Lots of people have been wondering how to turn off Oculus Rift S Controllers, which had me looking into what was going on with the Rift in general.

There seems to be some confusion based on what Oculus thought was a simple adaptation to their software.

The answer is simple, and I’m going to explain in detail how to turn off the controller. I’ll also answer some other questions that the same people seem to be getting stuck on. Questions like “What do the lights mean on my controller?”, and “how to reboot my Oculus headset?”

If you’ve been asking these same questions too, then don’t worry your Oculus Rift isn’t broken, there’s just been some miscommunication in the Oculus instruction guide.

I’m starting off with the main issue that most Oculus Rift users are struggling with. Some people have complained that their headsets turn themselves off, or that they have charged the controllers in the night, and in the morning they have turned themselves off.

What’s actually happening is the Oculus Rift has put itself into sleep mode.

The Oculus Rift automatically goes into sleep mode when you remove the headset from your head. Sleep mode is the Oculus’ stand-by function, which lets it stay on whilst reducing the amount of power it is using.

You only need to take it off for the technology to recognize that it’s no longer being used. When it does this the lights will start giving off a gentle pulsing, letting you know it is still on. This is not the same as the warning colors or the charging colors that I’ll discuss a bit later.

If you put the headset onto a stand or have it covered, it might be confusing the technology into thinking you are still wearing it. So if you’re having the opposite effect, make sure the headset cannot view anything around it as your head.

There are two ways to turn off the Oculus Rift controllers and they are both tied to the headset. Unfortunately, you cannot, yet, turn off just the controllers alone.

The first way is to press and hold the power button for 10 seconds, whilst you’re not wearing the headset. Or if you are wearing the headset, you need to press the power button until you see a menu come up. This is the shut down menu. Scroll down until you get to the “Power Off” selection. Click that button.

The second way to turn off your Oculus Rift controller is to take out the batteries. That isn’t the best answer, but it seems that Oculus didn’t think about the games which only use a joystick, like Elite Dangerous, and so didn’t think about unnecessary battery drainage.

You can do this with both the headset or the controllers, but remember that the controllers take their cues from the headset.

You might need to reboot your oculus equipment for a number of reasons that might not even relate to the equipment you’re using but the actual game you’re trying to play.

Rebooting is very similar to turning the Oculus off, but the main difference is that you cannot do it with the headset off. The headset needs to be on so you can select the reboot button.

The first thing you need to do is press down the power button when the headset is still on your head. Like before you’ll be shown to a drop down menu. This is the shutdown menu. Instead of clicking “Power Off”, you will need to click “Restart”.

If the reason for the reboot is because of a glitch in the equipment, then you might not be able to maneuver through to the shutdown menu at all.

This might be frustrating, but the best way to continue is to do the restart manually. This means shutting the equipment down when it’s off your head, waiting a couple of minutes, and then turning it back on again.

You need to give the equipment a couple of minutes’ rest so that it can truly reach a cool temperature and zero usage. If you ignore the rest time, you might end up with the same problem you had before.

The colors and the state of the light will mean different things. There are only 5 colors that should be given off not including a lack of light.

Oculus Headset Light Colours Whilst Charging

If the color of the light is a solid green, then your headset is charged.
If the color of the light is a solid orange, then your headset is charging.
If the color of the light is a solid red, then your headset’s battery is very low.
If there is no color in the lights, then your headset isn’t charging.

Oculus Headset Light Colours Outside of Charging Mode

If the color of the light is a solid white, then your screen is on.
If the color of the light is a blinking white, then the system is rebooting or is turning on.
If the color of the light is a blinking purple, then the system is performing a factory reset.

Oculus Controllers Light Colours

If the color of the light is a solid white, then the controllers are on.
If the color of the light is a blinking white, then the controllers are in pairing mode.