Game

Fortnite on a Mac with a controller

The Fortnite layout is built into InputConfig, free on the Mac App Store. You don't have to make an account, there are no subscriptions, and nothing is locked. Optimized for Apple silicon.

On a Mac: Fortnite has not been available on the Mac since 2020. On a Mac it is a stream: GeForce NOW in its Mac app or a browser, Xbox Cloud Gaming in a browser, or your own PC. Those usually take a controller directly. This keyboard-and-mouse layout is for GeForce NOW and PC streams when they do not, and for keyboard-style building on a pad.

You can play Fortnite on a Mac with a controller, but only through a stream, because the Mac version stopped updating in August 2020. GeForce NOW, Xbox Cloud Gaming in a browser, or your own PC over Moonlight or Parsec all usually pass a controller straight to the game, which has excellent native controller support. If that works for you, use it and go play.

This layout is for two cases: a stream that does not see your pad, which happens with Bluetooth pads in Safari more than anyone admits, and players who learned to build on a keyboard and want one button per piece instead of the build wheel.

On this page: 9 sections

1. The layout, control by control
2. How the layout thinks
3. Build from a controller, the keyboard way
   1. Step 1: Find your build keys
   2. Step 2: Add four build rows
   3. Step 3: Keep edit under your finger
4. Tune it to how you play
5. If the stream already sees your pad
6. If your controller is not working in Fortnite
7. Get it in two clicks
8. Fortnite controls: every button and the key it sends
9. Questions

The layout, control by control

How the layout thinks

It is the keyboard and mouse scheme, sent from the pad.

• Move and aim. The left stick is W, A, S and D. The right stick is the mouse, 22 across and 16 up and down.
• Shoot. The right trigger fires and the left trigger aims down sights.
• Face buttons. Jump on the bottom, crouch on the right, F to use and pick up on the left, and Q for the pickaxe on the top.
• Bumpers. Reload (R) on the left, edit (E) on the right.
• Weapons and menus. D-pad up, right and down are weapon slots 1, 2 and 3. Escape and the map (M) are on the system buttons.

Building is deliberately missing. Wall, floor, stairs and roof are the most personal binds in the game, so the layout leaves them to you. The next section adds them in about two minutes.

Build from a controller, the keyboard way

The console build scheme is a wheel. The keyboard scheme is four keys, and it is faster because there is no wheel. You need four buttons you are not using while you build: the D-pad, or the face buttons behind a chord.

Step 1: Find your build keys

Open Fortnite's keyboard settings and note your wall, floor, stairs and roof keys. If you have never set them, the defaults are F1 to F4 and nobody uses those. Pick Z, X, C and V, which is where most keyboard players end up.

Step 2: Add four build rows

• You: In InputConfig, add four rows on the D-pad, or on the face buttons with While holding set to L1 so plain presses keep their jobs. Scan each row, press the control, and give it the matching key.
• InputConfig: Sends the build key each time you press that control.
• Check: In a match, each control places the piece you expect.

Step 3: Keep edit under your finger

• You: Leave Edit (E) on the right bumper, where you can hold it while aiming.
• InputConfig: Holds E while the bumper is down, and the right stick picks the tiles.
• Check: Hold the bumper on a wall and sweep the stick. The tiles highlight as you pass them.

For wall spam, set the wall row to Repeats while held at a high rate, and holding the button places walls the way keyboard players do with a scroll wheel bind. Whether that is fair is between you and your lobby.

Tune it to how you play

• Keep the pointer in the game. In a browser stream the mouse can drift out of the game window. Turn on confine and hide cursor in the preset's Automation & Gaming Utilities section, and put the browser in full screen.
• Aim curve. Streams add a little latency, and an Aggressive look curve makes it worse, because a fast flick overshoots before you see it. Use Smooth or Linear and raise the speed instead.
• Sprint. Fortnite sprints automatically by default now. If yours does not, put Shift on the left stick click.
• Slots 4 and 5. D-pad left is free, so give it slot 4, and put slot 5 on a chord with D-pad down.

On a stream, a calmer curve aims better than a faster one.

If the stream already sees your pad

Then use Fortnite's own controller scheme and leave this preset off. It has aim assist, and this layout cannot: the game receives keyboard and mouse input and treats you as a keyboard player. InputConfig also does not hide the controller, so with the preset on, a stream that reads the pad gets every press twice, once as a button and once as a key.

The trade is simple: the native scheme for aim assist, this layout for keyboard-style building.

If your controller is not working in Fortnite

When Fortnite does not react to your controller on a Mac, climb this ladder, smallest step first:

1. Check that the Mac sees the controller. Open the gamepad tester and press a button. If nothing lights up there, the problem is the connection, and a controller that is connected but not working covers that first.
2. Press a button after the stream has started. A stream only picks up a controller that is paired with the Mac, and a browser shows a controller to a page only after a button press. Start Fortnite, then press any button.
3. Play it from keys. If Fortnite still ignores the pad, activate this layout. It sends the keyboard and mouse controls Fortnite already reads. The layout works whether or not Fortnite ever sees the controller.

Get it in two clicks

1. Get InputConfig free on the Mac App Store, open it, and click Smart Preset Maker on the welcome screen.
2. Search for Fortnite and pick it. The layout is created as a preset in your sidebar, named and ready.
3. Press Activate. Every row can be changed afterwards: the editor's Scan button rebinds any control the moment you touch it.

To check the controller itself first, the gamepad tester shows every button and stick live in your browser.

Fortnite controls: every button and the key it sends

The Sends column is Fortnite's default keyboard and mouse controls, as this layout expects them. If you changed a key in the game's settings, change the same row in InputConfig.

Button names follow the Xbox / PlayStation pair shown in the editor, so A / Cross is the bottom face button on either pad. On a Switch Pro Controller the bottom button is labeled B; the mapping still fires on position.

A preset with this name also ships inside the app, with a file you can download: Fortnite built-in preset.

Questions

Related

• Chords
• Controller macros, turbo, and toggle on a Mac
• Per-app profiles that switch by themselves
• Play any Mac game with a controller
• Apex Legends on a Mac with a controller
• Using a controller with GeForce NOW on a Mac
• Can you play Fortnite on a Mac with a controller?
• Sea of Thieves on a Mac with a controller
• PUBG on a Mac with a controller
• Fall Guys on a Mac with a controller

Completely free. You don't have to make an account, there are no subscriptions, and nothing is locked. Optimized for Apple silicon. Open source on GitHub.

Updated October 16, 2026