Tool

Switch Pro Controller tester

Pair a Switch Pro Controller, press any button on it, and this page lights every control under its Nintendo name: B, A, Y, X, L, R, ZL, ZR, Minus, Plus, both stick clicks, Home and Capture. On a Nintendo pad the bottom button is B and the right one is A, the reverse of Xbox, and the drawing follows that.

Check a Switch Pro Controller in this order

  1. Pair it. Hold the small sync button on the top edge until the player lights start moving, then pick the controller in the computer's Bluetooth list. On a Mac, connecting a Switch Pro Controller has every step.
  2. Press any button, so the browser shows the controller to this page.
  3. Press every button once and watch the checklist turn green.
  4. Let go of both sticks and press Record 5 seconds at rest, then run the circle test.
  5. Press ZL and ZR. Each jumps straight from 0 to 1.

The two sticks are the parts that wear first. Run the rest test before anything else: it is the one that tells you whether the controller is still worth using.

If the controller does not show up

Climb this ladder, smallest step first:

  1. Press a button. A browser hides every controller from a page until a button is pressed while that page is in front.
  2. Click the page, then press again. The tab has to be the active one when you press.
  3. Reconnect it. Unplug the cable and plug it back in, or turn the controller off and on so it pairs again.
  4. Check that the computer sees it. On a Mac, a connected PlayStation, Xbox or Switch controller is listed in System Settings under Game Controllers. If it is missing there, the fix is pairing: controller connected but not working on a Mac has every step.
  5. Try a second browser. Browsers read controllers in different ways, so one that is missing in one browser can show up in another.

What is different on a Nintendo pad

  • ZL and ZR are switches. They read 0 or 1 and nothing between, so the trigger bars jump. That is the design, not a fault.
  • B and A are swapped. The bottom button is B, the right one is A. Y and X are swapped the same way.
  • Capture is an extra. It sits past the standard seventeen buttons, so a browser can show it as button 17 or not at all.
  • Motion and NFC are out of reach. The browser's Gamepad API carries buttons, sticks and rumble, not the motion sensors or the NFC reader.

Vibration is the part browsers differ on most for this controller, so a silent rumble test here says little about the motors.

It works. Now give it a job

A tester tells you the controller is fine. On a Mac, InputConfig is the app I make for the next step: it turns the buttons and sticks you just tested into keys, the mouse pointer, clicks and scrolling, in any app or game. It is free, and its Live Visualizer draws the same live picture inside the app, with the touchpad and motion sensors a browser does not pass to a page. Test it here, then put it to work there.

Questions

How do I test a Switch Pro Controller on a computer?

Pair it over Bluetooth, open this page and press any button on it. Every button and both sticks then show live under their Nintendo names.

How do I check a Switch Pro Controller for drift?

Let go of both sticks and press Record 5 seconds at rest. A healthy stick reads close to 0. The result is a number and a deadzone that would hide it.

Why do ZL and ZR only show 0 or 1?

On a Switch Pro Controller they are switches, not analog triggers, so each one is either off or on. That is the design, not a fault.

Related

Download InputConfig on the Mac App StoreFree. macOS 14 or later. No account, nothing leaves your Mac. Open source on GitHub.