Why Don’t My Mouse and Keyboard Work in Fallout 76 on PC?

Fallout 76 is out now, and players are leaving vault 76 en masse and heading out into the post-apocalyptic Appalachian region. Some of us PC gamers, however, are stuck in the starting gates as neither mouse nor keyboard will function, not even in the menu screen you’re first greeted with. Read on for the simple, and face-palm-inducing fix to this issue.

How to Fix Mouse and Keyboard in Fallout 76

The fix to making your mouse and keyboard work in Fallout 76 is as easy as it is ridiculous:

Unplug any game controllers currently connected to your PC!

I, like many other PC gamers, use a game controller such as Microsoft’s Xbox 360 controller on my PC from time to time. It’s particularly useful for controlling vehicles in games like Grand Theft Auto V and Battlefield V. However; it seems to confuse Fallout 76, forcing it to limit input control to the attached game controller and thus rendering your mouse and keyboard completely useless.

There’s also a slightly more elegant solution to this problem. A solution that dates back to Fallout 4. You can edit the config file in %userprofile%\Documents\My Games\Fallout 76\Fallout76Prefs.ini.

In the [General] section edit the bGamepadEnable property to read:

bGamepadEnable=0

In the [Controls] section edit the bGamePadRumble to read:

bGamePadRumble=0

Thanks to Brad for pointing this out!

Frankly, this seems like a rookie mistake on Bethesda’s part and will hopefully be patched soon. My early impressions of Fallout 76 are marred by bad performance and convoluted menu navigation, and while this issue was frustrating initially, at least it’s easy to remedy. Now, patch this, Bethesda, this isn’t 2001!

For more useful guides that will help you accomplish much more important things than figuring out your controls, head over to our Fallout 76 Guide Hub.