Xbox controller pauses long haul flights

Bug Reporting Hub Miscellaneous
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1

What follows below is a bug and not a feature, which MS / Asobo needs to sort out for their Xbox MSFS users. It stops the enjoyment of any long flight.

The xbox controller stops the running of the simulation when presumably the controller battery saving feature times out.

This cause the simulation to stop and does not restart until a human intervenes.

This means a flight longer than 5 - 10 minutes will terminate/pause unless the controller is being played with. Long haul flights over the atlantic from Heathrow to JFK - heathrow to dubai etc are just not feasible IF you have to be holding the controller. There need to be an override to facilitate long haul regardless of the state of the controller, and to keep the screen active.

Presumably this feature would also apply to an approved HOTAS, I don’t know?

2

Perhaps a workaround instead of a fix. But, have you tried with the controller hooked up via USB? The light stays on my Thrustmaster if I sit it aside and do not play with it. Just an observation and not a test to see if it is really “on.”

3

Thanks I’ll give that a try when I get a cable

4

I just tried that with a new usb cable, reset the controller with a power cycle and the console responded. The controller remains lit, but the flight jumps back to the menu after 10-15mins.

Peculiar - not sure now if its the controller or the xbox.

5

its the Xbox, does it with wired controls as well. The xbox will notice no activity and send you to a dark screen for ~30 seconds, then it will show the ‘Away’ screen which sends the game to the pause menu.

I have not found any way to disable this ‘feature’ (I tried tying a rubber band to the R stick to spin the camera constantly, but this doesn’t work either)

2 Likes
6

I have this problem as well. Its kinda annoying for very long flights. I have press a button just to keep the flight active, and unpaused.

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7

Hope that they will fix it as there is no overnight flight possible at the moment.

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8

I was wondering if it also times out when a HOTAS is in use, or is it only a problem with the supplied ms controller?

9

Also with hotas
have one in use

10

Using a wired controller (Razer Wolverine) I was able to fix this on my Xbox by doing the following:

Xbox menu > Settings > Preferences > Idle options
Uncheck “Show me things when idle”
Set “Dim screen after” to 60 min

Note: I also have a few other settings in General > Power mode and startup (your mileage may vary)
Turn off after 4 hours of inactivity
Turn off after 4 hours of video or music

5 Likes
11

Hi, not sure if this has been discussed as I don’t see anything related to this topic.
I am new to MSFS as it only landed on xbox a few weeks ago.
When I’m doing a long flight and engage auto pilot, I would go afk for a while to do something else. When I come back to the controller, I find that the game has automatically paused, meaning I have to be at the controller at least every 40 to 50 minutes in order for the game not to pause.
Hopefully there are other xbox players that have or had the same issue and can assist in this regard.
I have a Xbox series X and it is setup to never switch off automatically.
Any ideas?

2 Likes
12

Good morning,

Yes, as soon as the controller goes to sleep the game will pause. The only way around that, that I am aware of is to plug the controller in.

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13

I also have the same problem. There must be a way to set auto pilot and leave for a few hours ?

1 Like
14

I have my control plugged to mains. The sim goes to pause Before the controller goes idle anyway.

15

If your Xbox controller doesn’t detect any input after X minutes (not sure the exact value), it will go to sleep to save battery. This is the way it’s designed to work and there’s nothing you can do to change that unfortunately. And the behaviour of the Xbox is programmed to pause whatever game you’re running when the controller disconnects. This is what you’re seeing. Even if you’re using another controller like a HOTAS, it will still do this unless there was input on the Xbox controller.

I had this issue as well on PC. I have my Xbox controller attached to my yoke and use it to control cameras and some other functions. After said time elapsed, the controller would go to sleep. Only in my case, it would cause a disconnection event which would cause the sim to freeze for 30-60 seconds and potentially CTD.

The only way around this was to run the Xbox controller with a USB cable to the computer vs going wireless, which prevents it from going to sleep. I suspect that will be the only workaround on Xbox.

2 Likes
16

I have the same problem!

17

There was also a post on reddit awhile back (when I had the XBOX version) that some people had success plugging in a wireless mouse (with the dongle connection).

“Get a wireless mouse.
Plug the dongle into your xbox.
Wiggle the mouse so the cursor appears.
Turn off your controller.
Turn off the mouse.
Voila, Xbox still thinks there’s a device connected.”

I never got around to testing as I opted against continuing with xbox but maybe it’ll work.

2 Likes
18

Or a mouse

19

I actually switched off my controller as soon as I engaged the auto pilot and the game kept going for about an hour before it paused, so I’m not entirely sure if that’s the solution. My friend and I tried this a few times with the same results

20

Mouse will do nothing. The sleep mode is activated from the Xbox controller’s firmware and is independent from anything else happening with other controllers. Once it hits that timeout of no input, it turns itself off. In turn, the Xbox detects it lost connection from its controller and pauses.

The only way around this is the controller must wired directly to the Xbox or PC, not just connected to an external charger. It has to talk to the Xbox directly via USB and not via wireless.

1 Like