So I logged in for the first time in almost a year...

[Masta Squidge]

Well, you can, relatively easily...

Once you have created your Custom.binds file by assigning controls to actions (it will probably have 3.0 between the file name 'custom' and file denominator '.binds' which is the version number), you can change the name in Windows.

You will find all your .binds files at /Users/yourusername/Local/Frontier Developments/Elite Dangerous/Options/Bindings

Spoiler

The contents will have a bunch of .binds files. Mine are already saved with a name that makes sense... The one with the arrow is the one we will do the next bit for. In this case I have called my control settings "CustomT16000M.3.0.binds" as that's the controller I use with this profile.

Personally I periodically back up the whole Options folder - just in case. As well as control settings it has audio and graphics settings too.

Once you have renamed the file in Windows, you must now open the .binds file (use Notepad) and change the second line in the file to reflect the name you gave it in Windows.

Spoiler

Here is where you change the name inside the file. You need to modify the three items "PresetName", "MajorVersion" and "MinorVersion" to match the name (and version number) you gave the file in Windows. In my case this was "CustomT16000M.3.0". (In fact you can probably call the file anything you want in Windows, but it makes sense to keep them the same.)

This line is the name the game uses to identify a control setup. It must be unique otherwise the game gets confused, hence why you might set a control binding, and then find that it isn't recognized or remembered if it conflicts with another profile with the same name.

This way, when the game creates a new Custom.binds file, which it will (I think) if you plug in a different controller, your personalized settings won't be overwritten or corrupted.

Hope this helps...

That's what causes this problem in the first place (as far as we can gather).

I would have to do some testing to see if its that or something else that causes it specifically. In the mean time that's all I did to my bindings and they broke quite nicely.

It might very well be the version numbers that didn't get updated along with it that causes it?

 

[Masta Squidge]

There are functions bound to a controller the OS no longer can find. Removing those bindings fixed my game once. Now the game even warns you for it... By hey-ho, till next year.

That might very well be related, but the game sure did not give myself or OP a warning about it.

 

[Kissamies]

Yeah, this doesn't happen very often but it's completely off-putting when it does. Every time there is a controller change or perceived one, the game is like:

Spoiler

 

[Dagwit]

It is indeed maddening when it happens, which for me is just far enough apart that I've forgotten what I did last time.

They did do some work on this recently, and I haven't had an incident since, which is good. And I'm sure a complete reworking of the binding system is an item on their priority list, probably somewhere about page 87 or 88.

 

[GunnerBill]

Have Void Opals been round a year already?!!

 

[Old Duck]

I know not this DCS.

 

[Lee Wheeler]

Welcome to the Thrustmaster Warthog Crew, best HOTAS in the world, now if only they put them in to the cockpit we could have immersion.

 

[Quiquag]

I know not this DCS.

Digital Combat Simulator. Military plane / helicopter sim. Not for faint of heart. Expect to spend months learning to fly a jet competently using real world systems.

 

[Kemo]

Here's my "I've been playing all this time but how DARE I get a new controller and my bindings got wiped" experience. Replaced my 360 pad with another. But of course, frontier is storing the specific device ID in case I was using two of them (yeah, I get that, some folks run with two identical joysticks). But--game has no way of updating this manually, and instead of wiping just the gamepad controls, it just fails to load the custom bindings at all because it can't find my broken gamepad.

Had to go find my new pad's device ID and then search/replace the old one in the bindings file. Which is not what I'd expect a typical gamer should have to do imo.

I'd like to think that with the sheer number of controls in this game, that the bindings thing would be a strong point of the game--working really well because it's so critical. Sad that I have to dream it rather than have it with Elite.

Full disclosure--I used to have similar issues with ETS2/ATS, but unlike here, SCS have gotten their bindings to a pretty good place now. I would hope this is one of the areas they put some more work into over the next twelve months.

NB: my binds file is sitting at over 1400 lines today. I have absolutely zero interest in redoing them all just because I got one new controller, for those who were about to suggest that.

Second note: imagine if I had added a new controller, rather than replaced an existing one. That'd be a much harder exercise thanks to their system today.

I had a similar issue with a wireless gamepad (for galmap/buggy use in VR), when the thing switched itself off in an attempt to save battery life, when powered back on during gameplay it wasn't recognised in game, the only way to get this back would be to shut the game down and boot it back up. Got so fed up with it I went back to an old 360 wired controller.

 

[Ian Skippy]

Controls consistently clearing themselves is typically a writing issue. Are you sure you run ED with admin rights? Windows updates occassionally mess with this.

Best of luck, stuff like this is super frustrating. :/

 

[Aekero]

I've had issues like this too, super frustrating, and with backups I feel like they stopped working after a couple versions.... Half the barrier to entry to this game for me is all the setup I have to do just to get started again, binds are a major paint point.

I should be able to create a bind set in game, name it whatever I want, and have it persist forever. If I select those binds with a controller missing, then maybe I get an error. Throwing windows errors and ghosting my binds, having to track down those files manually etc, it's not user friendly in the least.

I'll get off my soap box now