Ok, I definitely had that happen before. I'm trying to remember what I did to fix it. Are you trying to use one of the xpad or xboxdrv packages? I think the solution that's currently working for me is not using either of them. I removed them and I think it must be steam that's making it work for me.

Or if you're not using either of those, then maybe try them out lol. It sucks how finicky it can be to get it working, but I still prefer Xbox controllers.