DualShock controller dropping connection
Edit: Thanks to u/Arcade23, this problem has been resolved. It turns out the battery was completely dead and none of the methods I was using to try & charge it were working. I got a dedicated charger & everything works great now. Thanks!
Original post text below in case anyone runs into a similar issue.
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A game I’ve been playing a lot recently (Genshin Impact) just added controller support in the recent update, something I’ve been really looking forward to a lot ever since release. So, I bought myself a DualShock 4 (model CUH-ZCT2U) and got it paired.
Out of the box - without doing anything else - I played for a couple of minutes and was really, really happy with it. I noticed the battery had about a quarter-charge remaining, so I plugged it in to a USB phone charger to get it back up to full so that I could pull a little marathon session & I went to the grocery store.
I got back about an hour later & everything seemed fine until I pressed the PlayStation button to reconnect it to my iPad Air 4. The light on the controller blinked white a couple of times, then flashed red (which was the same color it had shown when connected) and then went off. In that time it had shown up on my battery widget as being fully charged.
So I went into my Bluetooth settings and it showed as disconnected. Thinking it was maybe a fluke, I pressed the PS button again and it did what it had previously done, except this time the red light stayed on for even less time. The status next to the device in Bluetooth settings switched over to “connected” for less than a second before going back to “disconnected.” I tried again, this time tapping the device’s entry on the list, and got a message saying:
Connection Unsuccessful Use the controls on “DUALSHOCK 4 Wireless Controller” to connect.
I’ve searched the internet high and low and seen a couple of people with similar problems, and followed all of the steps for solutions I’ve been able to find. Ive upgraded to the most recent version of iOS, I’ve disassociated all Bluetooth devices (including the controller, of course), I’ve reset my network settings, I’ve tried “charging” it by connecting it to my MacBook Pro - mid-2010, a classic that serves my needs even if it is a bit dated - although nothing seemed to happen when I did (no lights came on or anything), I even borrowed a connector from a neighbor that allowed me to connect the controller directly to the USB-C port. I’ve done a hard-reset using the small recessed button on the controller and a hard-reset on the iPad. I’ve tried all of these steps on my iPhone X as well, and I’ve done them all multiple times in every combination I can think of. The only result has been that the controller now connects for what seems like even less time now.
I’d really like to use this controller if possible. Does anyone have any tips or solutions that might help? I’m willing to try pretty much anything.
Thanks in advance!
Posted Feb 6, 2021, 3:16 PM UTC · edited
Sounds to me like the battery is dead, you will know if the controller is charging because the light will flash yellow/orange very slowly while it’s charging. If it’s not doing that while you have it connected to your MacBook or something then it’s not being charged. So it could be a case of it not having any juice. It would come with a bit of battery when you first bought it so that may be why it worked at first and not anymore.
Have you tried connecting the controller to another device if possible? If you have a Windows laptop or computer you can connect it via Bluetooth to see if it sticks there. Do you have other Bluetooth devices that you regularly use, do those have problems with connection? It could just be a faulty controller. If you’ve tried all of that and it still doesn’t work, if you get no flashing orange light while charging, and other things do stay connected to your phone then I would get the controller exchanged.
I see. I’ve never seen any light come on when I’ve tried to charge it, and I thought it was just a terrible design oversight that they hadn’t built in any indicator that would show when it’s charging. It makes sense that they actually did put that feature in.
So, here’s a list of things I’ve plugged it into to try to charge it:
No light has ever come on when I plugged it into any of those... I can’t think of anything else I might be able to try. I’m thinking of going to Best Buy / Walmart / GameStop to buy a charging dock. It’s ridiculous that I’d have to buy one, these things are (it would seem) built to charge using USB, but if they’re going to be this picky about it then I don’t really have much choice, I suppose.
Considering that I don’t have a playstation any newer than the PS2, or a windows laptop or desktop (that actually works - though I could probably build one with the parts in my closet) do you have any ideas of other things I could try to charge it with? Or is a charging dock my best bet..?
Thank you for your help, that actually tells me a lot that I didn’t know.
So I just tried a few things out.
I tried a random cheap USB charger, and a fast charging Samsung charger. My results with those were that my controller gave off the orange light once when I plugged it in, but then it stopped flashing because it’s already fully charged. This tells me that it was charging it so those work.
I also tried with two different iPhone chargers, I didn’t get any light or any indication that there was a connection. So those definitely don’t work.
When I plug it into my windows laptop it gives me the connection sound and a one time orange strobe, so I know it’s connected. But I don’t get the orange flashing light unless it needs a charge (it’s full right now). Not going to bother telling you what happens when it’s connected to PlayStation since you don’t have one anyway.
I might have a solution for you though, or at least something that might help, I can’t guarantee this will work since you don’t have a PlayStation Console. But download the PlayStation remote play app and install it on your Mac. Plug in your controller it should give life to it. It may also charge it while the remote play app is opened. Give that a try, keep it connected for 30 minutes or so and see if it will then stay connected to your phone. If that doesn’t work, try Steam, that has official DS4 controller support so it should hopefully charge it while steam is open.
If none of that works then it could be a faulty battery, in which case, replace the controller if you can or go on Amazon and buy a new battery, which are cheap and relatively easy to replace.
I’ll give that a try in a while - thank you for checking all that stuff & all your other help.
Around the time I sent my last reply though, it started snowing here, and I was looking at the site for the local GameStop which had a charging station for like $20, so I figured my options were to either keep trying stuff and maybe get snowed in for a day or two with nothing to do & a controller that’s only functional as a paperweight or run over to GME, drop a twenty & likely have this problem solved for good.
I just got back & set it up & my controller is charging now! After letting it charge for a few minutes it connects just fine, so that was the issue after all. No idea why the other things didn’t work, but this is a solution - and I likely wouldn’t have found it if I hadn’t had your help. I genuinely thought I had a defective controller and I was looking into how to return it, now my problem is solved.
Thank you so much. Playing Genshin on a controller is like playing an entirely different & much better game, and I already liked it a lot. Spending what I did to get this equipment is a reasonable investment in my eyes, even if I’d have preferred to not have to get a separate charger it’s whatever. Maybe this is just me being happy in the moments after resolving a problem that had really frustrated me, but I’m really happy & excited to play a lot once this thing has had a chance to charge to max.
Thanks again, for all of your time & effort.
Really glad you got it working! I’ve been holding off playing Genshin until it got controller support. I didn’t want to play on Console either, I wanted to play on my phone and I just started playing it last night myself. I’ve only played for about an hour so far but I really like it. Enjoy!