[Controller Request]: Xbox One Wireless Controller (Updated with New Firmware)

[KsAmJ]

Controller Name

Xbox One Wireless Controller

Current Controller Behaviour

Controller is not successful in pairing with the console

Additional Details

I am on Xbox Insider program and Microsoft started to rollout updates to Xbox One Controllers with new Firmware version 5.11.3116.0 which supporting Bluetooth LE as on the time of writing it is even not working with Windows 10 ... so i wanted to open an issue as this different controller than Series X/S controllers to state the issue.

Even the Xbox Accessories Windows App doesn't recognize the controller at all.

[ndeadly]

Thanks for confirming what I suspected about the new firmware update regarding Bluetooth LE. I tried to warn about this in the release notes for 0.6.0, so I hope you didn't get burned by the update because you missed my notice.

Support will be added when I have LE connections working. Unfortunately this may take a while due to the amount of work required.

[KsAmJ]

I hope you didn't get burned by the update because you missed my notice.

unfortunately i got burned 😥

[thornos78]

Hello, Is it possible to downgrade the control firmware from pc?

[Masamune3210]

I would imagine probably not, most things wont accept a downgrade unless you manually flash the firmware by flashing the chip itself with a hardware programmer

[impeeza]

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/xbox/forum/all/revertrollbackdowngrade-xbox-controller-firmware/25f07169-3244-4fe0-838c-949951b7c109

[Zacharybinx34]

Same here. Updated to LE.

LE is the future. Will be nice to get an update.

[ndeadly]

No need to chime in with "same here" type comments. I am well aware of the issue and have been trying to warn people against updating.

BLE support is being worked on but it is far from trivial, as there is no existing application-layer code to leverage and the inner workings of Nintendo's LE stack are not fully understood.

[IAMSolaara]

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/xbox/forum/all/revertrollbackdowngrade-xbox-controller-firmware/25f07169-3244-4fe0-838c-949951b7c109

thank you for this, I can confirm the controller works after reverting firmware.

[KsAmJ]

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/xbox/forum/all/revertrollbackdowngrade-xbox-controller-firmware/25f07169-3244-4fe0-838c-949951b7c109

Why i havn't seen this before ???

OMG you are a life saver...I can confirm it is WORKING NOW AGAIN ON MY SWITCH 🥳🎉🎉🥳

[DraconicNEO]

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/xbox/forum/all/revertrollbackdowngrade-xbox-controller-firmware/25f07169-3244-4fe0-838c-949951b7c109

Why i havn't seen this before ???

OMG you are a life saver...I can confirm it is WORKING NOW AGAIN ON MY SWITCH 🥳🎉🎉🥳

Uh There's not a way to do this without an Xbox console. You should re-open this until they actually inplement Bluetooth LE support.

[KsAmJ]

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/xbox/forum/all/revertrollbackdowngrade-xbox-controller-firmware/25f07169-3244-4fe0-838c-949951b7c109

Why i havn't seen this before ???
OMG you are a life saver...I can confirm it is WORKING NOW AGAIN ON MY SWITCH 🥳🎉🎉🥳

Uh There's not a way to do this without an Xbox console. You should re-open this until they actually inplement Bluetooth LE support.

OK

[ndeadly]

@HaruVM has pointed out to me that it's now also possible to downgrade the controller firmware using a PC running the Xbox Accessories app.

Open xbox accessories app then hit windows + R (run) and input this command:

xboxaccessories:\firmwareupdate?legacyDowngrade=true

It should then give you option to revert

[thornos78]

@HaruVM has pointed out to me that it's now also possible to downgrade the controller firmware using a PC running the Xbox Accessories app.

Open xbox accessories app then hit windows + R (run) and input this command:
xboxaccessories:\firmwareupdate?legacyDowngrade=true
It should then give you option to revert

Wooo thanks!

[DennyZh]

@HaruVM has pointed out to me that it's now also possible to downgrade the controller firmware using a PC running the Xbox Accessories app.

Open xbox accessories app then hit windows + R (run) and input this command:
xboxaccessories:\firmwareupdate?legacyDowngrade=true
It should then give you option to revert

Wooo thanks!

if "xboxaccessories:\firmwareupdate?legacyDowngrade=true" does not work on your PC, you can try:
xboxaccessories:\firmwareupdate?legacyDowngrade=true .

[P1xellat3d]

It seems the formatting in Github has altered the command. There should be a double backslash \\ in the command:

xboxaccessories:\\firmwareupdate?legacyDowngrade=true

If you type it with just the single backslash, it'll only open up the Xbox Accessories app and do nothing else.

[ndeadly]

It seems the formatting in Github has altered the command. There should be a double backslash \\ in the command:

xboxaccessories:\\firmwareupdate?legacyDowngrade=true

If you type it with just the single backslash, it'll only open up the Xbox Accessories app and do nothing else.

Thanks for the clarification. I just copied it exactly how it was reported to me.

[P1xellat3d]

No problem! Not your fault - was probably lost in formatting from the previous person.

