PS5 controller test

How to test a PS5 controller

Connect the DualSense to your computer or phone, click this page and press any button. Then go through the controller in order:

1. Face buttons and d-pad. Cross, Circle, Square, Triangle and the four d-pad directions should each light up once per press.
2. L1, R1, L3 and R3. Press the bumpers and click down on both sticks.
3. Create, Options, PS and the touchpad. Pressing the touchpad down counts as its own button. On a PC the PS button may also open Steam; that is normal.
4. L2 and R2. Squeeze each trigger slowly to the end. The bar should rise smoothly and the max should reach 100%.
5. Sticks. Let go and check that both rest near 0.000, then roll each one around its edge.

The press counter goes up by one per press. If one press counts twice, that button is bouncing, an early sign of a worn switch.

USB or Bluetooth?

Both work for the button and stick test. USB is the most reliable: use a USB-C cable that carries data, since many phone charging cables do not. For Bluetooth, hold the PS button and Create together until the light bar flashes, then pair it in your computer's settings. If a PS5 is on in the same room, turn it off first or the controller may reconnect to the console. In Chrome and Edge, the DualSense gets the standard layout over both connections. Safari supports it on Mac, iPhone and iPad. Older Firefox versions mixed up the d-pad and right stick; update Firefox or switch browser if the diagram looks wrong.

Battery, motion and touchpad with WebHID

The browser's normal gamepad interface covers buttons, sticks and triggers only. In Chrome and Edge on a computer, the panel above can also read the DualSense directly through WebHID after you choose it in the browser's device prompt. It shows:

• Battery in 10% steps and whether it is charging.
• Gyro and accelerometer as raw sensor numbers. Turn and tilt the controller: the values should change smoothly and settle when it lies still. Values stuck at zero point to a sensor fault.
• Touchpad finger positions, so you can check every part of the pad responds.

The page only reads data from the controller. It does not change the light bar, adaptive triggers, calibration or firmware. Over Bluetooth the DualSense starts in a short report mode without battery data; the page asks for its calibration data once, which switches it to full reports in the same way a game does. If you see nothing, close Steam and DS4Windows, which can hold the controller.

PS5 controller drift

Stick drift is the most common DualSense fault: the stick reports movement when you are not touching it, so your view slowly turns or your character walks on its own. Watch the dot in each stick circle with your hands off the controller. If it rests more than about 0.05 from the centre, or wanders, run the stick drift test. It measures each stick over 8 seconds and tells you the dead zone to set, plus the fixes to try. The PS5 has no stick calibration menu, so cleaning, a game dead zone, the warranty or a stick replacement are the real options. The DualSense Edge lets you swap a drifting stick module without tools.

Adaptive triggers and haptics

L2 and R2 on this page show trigger travel, which catches a trigger that no longer reaches the end. The resistance effects of the adaptive triggers and the fine haptic motors are driven by commands from a game or the console, so a fair test of them is in a game such as Astro's Playroom. Vibration through the browser depends on your browser and system; if the vibration buttons do nothing, that alone is not a fault.

For other controllers, use the general controller test or the Xbox controller test.