Sony deserved a lawsuit on this BS of a controller. this issue occurs why too early and too frequent for the life of the controller

After reading all the comments, I was really scared that I might accidentally break something but playing with stick drift had become nearly impossible, so I gave it a try and thank God it works absolutely fine now. Thank You so much.

I felt like a professional opening my controller and fixing it, finally feel proud of something in my life thanks to you! Legend!

This method was genuinely a last resort to fix my goddamn controller. I had this sucker only 6 months before stick drift occurred. A year later, I can't stand it. This method 100% works, thank you for putting out the video. Sony should be ashamed for the "quality" they put into their controllers.

I can't thank you enough. My controller was just 7 months old when I started facing the issue. Sony service told me to buy a new one. But upon opening, there was just a small spec of dust. Cleaned it and now the controller works like new. Thanks a lot man!

This video is 100% deserving of that number 1 search result when trying to find out how to fix your controller!

It's important to note that once you pull out the little white pieces with the springs on them, you have to be very careful with the way you handle them. One rough touch against the spring before reinserting it back in the slot on the analog stick just might make your stick drift situation a whole lot worse. So yeah, basically, take your time when following this tutorial. There is no rush.

I just followed this video and took the controller apart, cleaned both sensors on the left stick. Totally fixed the drift. Thanks. From a guy that has taken old Xboxes apart and put them together, only to have a broken Xbox, this felt good.

So I broke the green piece and now the thumbstick stop working

I hardly ever comment on videos, but it worked as promised so I decided to leave one. One tiny bit of hair seemed to have caused the much unwanted drift. Thanks!

For the past few day's or maybe weeks. My p5 controller had stick drift and i couldn't find anything to fix it until now. I just wanna say thank you so much for making video's like this for those who don't wanna go and spend extra money to get it fixed or a brand new one. You are truly the best person i have came across on KZfaq for fixing an issue like stick drift. I have officially rated this man a 10/10 and video 5 stars.

Just wanted to say thank you so much. Literally saved me a whole new controller. This is the first time, in my life, ive ever taken apart some tech and attempted to fix the issue. Your step by step instructions made this so easy for me, and completely fixed my stick drift. Thanks again!

Great tutorial but please be aware to not push those two metal semicircles (see 6:45) down too much when cleaning the potentiometer with the q-tip and alcohol. If they are two close to the white plastic, they wont make contact with the graphite pad and will likely make your drift issue much worse (as it did for me). Also the two metal semicircles should ideally be right next to eachother with very little separation between the two. I used a pair of tweezers for this and once i assembled my controller, my stick drift was completely gone

Bro I’m not gonna lie, halfway through this tutorial (as I’m matching what you’re doing), I didn’t think it was gonna work. Stick drift is gone, I’m so blown away! Thanks a million.

I’ve never been so fkn sweaty in my life! Feels like I’m in the hot seat in class for not paying attention. 😂

I just tried it on my son's PS5 controller and followed the directions carefully. The left joystick had bad drifting, but I cleaned the sensors on both joysticks. I gave it back to my son to try out and he says it's working perfectly. Great video, thank you for taking the time to show the steps!

Can't do anything right, all these comments saying it worked, and here's me with my controller that's now 10x more fucked lol. Time to buy a new one

I was honestly scared to try this out but it was my only choice since the remote would make me spin forever in every game. Thanks to this video it fixed it. Not even a slight drift👍

Just followed this video guide and tested my controller, which whenever I used it I kept looking up at the sky playing shooter games. It’s working perfectly now. Thankyou so much! Only needed to buy the rubbing alcohol which cost about £5, saved a ton of money replacing or getting it repaired

I usually dont comment, but this actually fixed one of my controllers, I had terrible stick drift from my right joystick to the point that I stopped using my controller because it was spinning in circles. Havent used it in over a year because of how bad it was. This actually helped and the stick drift is gone. Thank you man, you saved me money.

