Hi everyone,

Sorry if this has been posted before. I have a problem with the lockpicking feature and it's really starting to do my head in.

For some reason, the lockpicks just break immediately as soon as I press the A button to enter the lockpicking option on the relevant lock without me even touching anything on the controller. No matter what I do, this seems to happen almost everytime without fail. If the lockpick doesn't immediately break on contact, it will be stuck in one position and will be immovable. Once in a blue moon the lockpick will act as normal but it takes ages to get this to happen and it's starting to take up way too much time and is taking the enjoyment out of the game. It's becoming a serious impediment to quests and makes anything I do take so much longer.

Can anybody tell me why this is happening and if there's something I can do about it? Lockpicking advanced locks is hard enough without this stupid bug. I'm on xbox 360. Thanks in advance!

I thought this was a roll or somethng when enterered the lock picking. I didnt think it was a bug? I thought it was my controller at one point... U using standard MS controller? For example i was using MW3 controller. Which btw acted glitchy in another game, i just sent in for replacement.

I'm just using a standard xbox controller as I'm playing on the xbox. I assumed its a bug because it happens every-single-time without fail. What else could it be? What could be causing this? Am I doing something wrong? I'm not even touching anything on the controller at all and the picks just snap on contact. I actually ended up turning the game off completely today because it's becoming such a big problem and taking up so much time.

What level does the chest your currenlty trying say it is? Novice, Apprentice, what?

Then try this... This is what i was doing.

Save game.

Go in, start to pick the lock and jerk your turn stick left to right. It might break a couple times just try again... See if it "loosens up"

If its loose. Load game see if its stuck still.


However if the chest is way high level, go find a lowerone.

It could be a controller problem, with the stick being off center and giving out a signal that makes the lockpick think its moving and therby breaking the pick. I would test another controller to check it out.

Ya, probably way simpler than my option. Just try another controller indeed.

I was having the exact same issue so I tried another controller and the lock picking issue stop...I don't know if you tried this; maybe barrow a friends controller and see what happens. Man, this is a bummer of a glitch if that is indeed what this is. I wish I could be of more help to you, sorry.

frank94005

I just RMA'd a microsoft controller, i just called on the phone, was pretty easy, You do have to pay the shipping to replacement facility. But return shipping is free.

It happens on all them no matter what the level. Every single one. All of them. No matter where I go. And no I can't move the lock pick. It breaks on sight and I don't get a chance to do anything. The instances it becomes stuck I have to exit the lockpick game completely and re-enter it. Then, of course, I get the breaking pick problem.

I appreciate your lockpicking hints, but poor lockpicking skills aren't the problem here. I was always able to pick locks right up to Expert level. It's only since the new update came out that this has been a problem. Since then, the problem happens every single time I try to pick a lock and it just becomes so time consuming that the game is now no longer worth playing, which is such a bummer as I'm really enjoying the game.


Perhaps that could be a solution. It makes sense. I do have two controllers so I will have to check with the other one.

Thanks for the help everyone! I appreciate it very much!

Ok so I tried my other xbox controller. The second controller did not solve the problem entirely but the problem was improved a fair bit. The problem still happens a LOT but not as much as with the other controller. Lockpicking is still a time-consuming pain in the proverbial but the feature is a lot more usable now.

So at this stage I agree that it is a controller issue, though I do want to try it with a mate's controller just to be certain though. My controllers are probably getting a bit on the old side and it's probably time for new ones. To be honest, though, I'm not as familiar with the gaming world as some people out there = is replacing controllers every so often fairly normal?

Sorry if anything I've posted in this thread makes me sound like silly. I thought I was going nuts with this problem! At least now I have an idea of what could have been behind it.

Thanks so much for the input to everyone who replied. I appreciate it so much. You're all awesome!

I don't have any suggestions Barb, but if you've had experience lockpicking up to expert it really deadens any argument that you're just "doing it wrong"! Obviously you know what you're doing. I would say move anything that might be interfering with your signal as well. I don't know a lot about hardware but from what I understand the controllers use an infrared signal, so if there's some sort of communication problem like someone mentioned it might be registering movement when there's nothing. Also consider any other technology around that might be interfering. It would seem weird if that were ONLY happening for lockpicking, but it's all I've got. Best of luck!

I had this problem and it was the controller. Swapped controllers and the problem went away. There's enough drift to the controller that skyrim picks it up in lockpicking, but not anywhere else, same with other games. Once I swapped to one of the other controllers the problem hasn't returned for me. It seems that its just a little too picky on the drift.

When I was using the controller, I did note that flipping it lightly to the right would stop the lockpick from automatically breaking on me. It may have something to do with sensitivity settings maybe in the game? try setting them a little lower and see if it does the same thing to you, it may ignore the slight drift of the controller if the sensitivity is set a little lower.