It's confession time. I've had Bluetooth Xbox One controllers for years, but never knew how to turn them off via Bluetooth on mobile or PC without yanking the batteries. On Xbox, you simply hold the button, and it opens a new menu allowing you to turn it off. On mobile phones with Project xCloud and on PCs with Bluetooth, however, you don't get any such menu.
Turns out, that it's actually incredibly easy to solve, with a quick 6-second Xbox button press.
How to turn off an Xbox controller connected with Bluetooth
- Find the Xbox button in the center top of your controller.
- Press and hold it down for six seconds.
- It should now turn off.
- Turning it back on should automatically re-connect it to the last available Bluetooth connection.Note: Holding it down for 15 seconds will do a full hard-reboot of the controller, which may fix some rare firmware issues.
Oh, well, that was easy, huh?
With Project xCloud hitting Android phones and the latest Xbox Elite Series 2 controller rocking Bluetooth for tablets and PCs, it's high time everyone learned how to turn it off the proper way.
Related: How to pair a wireless Bluetooth Xbox controller
It's pretty pricey, but the Xbox Elite Series 2 controller may just prove itself to be the best gamepad ever made over time.