Do not attempt unless you're willing to risk further damaging your controller! Removing the shell, screws and ribbon cables is child's play but once you get to the potentiometer, it's like doing brain surgery. The main board has four delicate solder points that you have to work around. Any sudden movements and you will pop one of them off - as I did. If that wasn't bad enough, I couldn't get the north door on the potentiometer to snap closed again after cleaning the sensors. My repeated attempts have broken the tiny plastic clips so now the little door will never stay closed. I would have to buy a new potentiometer and learn to do a difficult solder (which isn't going to happen) so my controller is toast. Please consider this before attempting. Still no clue if this fix would have even worked if I'd been successful in putting everything back together.

Dude, I've been sending me controllers back to PlayStation for years. This video is brilliant and fixed my major stick drift in an hour. It was so bad my character would literally strafe left constantly and now it works perfectly fine!

A special thanks to your channel, I followed your steps, and fixed my controller. I started facing stick drift issue with my left stick. Now, my controller is working prefectly like a new one❤

i just followed this video step by step, rewinding so much to make sure i’m doing it right and it worked !! no more stick drift on my remote !! thank you sir

Man, can't thank you enough. Just followed this, cleaned two controllers up which were both starting to drift and now both working great again. I cleaned out so much dirt from inside, I'm a little ashamed to admit it. All cleaned up and they look and work great. Thanks! :)

this is probably the first time i’ve made a comment like this but seriously thank you from the bottom of my heart. i can’t describe how overall scared and angry i was at the controller drift and your guide helped me out perfectly. not a single sign of drift in sight. i have to like and subscribe now.

I dont know if ive ever commented on a video before! Ive read all about the resets and updates and was even about to buy a 15 dollar repair kit that would require soldering as a last ditch effort because I figured they couldnt get worse! Im so glad I found this video! 2 controllers work perfect now! cost nothing! No soldering! super easy!

Just did this on my controller I’ve had since launch. The drift was really bad but now it’s as good as new. Thanks a lot!

This guide was thorough and calm. I was able to fix the subtle drift on my left pad by cleaning the potentiometer with rubbing alcohol. Thank you for the walkthrough.

Thanks for the instructions buddy... and to anybody reading the comments worried about breaking the controller, it seems to be fairly sturdy as long as you take your time, don't get overly rough and use the proper screwdriver... i used my pocketknife to pry the trim piece off and the controller shell apart

This was my last ditch effort before caving in and buying a new dual sense... It was scary, but with your instructions it wasn't bad, and now I'm fully drift free!!! Thank you dude!!!!

Dude I've had my PS5 for just a year and I've already had 2 controllers get massive stick drift. Today I went Walmart n bought the 3rd brand new controller cus simply there's no other option. But yet another 110$ ( CDN ) on a 3rd controller in a year's time didn't sit right with me . On the way home I was fuming n told myself I'm gonna try n fix it myself before I open the box . And THANK YOU FOR GUIDING ME with great simple steps. I managed to fix it n it works perfectly fine again 😊 Now I can return this 3rd controller n get my 110$ back !!!!! Thank u man

Thank you so much! The drifting was driving me so mad and the way you explained everything was very clear! I struggled at some point because something inside got separated and I had to put it back in which too a few minutes, but your tutorial was great!

Don't know what I did wrong the first time but I managed to turn my, "intermittent drift forward" into a, "full-lock to the left". Went through it again and it worked perfectly. Amazing! Thanks.

I did this and after trying the controller again it worked perfectly, thanks man, this is the first video I have seen that actually worked

Hi, this is a great tutorial and it worked for me. I would like to add two things, firstly when opening the white case of the controller, be careful because you can easily scratch it if you are not using a plastic tool(I tried using a screwdriver), and you can open the case without it, you just need to make a small opening at the bottom with something and then open it by using more force. And secondly, I mixed up the things that open up to reveal the part that needs cleaning, I cleaned the wrong one first, so remember that the upper one is for left-right rotations and the side one is for up-down motions.

Thanks for the tutorial fixed my stick drift and for now it's working without any problems, even thought inside my controller was relatively clean I cleaned them the way you suggested and solved my problem. Thanks mate!

Thank you very much for the video. I had terrible stick drift from my left joystick to the point that I stopped using my controller. After following you steps I can say it was a massive success.

I was nervous to do all of that but man your video was step by step dead on and it worked. Thank you bro. Liked and subscribed.

