Xbox Insider Update Adds Controller ‘Thumbstick Calibration’ Tool

Xbox has detailed its latest Insider update for Alpha Skip-Ahead users, and it contains a pretty useful-sounding feature for console players. The program’s latest patch adds the ability to perform a ‘Thumbstick Calibration’ on Xbox Series X|S and Xbox Elite Series 2 controllers.

For now, the team says that this is “for users in the US who have independently replaced the circuit board” on their controller and for users in all regions who’ve had “minor thumbstick issues”. Apparently, recalibrating the sticks with this tool should resolve any issues experienced after performing DIY fixes.

We haven’t had a chance to test out this feature ourselves, but it sounds like it could be pretty useful for stick issues in general. Of course, we don’t know the full extent of what this tool can solve, but recalibrating these sorts of things can often improve performance on used hardware – so hopefully this will turn out to be a useful long-term feature for Xbox players.

It’s worth noting that we’ve seen a few mentions that this tool isn’t working with Xbox One controllers right now – just Series X|S and Elite 2 pads, at least in its current form. It’s also only available to Alpha Skip-Ahead members right now, although the feature should roll out to all users in a future console update.