Photo: Mohsen Vaziri (Shutterstock)
Haptic feedback—and vibration as a whole—has become an essential feature of modern-day consoles. Your controller will vibrate at certain opportune times during a game, such as when your character lands hard after a jump, or when you go off-roading in your favorite racing game. While this feature can be great to have, there are also some compelling reasons to consider disabling it.
For starters, people who face repetitive stress injuries (RSI), such as carpal tunnel syndrome, may experience discomfort due to these vibrations. If you want to avoid pain, living without controller vibrations is a very small price to pay. And even if you don’t face this issue, nonstop controller vibrations can get pretty annoying in some games. I’m a huge fan of Forza Horizon 4, for example, but every time I take the car a couple of feet off the road, my Xbox Series X controller goes haywire with vibrations. Sometimes, enough is enough.
If it’s enough for you, here’s how to disable those vibrations on your PS5 or Xbox Series X|S controllers.
How to disable vibrations on PS5 controller
Not only does the PS5 allow you to disable vibrations on the DualSense controller, but it also lets you reduce the intensity of vibrations. To do this start at the home screen on your PS5 and press the up arrow on the controller. Hit right till you find Settings (gear icon), which is next to the search button (magnifying glass icon).
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In Settings, navigate to Accessories > Controllers, and select Vibration Intensity.
Vibration intensity tweaks on a PS5.Screenshot: Pranay Parab
You can select Off under Vibration Intensity to disable vibrations on the DualSense controller. Alternatively, you can select Medium or Weak to reduce the intensity without disabling vibrations.
How to disable controller vibrations on the Xbox Series X|S
On the Xbox Series X|S, you can open the Xbox Accessories app to disable vibrations on the controller. You can also go to Settings on Xbox Series X|S and navigate to Devices & connections > Accessories.
This will reveal the accessories paired with your Xbox. Go to your Xbox controller and select Configure.
You’ll see your Xbox Series X|S controller’s profiles here. If you haven’t created multiple profiles, you’ll see Profile 1 as the default. Select that and press the right arrow button on your controller’s D-Pad till you reach the pencil icon.
The pencil icon lets you access the option to disable vibration on Xbox controllers.Screenshot: Pranay Parab
Select the pencil icon and on the next page, scroll to the bottom and disable Turn on vibration.