This fixed it. KZfaq tutorials are what hold society together fr 🙏

Although my parts weren't dirty at all the "cleaning" still helped and it worked for me! Thank you very much!

This actually worked and solved the horizontal drift issue with my son’s controller. It would drift so bad it made playing anything impossible, even navigation in the menus or inputting information. Thank you, you saved me quite a lot of money.

Noticed some heavy stick drift on the left analog stick whilst my son was playing Minecraft earlier. Found your video from Googling about the stick drift and gave it a try myself. Absolutely worked! Thanks a bunch, no more upset little one - absolute legend!

This 100% worked. Thank you for breaking this down step by step. My controller works again. One tip I will say is I could not grip the blue or orange cable tabs with my fingers so I used a pair of needle nose pliers(very carefully). Well done sir!

No DIY electronic repair is complete without some blood.

Only had this controller since Christmas so it's been a little less than 3 months. This took me 1 hour 15 minutes, had some dirt and gunk in the top sensor for the stick that was drifting (not sure how). Cleaned it out, put it all back together and the controller is now like new! Thanks man. NOTE: It's hard to see, but it's very easy to miss the fine little threads from the q-tip that get stuck on the sensors. Make sure you look at it all from different angles and move your work light around as well.

Got the left drift to a point where it wasn’t fun anymore. Followed your vid, took the controller apart and yeah, plenty of black gunk in the sensor. Cleaned it and now it works like new! 👍

Absolutely awesome my G. My son's controller had crazy drift and I followed what you said step by step and now works perfectly. Excellent work now I'm subscribed to your channel...keep it going bro.

Absolute legend, saved me either spending $100 or getting used to aiming down to stay steady

Worked a treat. Cleaned loads of residue from the gimbals. Completely eliminated my drift issues. Thanks

I watched this video and took apart one of my old broken ps5 controllers. I took apart and put it back together multiple times to get the feel of it. After I used the broken controller to fix my stick drift on my actual controller thank you so much I never took apart and fixed anything in my life your video helped me so much. Ps to everyone saying they broke the motherboard just be careful when taking it apart

Another satisfied viewer. Things got dicey when I pulled off the little white ribbon receptacle on the bottom right but I was able to reattach and now everything works great. Thanks Tim!

This guide worked a charm! Was scared to open my controller apart but this was easy to follow and now my controller feels like brand new! Thanks :)

Great tutorial fam ! I had 2 controllers with drifting issues and thanks to your help I’m back in the competition again ✅✅✅✅

Best use of my Ifixit tool kit yet. Thanks for this, it became painfully obvious that I needed to fix this when I started playing ff7 rebirth. Now it's all fixed, great vid.

Followed this tutorial step by step. Works like a charm and no more stick drift! Thank you!!

Thank you so much my guy. I was having major issues with my left stick, and when I opened up the horizontal sensor, it had so much grease and gunk in it, and when I cleaned it and put it back together, it 100% works again. Thanks for the info!

Very helpful, thank you! I was afraid to pry open the sensors to get them out and clean them directly, I skipped that part. but with the mechanism inside the sticks exposed, I was able to clean them out with canned air and cotton swab and that was good enough! fixed 2 ps5 controllers tonight this way, very pumped that I dont need to buy new ones.

Thanks for the video. 👍 My stick drift was annoying me so much. So I figured I had nothing to lose trying to fix it or buy a new one. I cleaned both joysticks and reassembled it. Now the controller is working as new again. 👍👍

Thanks so much! This fixed the problem and my controller is as good as new now! You're awesome, brother.

Thanks for the tutorial, one of the potentiometers in my left analog stick had a bunch of gunk. Cleaned it out and am facing minimal analog drift now. For anyone looking to try this out on their own, I highly recommend using a plastic prying tool to open up the controller. I didn't have one and scratched my controller in some places before I decided to purchase one. Also, the casing for the controller does not come off as easily as this video demonstrates especially if its your first time opening up the controller.

