The hand-tracking device changed virtual reality (VR), which is already a fantastic technology. It’s incredible that you already know how to use your hand as a virtual reality controller. It is easy to use, doesn’t need to be charged, and comes from nature. But it’s awful when the hand tracking lags or doesn’t respond exactly to your movements.
When you first put on the headset or when it is adjusting to a new region, right before guardian setup, the Tracking Lost bug often shows up on Quest. This takes place right before the guardian is set off. Members of our team and internet users have said that the problem happens often, but there is no reasonable explanation for why it happens so often or a way to fix it.
It’s also important to note that anecdotal evidence shows that the mistake is becoming more common over time (and new Quest updates roll out). It needs to be clarified if the problem has a logical cause or is just a problem that’s becoming more and more common (or both). The options are listed, from what you should try first to what you can do if nothing else works.
Why is My Hand Tracking Not Working?
The tracking of your hand may not work if you have it turned off in the settings or if your hands are too far away otherwise if you move them too quickly. A few more factors could contribute to the hand-tracking issue you’re having with your Oculus Quest 2 headset.
The ability to track your hands is helpful while utilizing virtual reality. It gives you the impression of having a closer connection to nature. However, it might be frustrating when it does not function when you require it to do so. Please keep reading to learn more about the factors that led up to this problem and how they interacted with one another.
Here are the reasons behind my hand tracking not working:
Hand tracking is disabled
You might have turned off the hand-tracking option in the settings.
If you have the option set off, it will not work with the Oculus Quest 2 headset you use.
Blocked cameras
Possibly, at least one of the cameras on your Quest 2 system is obscured, either by your hand or another object. While playing or using the VR, your hand may cover the camera’s vision.
Hands are out of the range
Oculus Quest 2 can recognize a wide variety of hand motions.
The camera may obscure the view of your hand when it is being used.
As a direct consequence, Virtual reality will not accurately sense the movement of your hands.
Dirty headset
The Oculus Quest 2 can detect hand motions thanks to an external camera.
If the exterior lenses have been meticulously cleaned, the camera will be able to keep an eye on your hand because of the smudges and fingerprints on them.
Quick hand motion
Virtual reality won’t notice your hand’s movement as rapidly as it would usually if you move it quickly, but it will recognize it eventually. Oculus Quest 2 may lose track of what you’re doing if you move your hand too quickly.
Movements in the surroundings
There is a possibility that there are quite a few people in the neighborhood.
The capability of the virtual reality system to precisely detect your hand is hindered when something or someone moves around you in the room.
Insufficient lighting
The camera of the Oculus Quest 2 is used to determine when a user is moving their hands in virtual reality environments. If you are in a dimly lit environment, the camera may have difficulty locating your hand, not detecting your movements.
How to Fix Hand Tracking Issues in Oculus Quest 2
Problems with hand tracking can be fixed by activating the appropriate setting, restarting the system and calibrating it, working inside the camera’s field of vision, maintaining control over the hand’s movements and movements, and performing the task in a well-lit environment.
In addition, you might find that the remedy to your hand-tracking issue is to take some precautionary measures first. To assist you in solving your problem today, we will impart some of the information and expertise we have gained over the years. You have to give your Oculus Quest 2 a fresh start before we can begin the repair. Users have reported that restarting the device fixes various errors and complications that may have been occurring. If you still have problems after restarting your device, you might want to give the solutions listed below a shot.
Here are the ways to fix hand-tracking issues in Oculus Quest 2:
Enable hand tracking
If you enable hand tracking while playing a game, you can use your hand as a controller. You are welcome to use your hands to scroll and navigate the website.
Consider turning on this feature via the menu included in the settings.
Here are the steps to enable hand tracking:
- Proceed to the option labeled Settings.
- Select the Devices option from the menu.
- When you arrive at that page, go to the bottom and select Hands and Controllers from the menu.
- Activate the function that tracks the hand.
Restart Your Quest
As the solution with the highest likelihood of success, restarting your Quest (meaning completely shutting it down and starting it up again; this is different from placing the headset into standby mode) should fix the tracking loss problem in the vast majority of instances. If this is not the case, the issues are almost certainly caused by something else; therefore, you should continue reading. Even after experimenting with the techniques outlined below, it’s conceivable that you’ll still need to restart the headset for the subsequent adjustments to take effect. It is strongly recommended that you keep this in mind and restart the headset whenever necessary.
