Your Mac ignores the Xbox adapter. This fixes that.
macOS only speaks Bluetooth, so the Xbox Wireless Adapter and every controller behind it — including the 1537 — simply do not exist to it. GamepadBridge is a menu bar app that makes them exist.
No Homebrew? Grab the disk image instead — it is a drag and drop.
How it works
Three links in a chain, and macOS is missing the middle one
Everything the adapter needs already exists — it was reverse-engineered for Linux years ago. GamepadBridge brings that work to the Mac and hands the result to macOS in a form it accepts.
The adapter
The Xbox Wireless Adapter plugs into USB. macOS sees a generic device and stops there — it has no driver for it.
GamepadBridge
The app loads the adapter’s firmware, brings up its radio, pairs your controller and reads its input — all in userspace, no kernel extension.
Your games
It then publishes a virtual gamepad that macOS treats as a real Xbox controller. Games, emulators and System Settings all see it.
What you get
Small app, few surprises
It does one job and stays out of the way afterwards.
A menu bar item, not a window
The icon tells you whether a controller is connected. The menu has the battery level, a pairing button and Quit. That is the entire interface.
Signed and notarised
Gatekeeper opens it like any other app. No right-click-Open dance, no trip through Privacy & Security to allow an unidentified developer.
No sudo, no kernel extension
Unlike Linux, macOS loads no driver of its own onto the adapter — so the app claims it as a normal user. Nothing runs as root, nothing is installed into the system.
Real games see it
The virtual pad shows up on both paths macOS offers: raw HID, used by SDL games and emulators, and GameController.framework, used by Apple-native ports and System Settings.
Firmware, handled
The adapter needs about 200 KB of Microsoft’s firmware, which cannot be shipped with the app. On first launch GamepadBridge offers to fetch it, checks it against a known hash and stores it away.
Open source, all of it
GPL-2.0-or-later, built on Medusalix’s xow. You can read every line that touches your controller, and build it yourself if you would rather.
Compatibility
Check your hardware before you install
GamepadBridge talks to the USB adapter. If your controller already pairs over Bluetooth, macOS handles it on its own and you do not need this app.
Adapters
Xbox Wireless Adapter
first generation, the wide one
Xbox Wireless Adapter
second generation, the slim one
Surface built-in adapter
same silicon, different housing
Controllers
Model 1537
Xbox One controller
Model 1697
Xbox One controller (2015)
Model 1698
Xbox Elite controller
Model 1708
Xbox One S controller
Model 1797
Xbox Elite controller Series 2
You also need a reasonably recent Mac
One button does not make it across
Installing
Two ways in. Pick either.
They end up at exactly the same app — the difference is only whether you would rather type or click.
With Homebrew
Three commands, and updates arrive with the rest of your software. If you already use Homebrew, this is the one.
Read the stepsWith the disk image
Download, drag the app to Applications, done. No Terminal, nothing to set up first.
Read the stepsNever used Homebrew and not sure what it is? There is a page for that.
Plug the adapter in and play something
Installing takes about a minute. The one thing that trips people up — a macOS permission — has its own step in the guide, with a picture of where to click.