D-Pad Tester

Quick start

1. 1
   Connect your controller. Plug it in over USB, or pair it over Bluetooth in your device settings first.
2. 2
   Press any button first. Browsers will not notice a controller until they see its first input.
3. 3
   Press each of the four main directions one at a time. Then try the diagonals, up-right, down-right, down-left, and up-left.
4. 4
   Roll your thumb in a slow full circle. This is the fastest way to catch a direction that does not register cleanly.

Test your D-pad

How to read the results

The live D-pad and raw value

Each segment lights up the instant its direction registers as pressed. Most controllers report the D-pad either as four separate digital buttons, indices 12 through 15 under the standard mapping, or sometimes as a single combined axis value. The raw value readout shows you exactly what your specific controller is sending, which is useful if you ever need to confirm the underlying signal rather than just trusting the visual.

Direction status grid

This lists all eight directions, the four main ones plus the four diagonals, each tracking whether it has ever registered at all this session and how it last responded. A direction that never lights up no matter how precisely you press toward it points to a genuine dead zone on that part of the pad.

Diagonal accuracy

A diagonal direction on most D-pads is not a separate switch of its own, it is two adjacent directions, for instance up and right, registering at exactly the same time. This panel checks specifically whether both halves of each diagonal fire together cleanly when you press toward that corner, or whether one side lags, drops, or fails to join the other, which is a common and easy to miss fault on a worn D-pad.

Ghost input monitor

This watches for any direction reporting pressed while you believe the D-pad is sitting untouched. Unlike an analog stick, a D-pad has no concept of resting drift in the gradual sense, so any ghost input here tends to point to a stuck switch or debris holding a contact closed rather than gradual wear.

Press log

Every direction change is timestamped here as it happens, giving you a sequential record to scroll back through. This is useful for confirming a suspicious pattern, for instance a direction that seems to double fire or drop every few presses, which can be hard to catch by eye alone in the moment.

Why D-pads fail differently to sticks

A D-pad is a set of simple mechanical switches arranged under a single rocking or floating piece of plastic, not a potentiometer like an analog stick, so it does not develop drift in the way a stick does. What it does develop instead is uneven wear across its switches, since most players favour certain directions far more than others depending on the games they play, and dust or debris settling unevenly underneath the cross shaped or disc shaped cover on top. This is why one direction failing while its opposite works perfectly is common on a D-pad in a way that would be unusual on a pair of analog sticks, and why testing every individual direction separately, rather than just confirming the D-pad generally works, actually matters.

Connecting by device

Windows and Mac

Plug in over USB, or pair over Bluetooth in your system settings first. Chrome, Edge, and Firefox all support the controller out of the box once it is paired.

Android phone and tablet

Pair the controller in your device's Bluetooth settings, then open this page in Chrome. Other Android browsers vary in their support.

iPhone and iPad

Pair an MFi or Bluetooth controller in Settings, then open this page in Safari. iOS has supported the same Gamepad API since version 14.5.

Linux

Plug in over USB or pair over Bluetooth, then use Chrome or Firefox. Some distributions need a one time udev rule for certain Bluetooth controllers to be recognised by the operating system at all. If the controller is not visible at the system level, it will not be visible here either.

Troubleshooting

One direction never registers no matter how I press

Try pressing slightly off centre toward that direction's edge rather than dead in the middle, since some D-pads respond more reliably at a slightly different angle than you would expect. If it still never lights up, that switch has likely failed or is blocked by debris underneath.

A diagonal only registers as one direction instead of both

This points to one half of that diagonal pair being weaker or less responsive than the other. Test each of the two individual directions making up that diagonal on their own to confirm which specific one is underperforming.

The ghost input badge keeps flagging even though nothing is touching the D-pad

Inspect the D-pad cover for visible debris or a piece that looks slightly stuck or tilted compared to resting flush. A can of compressed air around the edges of the cover, where it meets the surrounding shell, resolves most cases caused by dust.

Nothing happens when I connect a controller

Press a button first. Many browsers will not register a controller until they see its first input.