@marcosnils said in Joypad hotplug not working:

I believe it has nothing to do with the pad itself because it works perfect if I start retropie after the joypad has been plugged.

Do you have another joypad to check if this issue happens? I have USB and Bluetooth controllers and this kind of issue never happened (hotplug always works fine). I'm using RetroPie in my Raspberry Pi and in my Linux Mint (ubuntu based distro). I still suspecting of the XBox joypad driver and suggesting a reading on the wiki.