Thanks for the video! Note: Before closing up the green tabs on the joystick - You should set the white part into the green tab first. Just a precaution so you won't break the little white part

I had doubts and was scared but followed uour steps slowly n steadily and voila!! Its fixed i still can't believe.... Even if u don't find too much dirt when u open it still clean it... For me it worked... Thnkz man!!

Thanks ! I just finished doing this, and it works great. No more drift! It feels like a brand new controller. You just saved me a bunch of money.

Thanks for the thorough tutorial. This totally eliminated horrible drifting from my controller. I didn't have a guitar pick so I used a Lego brick separator which worked well.

Thank you so much. The problem with my controller was that one of the white thingies was broken and following your tutorial helped me notice. I had to buy a potentiometer (it was pretty cheap tho) to get the piece, but after I put it all together my controller worked perfectly. I appreciate the detailed steps on how to open the controller 💜

Great tutorial. Easy to follow, great pace & very good detail shots of each step. This worked wonders. Controller was at the point of nothing to lose because it was worthless due to extreme drift. Saved the cost of a new one. This is also easier to remedy than previous Gen controllers.

Can confirm this works. Just gotta be careful prying open the sensor covers (green flaps you open just before cleaning). If you pry them open too far, then it’s very difficult to get them back into place. So pry those open just enough to access the sensor parts.

took me like an hour and a half because I've never done something like this before but it was worth it. I literally just bought my controller and it developed stick drift. Works perfectly again now. Thank you!

Omg thank you so much for this gem! I didn't feel comfortable enough so I bought a new one before trying this on my other 2 controllers. And they're like brand new. There was so much gunk in there!

Ok I also was a bit skeptical. My stick drift was so bad that i literally couldnt play anymore. It wasnt at a level where it could be ignored. And even if all I used was the d-pad, the left stick would still act up. Then I read the comments and since ive changed screens and batteries on old phones successfully, i thought it couldnt be much more nerve-wracking. So i took out my tech disassembly kit (just a bunch of guitar picks, tweezer, pliers and tiny screwdriver) and gave it a shot. And I am here to say it worked. No stick drift no damage to controller. Damaging the controller is really the fault of inexperience or too much force. This video is really that video. Thanks TLDR (It works but be VERY gentle and use force only when necessary)

You're a legend. It worked for me, but the difference is that I needed to clean the top green part as well. For those who want to try it, you need to be extremely careful or ask someone skilled to do it.

In case this may cause issues: make sure the copper thin plates have lots of tension. To add more tension, just gently bend those wires towards the center at the little center bump. Use ultra-thin needle tweezers and just give it a little bend upward. I did this fix, and plugged everything back in, and my joystick was constantly moving in a direction permanently. But then I tried what I mentioned above, and viola: good as new! No drift, no stuck joystick. Cheers, nice tutorial! Have used it 2wice now (other side was starting to drift, just did it again). Be safe, everyone!

Wow, thanks. Taking out the white pads and cleaning them helped fixed my drift stick. Hardest part was getting thr green brackets to click in again for reinstallation of the white pads.

Man you are a live saver. Everything went smoothly. Controller is working perfectly now.

THIS GUY JUST SAVE MY DAY IN 2023 BIG RESPECT KING!!!! 🙌🏼

Like many others did this to fix major drift on my right stick. Went ahead and did the left while I was in there. Thank you very much for this great video.

This video helped me fix my HORRIBLE stick drift problem. This controller is only 6 months out of the box Sony needs to do better. Thank you for sharing this with us!

the controller you helped me fix didn't even look appear to be dirty but low and behold cleaning both of those sensors totally worked.

Hey you helped with my stick drift, when I opened the housing for the stick sensors everything looked OK, one lil hair, so I cleaned it with alcohol put it back together and the drift was gone, and the stick used to have a click feel when moving it and now that's gone too, I'm sure that's what the drifting was coming from, a big thanks to your video 😁👍🏻

when I seen the thumbnail of this video I said “you know what imma just buy a new controller at this point”

THANK YOU, im basically a certified dualshock 4 surgeon but this is the first time having to open up my 2 year old PS5 controller. This fixed my issue. You are a saint.

