Call of Duty Warzone is a competitive game and they don’t want to ruin the fun by allowing players to switch between controllers mid-game. This Input device locking system prevents that which is a nice approach unless it creates a new nuisance and it did actually.
Warzone’s Input Device locking is basically locking a player input device or keyboard and mouse to prevent players from switching it in-game. This created an issue, Genuine players cannot switch their controller to keyboard and mouse or vice versa if they have two input devices connected.
Warzone’s input device locked can be solved easily by first exiting the matchmaking screen and then changing the input devices under the General in settings”. Settings > General > Input Devices > Mouse and keyboard / Controller but the most important part is you should be out of the match. If Warzone’s input device is still locked then unplug and plug USB several times until it shows the option unlocked.
Even though this method works surprisingly well for most of the players but for some they still can’t change their input device so here are some different remedies that the Warzone community uses to solve this issue.
Warzone’s Input Locking system For Better or Worse.
Call of Duty Modern Warfare tried implementing cross-play in their game. Now Console players can compete with Pc players in battle but their implementation had a drawback and players were quick to find that exploit.
That exploit was players could join in a lobby with a controller and change it to K&M in-game.
Uh oh, switched to M+KB in controller lobby. pic.twitter.com/C8n6FXLLll
— Tyler Polchow (@TylerTeeP) September 19, 2019
Now what Call of Duty did wrong was that when you join a lobby with a controller almost 70% of players are controller players and sometimes pc players were only 10%.
Pc players connected with the controller and later they switched it to K&M. This is not good because Pc players already have the advantage of High FPS, more Viewing Angles. On consoles, the Field Of View is limited to 80 but on Pc, it can go up to 120, which is a huge difference.
To stop this exploit and for a better battle royal experience Call of Duty added a system where you cannot change the Input Device inside the game. I will say this again this was for the better but somehow it created another issue, this time a Bug.
Now, this issue can be solved as I was facing the same issue and found some solutions for the Input device locked or greyed out from the huge community.
Methods to solve Warzone input Device Locked.
Checking Usb adaptor of your device

Before getting into the first method I want to make sure if you plugged and unplugged several times. Because sometimes it’s registered on a single try or sometimes you have to plug and unplug multiple times to get registered by your system. Some of the players on discord tried to switch off Pc too and it worked so if you did then USB port/ Adapter might be the reason for you.
Believe it or not but USB ports do make a difference. One of my friends was facing the same problem and tried unplugging many times but it didn’t work, at last, he figured it out. The problem was with the USB adaptor. After switching the USB connectors of the Mouse and keyboard from the adaptor to the one on his Xbox the problem was solved.
His adaptor was working fine but was not giving enough power to the mouse and keyboard. He still uses his USB adaptor but switching USB ports helped him.
Try plugging into different USB ports and see which one works the best. If you want to play via Bluetooth then you have to plug it with USB because this is the only method for consoles.
Connecting the game to Xbox extension
Players on Pc can also try the above method and if it works then you don’t have to do these extra steps but if it doesn’t then this definitely will solve the issue.
Connecting X360ce Controller
- First Download This file [ X360ce
]
Simply click the link mentioned site above to go to the download page.
- Download the 64bit version and then extract the zip file.
On the site, download the 64bit version file for the game.
- After extracting the downloaded file, Copy the x360ce_64.exe
After extracting the files from the downloaded file, copy the file with the name ” x360ce_64.exe ” and copy it.
- Open Battle.net > Go to options > Show in Folder Explorer.
Now Open Battle.net client > Go to the options of call of duty warzone and click on Show in folder option.
- Open the Call Of Duty Modern Warfare folder and Paste the x360ce_64.exe inside the folder.
Keep the folder opened and simply paste the file you copied previously.
- Open x360ce_64.exe > Click on Create > Search Automatically.
Now open that file from the game folder. Click on controller 1 and a popup will appear with a warning message just click on create option. Make sure your console is connected and Select the First option ” Search automatically for settings ” check the search internet option and click on the Next button.
- Now either click on auto or remap the buttons to your liking.
After clicking on the finish button, you can assign the controller button according to your liking or you can click on the auto option and you are just a few steps to join the lobby of your friends.
- Save the settings and Go to game settings on x360ce.
After saving the controller profile don’t close the application yet, on the right side of the controller 1 options tab you will see the game settings option click it.
- Click on ➕ADD > Choose your game, not your launcher. (in this case your Modern Warfare application not Modern Warfare Launcher)
Click on the Add option to add a game, a window will pop up to select the game file now copy the file URL from the window that appeared after step 4 and paste the URL on the new popup window to select the file.
- Modern Warfare will pop up and then save and exit the x360ce.
After saving the setting you can close the application.
- Then on the same folder Find xinput1_3.dll and rename it to xinput9_1_0.dll.
On the game, folder find the ” xinput1_3.dll ” named file and rename it to exact ” xinput9_1_0.dll ” and hit enter and refresh the file explorer.
- Open the game
Now close the Battle.net client application and launch the game and you’re good to go.
This method will surely work as it worked for me too. This basically creates an Xbox extension for the game to receive the inputs from their.
You can connect any controller with this application and it will work the same. Just follow these simple steps and it will work. Aside from this if you find micro shuttering in your game here is the fix for the Call of duty Micro Stuttering in Modern Warfare. Be sure to ping us on our social media handle for any queries.