I can confirm that downgrading from the BLE firmware (5.x) to firmware 3.1.1221.0 allowed the controller to successfully pair with the Switch through MissionControl 👍

[TheToto]

With a new controller shipped with a recent firmware version (> 5), xboxaccessories:\\firmwareupdate?legacyDowngrade=true does not work

(An error occured, Your controller is already up to date)

[ndeadly]

If you have a controller that came with an LE firmware out of the box, then I'm willing to bet you have a Series X/S controller rather than an Xbox One controller. Only the latter can be downgraded. For the new ones you'll have to wait for LE support.

[TheToto]

It's a "common" Xbox One wireless controller.
I not really sure if it was a LE firmware out of the box, but Mission Control was not working.
Then I run Xbox accessories app, upgrade, and try to downgrade.

There is similar issues here in latest pages : https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/xbox/forum/all/revertrollbackdowngrade-xbox-controller-firmware/25f07169-3244-4fe0-838c-949951b7c109?page=6
Maybe it's a new version of Xbox accessories , i don't really known.

But that's not really a big problem, I can use sys-con.

[lij911]

It seems the formatting in Github has altered the command. There should be a double backslash \\ in the command:

xboxaccessories:\\firmwareupdate?legacyDowngrade=true

If you type it with just the single backslash, it'll only open up the Xbox Accessories app and do nothing else.

thx, its work on my devices

[taotttt]

555555555，Updated to LE

[senolem]

any update? I can't downgrade my controller it tells me that it is already updated :(

[ndeadly]

No LE support yet, no. If it doesn't let you downgrade you're either doing something wrong, or you're actually using a Series X|S controller that can't be downgraded. Check the label inside the battery compartment. Model 1708 is Xbox One, 1914 is Series X|S.

[senolem]

it is a series x controller I guess :( Is it worth getting a new compatible xbox controller or is the LE support coming up any soon?

[ndeadly]

That's a hard one to answer. I have a proof of concept working with my Xbox One controller updated to the new firmware, but there are issues that make it not suitable for release. Kinda tough to say how long they might take to resolve since there are a handful of unknowns that require either a bunch of reverse engineering or trial and error. Could be anywhere from days to months. More likely the latter though.

[senolem]

I would be happy to help you, I'm currently studying C & C++ and I believe this would be a cool exercise. I read some of your code especially around the bluetooth part (https://github.com/ndeadly/MissionControl/blob/master/mc_mitm/source/bluetooth_mitm/). How do you debug the module, you just add debug messages in the functions and then read the logs on the switch?

[ndeadly]

Unfortunately the programming side of things isn't really the bottleneck here. Most of the code for processing the data from the controllers is already written. It's pretty much just issues related to connectivity that remain, and that mostly requires static analysis skills and an understanding of the inner workings of the bluetooth and btm sysmodules rather than programming ability.

How do you debug the module, you just add debug messages in the functions and then read the logs on the switch?

Yeah, this is mostly how I debug my own module. I've used gdb to look at official Nintendo sysmodules

[spoitler]

Hello,
Is there any news on this subject? I use an Xbox 1914 controller, it seems to me that it is a Bluetooth BLE.
I still can't connect my controller.

[ndeadly]

@spoitler yes, this is the Xbox Series X|S controller. They are currently incompatible due to the lack of BLE support as you say. There is an issue tracking developments here #135

[spoitler]

This issue has no update since 1y. Are you sure someone still working on it ?

[ndeadly]

That's correct. When there is a significant development worth noting you will hear about it there. I'm still working on it, yes.

You can also join my discord server if you want to be more in the loop about development.

[senolem]

Wasn't aware that you had a discord server. Would be glad to get updates about BLE support, it's gonna be a game changer not to have to have a PC between controller and the Switch (especially when it comes to latency). Good luck !

[sodasoba1]

Thank you for your efforts! I managed to downgrade my one x|s controller.
The documentation seems outdated but I was able to downgrade via a Xbox.

[ndeadly]

@kakra are you aware of anything that must be done to make the (LE firmware) Xbox controllers stop advertising after connecting/pairing? I'm able to successfully connect my controller and enable HID report notifications, but the controller LED never stops flashing and I keep getting advertisements until I hold the sync button to exit sync mode. Only then it gives a solid LED and starts sending reports as expected. According to other users, this behaviour is the same on the Series X|S controllers.

[fingerart]

Is there any progress? I accidentally upgraded the controller to firmware version 5.x+ and tried to restore the firmware using Xbox accessories on PC, but all failed.

[kakra]

are you aware of anything that must be done to make the (LE firmware) Xbox controllers stop advertising after connecting/pairing?

@ndeadly This happens on Linux with bluez, too, for some people. Seems to depend on the bluez version and even more on the BT chipset used. Usually this behavior is gone if you just switch to a CSR dongle.

In your particular case, maybe something with the handshake doesn't complete, or is out of order, or the BT stack cached some old attributes. The controller firmware seems to be quite picky.