Xbox Controller Thumbstick Issues

Hi and thanks for reaching out. I hope you’re doing well. I'm an Independent Advisor and a Microsoft user like you and I'll be happy to help you.

It sounds like there may be an issue with the left thumbstick on your Xbox Series X controller. It's possible that the thumbstick is not properly calibrated or that there is some debris stuck under the thumbstick. To fix this issue, you can try the following steps:

1. Calibrate the thumbstick.

2. Clean the thumbstick and the area around it. Use a soft cloth and some rubbing alcohol to gently clean the thumbstick and the area around it. This can help remove any dirt or debris that may be causing the issue.

3. Check for debris. If there is debris stuck under the thumbstick, it could be causing the thumbstick to register as being pressed when it is not. Carefully inspect the thumbstick and use a small tool, such as a toothpick or a pin, to remove any debris that you find.

4. Check the controller's firmware. Make sure that you have the latest firmware installed on your controller.

If none of these steps fix the issue, it's possible that there is a problem with the controller itself. In this case, you may need to consider sending in your controller to have it repaired/replaced.

We all know thumbstick drift is a serious issue at the moment with Xbox One Controllers. This is because in this generation, the thumbstick modules are really cheap and the quality of these modules is bad.The 2 main problems are (compaired to the Xbox 360
Controllers) that the two 'lines' you see running over the module are made of plastic, instead of copper and the module is surrounded by more plastic, instead of metal.

Thumbstick drift happends when the little plastic piece either left or right of the thumbstick module breaks (99% of the time it is the left piece, and on the left thumbstick, because that one gets used the most, because of using that thumbstick to move
in games). Once this little plastic piece breaks, it can not be put back on. The thumbstick will be permanently broken. All 'fixes' out there are all temporary fixes. On the Xbox 360 Controllers, this was mostly made out of metal, and basically never broke
(EDIT: did not break nearly as much as the Xbox One Controllers! After reading the comments there are apparently loads of people that have Xbox 360 Controller thumbstick drift! This is pretty strange, because if it was such a big problem in the first place,
then why did they 'downgrade' the quality of the materials even more?! One thing that I do know is that we are now seeing a thumbstick drift post every single day, and that was not the case in the Xbox 360 era).

I, and countless of other people, were very excited to find out how the inside of the Elite Controller would look like. But I've got bad news; the Elite Controller uses exactly the same thumbstick modules as the regular Xbox One Controller!

You know what this means? You are just as likely to get thumbstick drift on your $150 controller compaired to the regular Xbox One Controller. This is not a good thing! This is a big factor for a lot of people when thinking about buying this controller,
especially if they experienced thumbstick drift before and know how annoying it can be. Combining this with the horrible warranty, we will see a lot of angry customers in a few months!

I also don't like the way Microsoft addresses this issue. They just tell you to buy a new controller. But I don't think this is entirely Microsoft's fault. This is probably the thumbstick module manufacturer's fault, they decided to switch to this cheaper
alternative. Please Microsoft, order the Xbox 360 thumbstick modules (or even better ones!) if you can, and put them in the Xbox One Controllers!

If you've got any questions, please feel free to post them down below. Please don't see this as an attack on Microsoft of any kind, I've been with the brand for over 8 years and I still love it! I've personally not experienced this issue before, but I do
know this is a real issue and that Microsoft's response to it is not so professional. I'm just here to point this problem out and to suggest a way to solve it.

Hello have you changed any of the controls for the controller? Is it like this on any game that you play??

Personally I haven’t had any issues with my Xbox controllers apart from the thumbsticks getting worse overtime, apart from that I’m more then satisfied with the Xbox controllers

Seems like an issue with your controller (sticking thumbsticks). Try to use another controller and check the results