Another word to the wise... When you remove the little white springy sensors, be careful using a cotton swab on them. They have tiny little spring arms that get caught in the cotton webbing and can bend. I have 20/20 eyesight and can barely see them. So if you clean it out and then you have an issue with the stick rebounding from right to left, you probably bent one. I bent mine back with tweezers and it's working again but I have a feeling I'll have to replace that little white piece eventually.

For some reason the interior of the potentiometer in my controller was covered in like black grease, cleaning only reduced the drift, but also one of the copper plates in the part you take out was broken. I ended up replacing it with one from an old xbox 360 controller, since the manufacturer of the sticks is the same, and it worked... at least for today, time will tell how good of a solution it was.

HUGE thanks for making this video! My controller was driving me nuts and this was my last resort before getting a new one. Im not a technical guy but i followed your video and now my controller is working like a new one! There wasnt alot of gunk or hairs in it but some filth so i thought 50/50 i works right? It worked perfect! So thanks again man! 👍👍

Well, it actually did work perfectly. I did try opening and cleaning the controller before, but never actually took out the sensors. There was so grime inside and cleaning it actually got rid off the issues I had. Great tutorial.

Great video, detailed and easy to follow. Unfortunately the drifting on my stick did not get fixed so I think mine is just worn out from using it for about 2 years.

WARNING FOR PEOPLE ATTEMPTING THIS FOR THE FIRST TIME: Be very gentle! If you're just a little too rough, you can permanently damage the anolog stick. Although this method does work wonders, without caution, this will require you to buy a new controller all together

Thank you for this step by step video, I was going to give up and wait till money was available to buy a new controller but this video was very simple and easy to follow.

This worked for me, much easier than I thought. Did it with my Swiss knife and screw driver. Thank you Tim!

THANK YOU SO MUCH! my controller was bugging me for so many months, I was about to take to shop where I would be charged 30 pounds for it. I just now cleaned it, it works like a charm! I saved a lot of money thanks to u bro. This is 100% legit

Dude. Great video. My left thumbstick was going to the left consistently. I watched your video and followed the exact instructions. Now it's like having a new controller. No stickdrift at all.

I cant believe this actually worked i was so worried the whole way through this process plus i had a more difficult time doing every single part of this than you did but it eventually worked out big fat thank you ! sub and liked lezgoo

this video is my favorite cuz no matter what this video always helps me when i forget how to gut my ps5 controller .. and yes it did help my stick drift

I have an additional tip I would like to share, something I have never seen mentioned in any controller repair video, but which I learned through experience repairing my old PS4 controller. Quite often, cleaning the controller is insufficient, or provides only temporary relief. That is because the culprit may also be metal fatigue. In essence, the bumps on the two metal semicircles on the small white piece have to press against the corresponding metal circles inside the green lid. When metal fatigue sets in, those two metal semicircles no longer form a reliable electrical contact, and this causes the controller to both drift and possibly make sudden jerky movements on its own. The fix is either to slightly bend the two semicircles away from the white plastic to increase the angle, or replace the white piece entirely. In this video you can see very clearly that this controller also suffers from metal fatigue. At 6:44, you can see that there is a large gap between the two semicircles, and consequently the inner circle cannot form a reliable contact. Ideally, both semicircles should be perfectly side by side.

I just did this and my drift got way worse. I'm definitely not saying to not do this though. This is super easy to do and I did find some gunk on one of the sensors. However, the stick itself creaks and I can feel the resistance when I move it. So just a forewarning to others in my same situation. You're probably gonna have to buy a new controller. Other than that amazing video; really taught me how to do this for other controllers when they get drift. I just hope the stick internals don't break on my next controller😅

It definitely worked for my controller. It has a drift to the left on the left toggle switch! I even purchased a new controller for $80 when all I needed to do was this!!! You live and you learn

This worked like a charm. One of the green censor inserts had this black crud around the inside. Make sure all the inserts are properly placed when you put it all back together. I put it back together and my joystick wasn’t even working…after dissembling again, I put one of those inserts in upside down. Did it all over and now works perf. Be patient and gentle. Cheers!

Probably did some internal damage, but the thumstick works lite a charm.

Thank you so much for this, worked for fixing left thrumbstick drift!