Trouble re-connecting Nintendo Pro controller

ZackPlonk

Hi y‘all

I‘m using Nintendo Switch pro controllers (1st gen w/o the home-button LED) with RetroPie 4.8 running on a Pi v3 using on-board bluetooth.

I am facing two issues where I can‘t really seem to find a good solution:

When I had the controllers connected to the switch, they often don‘t pair again with the RetroPie system. Holding the sync-button to get them into pairing mode does not make them connect and they don‘t even show up when I search for BT devices. I have read about resetting the pro controller by pressing the sync-button once and then pressing any button, but that also does not help. Then, after a while (next day or so) they just happily connect to RetroPie again.
When the controllers where connected to the RetroPie I have to re-sync them with the switch using a USB cable before the switch recognizes them again.
This feels like the controllers get stuck in one of two different states (connected to switch vs. connected via bluetooth) but I don‘t know what forces them out of a given state.
When using two controllers for multiplayer, the connection to one of the controllers will sometimes drop and then re-connect after 10-20 seconds or so (the controller will loose function for 10-20 seconds and then a little pop-up on the emulator screen comes up indicating controller on port #1/2 disconnected, followed immediately by another pop-up saying it re-connected)

Any suggestions would be much appreciated…

Cheers
Lars

barbudreadmon

@ZackPlonk said in Trouble re-connecting Nintendo Pro controller:

Any suggestions would be much appreciated…

FWIW, your issues here are part of the reasons i totally gave up on using bt controllers years ago, with my worst experience being with 8bitdo : their 1st gen controllers would permanently lose current pairing when started in the wrong "mode", which simply involved pressing the wrong button...

Wired controllers will never betray you.

YFZdude

@ZackPlonk
I have had the same issue with a pro controller that gets connected to a switch after being paired in RetroPie. It seems the controller wants to remain loyal only to the last device it was paired with until you force the issue by deleting and re-pairing it.

Another user made a script that should fix some of these issues in the background so you don't have to. I have been meaning to test it out but haven't had time yet. You can find it at the link below and give it a try if you want.

https://retropie.org.uk/forum/topic/32531/bluetooth-controller-auto-connect-and-auto-re-pair/1

ZackPlonk

@YFZdude said in Trouble re-connecting Nintendo Pro controller:

Another user made a script that should fix some of these issues in the background so you don't have to. I have been meaning to test it out but haven't had time yet. You can find it at the link below and give it a try if you want.

This looks really promising. Thank you.
I'll set that up and report back on how it works out...

ZackPlonk

@ZackPlonk said in Trouble re-connecting Nintendo Pro controller:

I'll set that up and report back on how it works out...

@eberhab 's script works like a charm and my pro-controllers are now happily reconnecting to the RetroPie system after they have been used with the Switch

Thanks for your help!