Xbox controller only turns on when placed on its charging station.

Mine is doing the same thing but my daughter can take the same battery in her room and hers works fine but it doesn't in any of my controllers

Hi Angelie!

Sorry to hear about the issue. I assume that your controller is rechargeable, right? Since it only works when you put it on your charging dock that means that the power isn't coming from your battery but directly from the power source. I believe that your controller's battery health has been degraded already. You may need to replace it.

Alternatively, try to use your controller using a USB cable directly plugged in to your console's USB port to use it normally.

this is due to the charging station and its batteries being third party, they don't have the required connections to the pin array int he controller, the charge station batteries will have external pins on them so when the controller sits on the mount it then charges the battery.

only official plug and play batteries from microsoft can charge via the usb on the controller, they do this through different pins internally.

I use the Nyko 2 controller charging station. I could not tell you how long they can go without charging since I place them on the base when I am done. link:

http://www.nyko.com/products/product-detail/?name=Charge+Base+for+Xbox+One

When you put the controller on the docking station do you feel any vibration at all, the controller will vibrate for a couple of seconds after it connects. And make sure the USB cable is firmly connected to the docking station. This may also be an issue
with the battery in the controller as when you connect the controller with the USB cable it does bypass the battery.

We recommend charging your controller from an Xbox console or PC only. Avoid alternative charging methods like a USB wall charger.