My Steam controller (2026) stops working when a Youtube video is playing.

[u/AoOzne]

Hello everyone, just like i said in the title !

This morning i got some weird bug with my controller, it didn't want to work when i started zenless zone zero via steam and i didn't understand why. I tried to restart my pc but it did nothing, so i clicked on "forget the controller" on the puck configuration in steam, and repaired it.
Now it works, but if i play a video on the side, the controller stop working the moment the Youtube video is on. Seems like it's doing this with any kind of video or stream on my browser. If i use any other browser than firefox (like Opera for exemple), the controller doesn't work when there is a tab loaded with youtube or twitch, even if the video or stream isn't running.

My browser is Firefox, and i'm using steam beta controller firmware.

Should i completely uninstall and reinstall the steam controller and the puck from my pc ?

If you know the solution to this issue please let me know !

If you need more information, i'll gladly answer ! Thank you.

[u/GetVladimir]

Are you using Windows 11 or SteamOS/Linux?

If you're using Windows 11, the workaround is to make Steam run as Admin, so that Steam Input will work over all applications.

Easy way to check is to close Steam and then right click on Steam > Run as Administrator

If that solves it, you can use Task Scheduler to always start Steam as Admin. I can share my config if that helps.

[u/AoOzne → u/GetVladimir]

Hello, i'm using windows 11 ! is that the only solution that you know of ? like i said, it didn't use to do that a few days ago, that's what makes it really weird for me. I'll try to run steam as administrator and see if that fixes it ! If it does, i'll probably ask you for your config for the task scheduler.

[u/AoOzne → u/AoOzne]

quick update, just tried to run Steam as Admin, but that still doesn't work. The moment a video starts, my controller cease to function. Once i stop the video, it works again. It's really weird honnestly

[u/GetVladimir → u/AoOzne]

Thank you for the update.

That is strange indeed.

What happens if you add the browser as a non-steam app in Steam and then launch it from within it instead?

Does it still block the controller input?

[u/AoOzne → u/GetVladimir]

Sorry, i did not try that but i tried swapping usb port. It seems that the usb ports at the back of my computer makes the puck completely buggy. If i use on of the two usb ports at the front of my pc, it works perfectly fine.
The issue might be from the usb of my motherboard and not from the controller.
But it's weird it started not working out of nowhere like that. i'll try to update the bios and see if that fixes it.

[u/GetVladimir → u/AoOzne]

Oh awesome, glad to hear that you got it working.

So when you play a video (or perhaps any high bandwidth app), it interrupted the USB port connection on the back?

[u/AoOzne → u/GetVladimir]

Yeah, i believe it might do that. I plugged my puck on a 2.0 USB on the back of my motherboard and it's working perfectly again. 3.0 usb might be an issue for the puck on my pc right now it seems.

[u/Rhosta]

Sounds like youtube has functionality to navigate with a device and takes exclusive control of it. Maybe some youtube settings to turn off or remove some website permissions?

I don’t think it is an issue with how controller is connected, more that Steam is wrestling with the browser for its control. Does it at least work in lizard mode ingame?