Xbox users have been struggling with a frustrating issue for several months now. Since the launch of the Xbox Series X/S, Xbox users across generations have dealt with random, infrequent controller disconnects. One second they're playing a game and the next second their Xbox controller light is blinking and they have to reconnect. With luck, this issue has now been fixed, as Microsoft says it has been addressed in the most recent Xbox system update.
Xbox program manager Jason Ronald confirmed the fix in a message on Twitter, as it was oddly absent from the update's patch notes. Ronald says that the update "fixes many of the controller disconnects players have reported." He then asks Xbox users to continue providing feedback, implying that it was due to the communication and help of the Xbox community that he and his team were able to address these issues.
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Note that Ronald said the updated fixes "many of the issues" and not all of the issues. This could just be Ronald being wary, should there be remaining issues that he and his team are unaware of. But it's also possible that Ronald is aware of some existing issues that could lead to further disconnects that he and his team were unable to fix yet. It may be true that Xbox users will continue to experience some disconnects, but the hope is that this update fixes the problem as much as possible.
Whatever the root issue is that's causing controller disconnects on Xbox consoles, it must be a tricky problem to fix. That's because the issue persisted for almost two months before Xbox even acknowledged the problem publicly. A representative said in early January that there were teams "actively working on a solution." It's taken two months after that statement was made for an update to be issued. That means some folk at Xbox may have been working on the problem for as much as four months.
It's never a good feeling when a new console launches and there's an immediate issue that impacts people playing games. At the very least, it seems that the controller disconnect issue with the Xbox Wireless Controller only impacted a minority of users.
That's not to say that the Xbox Series X doesn't have any other issues. The disc drive can get stuck or start clicking, the console can send a corrupted signal or no signal to the TV/monitor, or the console can stop turning on at all. New hardware always has issues, but so far there's nothing widespread. And hopefully, like with the Xbox Wireless Controller issue, it's all solved via an eventual update.
The Xbox Series X/S is available now.