Once you’re sure it’s connected, you’re ready to go!Īlso read: 5 of the Best Free Xbox One Games You Should Play Setting Other Options for Your Xbox Controller

To test the connection, press a few buttons on your controller and make sure they show up on the preference pane. The image on the controller will react to the buttons you press on your controller. Once your Mac restarts, you can connect the controller via USB cable.ħ. Restart your Mac when prompted by the installer.ģ. Once you’ve downloaded 360Controller, open the package and run the installer. Since there is no native kext and Microsoft, one of Apple’s major competitors, has not made one, we need to rely on the kindness of strangers.ġ. These “drivers” install a kext (kernel extension) to tell macOS how to work with the Xbox controller. It does require macOS 10.11 or up, so it won’t work with a Mac running anything below El Capitan. 360Controller is the most up-to-date of the options, and you can download it from GitHub. Xone OSX was the best of several options, but it has since been deprecated. Unlike the PlayStation 4 controller, the Xbox One’s controller requires some third-party software to work properly. Connect an Xbox One Controller to Your Mac As of now, this is the only way to connect an Xbox One controller to the Mac. Xbox One wireless controllers also have a micro USB port on the top, so they’re relatively easy to connect to your Mac. In every other case, the Xbox control needs to be connected with a wire to work. We were not able to test the functionality for this post.

Since that’s essentially a plug-and-play operation, we won’t cover that here.

Those controls have the correct Bluetooth transmitter in them, and macOS will automatically support the connection. Microsoft will help you figure out which version you have. Wireless over USB doesn’t work, but strangely, Bluetooth does work, but only on controllers made after August 2016. The functionality has caused kernel panics since macOS El Capitan (10.11), and it had to be disabled to make the rest of the software usable.Īlso read: How to Set Up an Xbox One Controller in Ubuntu If you try to connect an Xbox controller wirelessly with its USB dongle, you won’t be able to establish a connection. Wireless functionality is fortunately spotty on the Mac.

How to setup xbox controller on mac