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Steam Controller Device ID / Name / Settings?
Craggles086 Jul 30, 2023
Help appreciated.

I have two Steam Controllers,

An old one, and a newer one that was part of the final release.
I would prefer to game with the newer one, but have just moved house here and have no idea which is the old and which is the new.

Old controller settings allowed you to give a name to each controller so I have named them differently to tell them apart.
New controller settings provide no access to change name, or to show name given previously.

Is there any way to show version number or Id or name. Or date when updates were installed to controller?

Last edited by Craggles086 on 30 July 2023 at 9:21 am UTC
This topic has an answer marked - jump to answer.
dubigrasu Jul 30, 2023
Until recently there were several ways to still access the old settings (using -vgui or steam://UpdateFirmware) but Valve apparently removed them all, or at least I know no other way.
From what I understand they don't plan to add them back in the new UI, but only to provide a standalone Windows-only tool, no word about Linux users.
Here are some details: https://steamcommunity.com/app/353370/discussions/1/6516193260178656983/

You could also just launch steam for terminal (alternatively launch it with the -console argument) and then insert the controller cable. You'll get a bunch of info, something like:
!! Controller 0 attributes:
  Type: 2
  ProductID: 4354
  Serial: FC54102CAF
  Capabilities: 00213ff7
  Firmware Version: 0
  Firmware Build Time: 1472158736 (Thu, 25 Aug 2016 20:58:56 GMT)
  Bootloader Build Time: 1439863405 (Tue, 18 Aug 2015 02:03:25 GMT)

As you can see, unfortunately no user-given name is provided, but you could probably use this to find the newer one? IDK...
I also don't know if the Windows tool mentioned earlier can show the user-given name or what exactly it does other than updating the firmware.
There are also ways to revert Steam to a previous build, before the new UI that is, but probably you don't wanna go there.
dubigrasu Jul 30, 2023
Wait a sec, I had an idea and there is a way:
As shown before, launch steam from terminal, note down the serial of the inserted controller and then do a search for that number in ...Steam/steamapps/common/Steam Controller Configs/.
You'll find a "preferences_xxxxx.vdf" file, open it and right on top you'll find the name that you gave it.
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