(Potentially) SOLVED: I disabled both Steam Overlay and controller Steam Input, and now it somehow works. Strangely, I believe they were both disabled to begin with and I tried enabling one at a time, then both, and nothing worked. I wanted to test individual settings again so I turned both off and suddenly it recognizes my controller (DualShock 4)


I haven’t played 1.6 but I’m sure I played 1.5 with this setup a while back and the controller was working. Now my Mac recognizes the controller (and I can use in Steam’s big picture mode) but the game doesn’t.

What I’ve tried:

  • Started the game through Big Picture mode using my controller, and tried without Big Picture mode
  • Uninstalled SMAPI and any mods
  • Restarted my Mac
  • Enabled/Disabled Steam Input in controller settings

Anyone have any experience getting it to work?


NOTE: Just tried with DualSense/PS5 controller and having the same issue. The game doesn’t seem to recognize the controller

  • @[email protected]
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    1 month ago

    I tried all kinds of things to get Stardew Valley on my Mac to work with an XBox controller, and just gave up eventually.

    The XBox controller works fine for everything else, just Stardew Valley doesn’t work with it :/

    Gonna follow this thread in case you find someone with a solution

    • @thisisdeeOP
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      218 days ago

      Hello! I updated the post but just FYI it’s now working for me after I disabled both Steam Overlay and Steam Input from the game’s settings.

    • @thisisdeeOP
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      21 month ago

      Same with me! I tried a bunch of other games and it’s working fine, it’s just Stardew Valley that refuses to recognize it.

  • @[email protected]
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    31 month ago

    When you change the Stardew Valley controller config through Steam does it let you navigate that menu with your controller? Also is there any input profile selected?

    • @thisisdeeOP
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      11 month ago

      I was able to navigate Stardew Valley controller menu with my controller if it’s using big picture.

      Originally there was no profile, but I also tried downloading the top few community profiles as there’s no official ones for DualShock

  • @[email protected]
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    21 month ago

    I don’t have a Mac but I do run into the same issue with my Steam Deck while it’s docked. I have a Xbox controller and a controller from Logitech.

    While the game is running, are you able to open up Steam’s controller settings? You might need to enable developer mode.

    In the controller settings are you able to see something in the upper center-right about changing controller order?

    In there just simply mess around with the controller order, might have to try various combos of controller order. That usually helps get the game to see the controller.

    • @thisisdeeOP
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      21 month ago

      While the game is running, are you able to open up Steam’s controller settings?

      Is this through Steam overlay or is it a different setting? I’ve never enabled developer mode but I’ll play around with it.

    • @thisisdeeOP
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      21 month ago

      Hey, just wondering if you have instructions on how to enable developer mode?

      • @[email protected]
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        1 month ago

        Sorry for the late reply. It’s been a long time since I played Steam on an actual computer so I’m not finding where the developer settings I mentioned earlier are located.

        Edit: You mentioned trying two different controllers. Have you tried to have both plugged in at the same time so that the game can see both?

        While you have the game running, are you able to open the Steam Overlay? In the overlay, click on the controller icon

        In the settings here, do you have an option to reorder controllers on the right side of the screen?

        If you see that button, click on it and mess around with the controller order and see if it’ll make the game see the controller now.

        • @thisisdeeOP
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          119 days ago

          Oh weird. I was playing around with a bunch of settings and it suddenly worked. I think the last change I did was disable steam overlay and disable steam input on the controller settings!

        • @thisisdeeOP
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          119 days ago

          Thank you so much for the very detailed response. I’m sorry for taking so long but I finally got some time to try messing around with it again.

          Edit: You mentioned trying two different controllers. Have you tried to have both plugged in at the same time so that the game can see both?

          So I actually use the controllers via Bluetooth because I couldn’t get my Mac to recognize the controllers when plugged in. I’ll try a few more things and see if I can get it to even get recognized.

          While you have the game running, are you able to open the Steam Overlay?

          I wasn’t able to get Steam Overlay to show up while playing Stardew Valley. Tried with controllers and with mouse/keyboard and it didn’t work. I confirmed that it worked with other games.

  • @Pfeffy
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    11 month ago

    I had this problem with a dualshock 5 on Linux. I did get it working eventually but I can’t remember exactly what the process was. I think it had to do with turning off steam taking over the controller and using it natively, maybe in big picture mode?

    • @thisisdeeOP
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      11 month ago

      I think it had to do with turning off steam taking over the controller and using it natively

      Oh interesting, so actually preventing Steam from recognizing the controller?

      • @Pfeffy
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        11 month ago

        Yes, but now I realize you are saying that you’re having the problem on Mac. I have no idea if my thing would work on Mac.

        I did a little digging and found this: https://steamcommunity.com/discussions/forum/2/3004429475624592660/

        It looks like you’re probably just running into an issue where Apple are douchebags. It looks like you might be able to go through a tedious process to make controllers work if you have an older Mac, but if you have a M2 chip or whatever you are probably just screwed for the time being.

        • @thisisdeeOP
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          1 month ago

          I am on an older Intel based Mac (2020 iMac to be specific). And I do remember this setup working a while back so maybe it was a macOS upgrade that broke it. I last played Stardew Valley maybe 1.5 years ago so something since then has made my controller stop working.

          Thanks for the link. Although it looks like it’s for controllers working with Steam in general, instead of for this game only which I’m having trouble with. My controller works fine outside of Stardew Valley and I was able to control Steam’s big picture with it. I’ll read through it though, thanks!