keys (double inputs), select the controller and click the lock button: Exclusive hides that controller from other apps so only the mapped output reaches the game. The connection line shows a lock symbol while Exclusive is on. The setting is remembered per controller. Controllers without a direct HID connection (MFi controllers, Switch 2 over Bluetooth) cannot be made exclusive.

Use the arcade-stick menu bar icon to turn mapping on or off and change the active layout for each controller. Show or hide this icon in Settings > General.