The Playstation 5 was released with a brand new controller that replaced the old Dualshock. The new DualSense boasts many innovations compared to its predecessor, chief among them the responsive adaptive triggers that can offer more resistance to your fingers and respond better to the amount of pressure you use when you push them.
So, what´s the problem? The problem is that they are quite fragile. Many users across the web report that their triggers are breaking, or not responding as well as they used to. The good news is that most of the time, even if the adaptive part of the mechanism breaks, you can still use the triggers normally as if it were an old generation controller.
Now, this isn´t an altogether common problem, at least not in the scale that the joy-con drift is for the Nintendo Switch. But still, it deserves a closer look.
Why does the trigger break on the DualSense controllers?
The triggers tend to break after repeated or heavy use. This is because their internal wheels and springs are made of plastic, instead of more durable materials. There isn´t a pre-set limit, as the number of presses or time of use, that determines when they break. Instead, it seems that some people get lucky and others don´t.
The more you play, the more likely that something happens to your controller, and the triggers stop working. You can tell if your trigger is broken if one of them works fine and the other doesn´t.
Trying to be gentle with your controller seems to be the only way for now of avoiding this problem, but it´s far from a good solution. So, if your triggers break...
Can you fix the Adaptive Triggers on the Dualsense?
If your triggers are broken, the best thing you can do is send them back to Sony so that they´ll fix it or replace your controller with a new one. Each new PS5 comes with a warranty that should cover the cost of repairing your controller.
Can you fix the triggers yourself? Well, before you try, remember that if you tinker with the controller, you might void the warranty and Sony will refuse to fix the issue for you. Or at least, they will charge you more for the service.
If you still want to try to fix the problem yourself, it might be possible to try a home intervention. As this Reddit post shows, you can open up the controller and manually re-align or attach the springs if they are out of position.
However, as even the post itself notes, this is not a permanent solution. To truly fix the issue you´ll need to buy a replacement spring for the trigger. Sadly, there aren´t any on the market as of yet, so you have no way of truly repairing a broken controller. (Some say that the springs the Dualschok 4 use are the same as those on the DualSense, but it´s best not to take a gamble on this if you want to fix your controller)
Hopefully, Sony will fix this issue in the future, or at least there will be more fixes available for the controllers. In the meantime, check out if your older PlayStation controllers work with the new PS5, including specialty peripherals like wheels and joysticks.