Pairing happens in the Bluetooth settings of your iPhone, iPad or Android device. Once paired, open PadVitals and the connected controller appears on the Home screen.
| DualSense / DualShock 4 (PS5 / PS4) |
With the controller off, hold the PS button and the Create (Share) button together. When the light bar flashes rapidly, pick it in Bluetooth settings. |
|---|---|
| Xbox Wireless Controller |
Turn it on with the Xbox button, then hold the Pair button on the top edge. When the Xbox button flashes rapidly, pick it in Bluetooth settings. |
| MFi controllers | Put the controller into pairing mode as its manual describes, then pick it in Bluetooth settings. |
| Other Bluetooth gamepads |
Anything the OS recognises as a game controller will show up. If the OS does not recognise it, PadVitals cannot reach it either. |
| Nintendo Switch Pro Controller |
Apple has not stated support for it, so it may or may not work. We cannot guarantee it. |
No controller at hand? Demo mode still walks through every screen (the values shown are fictional).
When the camera or your character moves on its own without anyone touching the stick, that is usually called stick drift. In PadVitals, the drift step of the diagnosis wizard asks you to take your hands off the sticks for a set time and measures how far the values keep sitting away from centre.
Results are kept as history. The history lists the date and time of each diagnosis, and opening a row shows that run's report again. There is no chart that compares runs for you, so measure again days later and compare the reports yourself.
Controllers of the same model share a single history. Neither iOS nor Android exposes an identifier that tells two units apart, so if you use two of the same model, the second one's records land in the same list. Keep that in mind when comparing runs.
Ad removal is a one-time, non-consumable purchase. It hides the banner and interstitial ads and removes the watermark from reports. It is not a subscription.
When you move to a new device, use “Restore purchases” on the Settings screen.
The Live screen and the diagnosis wizard show no ads even before purchase (to avoid mis-taps and interference with measurement).
The values this app shows do not describe the controller hardware itself. They are based on the input that iOS / Android delivered to the app.
The physical report rate of the controller, and the connection type (USB or Bluetooth), cannot be determined from iOS / Android, so the app does not show them. The “input event delivery rate” is a measured value: the rate at which iOS / Android delivered events to the app.
When there is not enough data to judge, the app reports “Undetermined” rather than calling something a fault.