Factory Reset
If you feel particularly bold, try erasing everything off your Quest headset and starting over from scratch. However, we only recommend that you do this if you have backed up all of your saves to the cloud (or manually using SideQuest) and are sure that you will be able to restore everything to its normal state after wiping the headset.
Run the hand-tracking tutorial again
When you run the tutorial, all of the settings that pertain to hand tracking will be initialized to their default values. This is a good option if you have any problems with the settings or need to calibrate once again.
Here is the procedure to run the hand-tracking tutorial:
- Proceed to the Library menu while you are in the settings.
- Once you have scrolled down, select the Tutorial option.
- Use Your Hands is a game that takes place in virtual reality.
Please read through our most recent VR headset cleaning guide and follow the instructions to clean the foam.
Re-insert battery
Don’t forget to turn off the device before taking out the batteries. If they are new then simply insert it again
And if the battery is old then you must get a new one. If you are having issues with your battery, the hand-tracking feature should start functioning again.
Ensure no camera blockage
There will be occasions when you try to use your hand as a controller, and there will be instances when your hand will interfere with the camera. The environment may disrupt your virtual reality experience. Keep a safe space between yourself and the item or furniture in your room by maintaining that spacing.
Reset Your Guardian
When you receive the tracking loss alert, Quest will offer to stop 6DOF tracking so that you can continue interacting with the platform by tilting your hands and head. This is done so that you can continue using the tilt feature. This is done to ensure you can use the tilt feature without interruption. If you accept, the guardian will be turned off; however, you can quickly go back into the settings and put it back on, which will effectively reset it.
Clear Your Guardian History
Suppose you have generated and stored many guardians in the exact location. In that case, the Tracking Lost issue may become more frequent, or an accumulation of saved guardians may cause it. This is especially true if you have saved a large number of guardians in the same spot.
This idea was proposed by a few of our other audience members. You can clear your guardian history by selecting the settings menu in Quest and selecting the guardian option. In this particular section, you will find the opportunity to clear your history. To acquire access to this set while you are dealing with the issue, you can use the limited 3DOF mode explained earlier.
Keep your hand in the range
At full functionality, the Oculus Quest 2 has a detection range of up to 15 meters.
If your hand is too far from the sensor, it won’t be able to locate it accurately. Either turn your body so your hand is facing the device or bring your hand closer to it so that the virtual reality system can identify the writing as being inside its field of view.
Clean headset
Several cameras are mounted on the exterior of an Oculus Quest 2 headset.
The view through the camera could get obstructed if dust were to build up on the lens over time.Utilize lint-free gentle cloths to perform a comprehensive cleaning of the lens.
It’s possible that your VR won’t work correctly if the lens is scratched.
Control hand motion
If you move your hands too quickly, the virtual reality equipment may have trouble keeping up with your movements and require assistance. While you are working, make sure to move your hand in a slow and careful manner. It won’t be able to recognize your hand
if you move it about too much, so try to keep it still.
Limit movements
It may be challenging to identify the movements of your hands if there are a lot of other individuals in the area or if anything is moving in the area adjacent to you. It is best to utilize the virtual reality system in a room completely devoid of furniture so that it does not become confused by its surroundings.
Clean The Cameras
It is common for people to need to remember to clean and maintain the four outside cameras located on the Quest headset, despite tracking being dependent on these cameras.
Problems with tracking can be caused by smudges, scratches, and anything else that makes the cameras less visible. This could lead to an issue with the tracking needing to be recovered. Utilizing cloths made of microfiber will allow for a more complete and meticulous cleaning of the four cameras that are located on each of the four corners of the headset.
Adjust Your Lighting and Tracking Settings
You may need to adjust if you’re having trouble with this issue, whether you’re playing at night or during the day while using lights or other types of lighting.
Verify that you are playing in a location with adequate lighting, and ensure that the tracking frequency option in the Quest settings is adjusted to be appropriate for the area in which you are located. You can manually change the default tracking frequency setting, which is set to auto by default. You can change it to either 50Hz or 60Hz, depending on what is typical in your region.
You can adjust the auto setting manually if you are having problems with the auto setting. You can skip the tracking step and go straight to the Quest Home menu, where you can adjust the parameters using the standard 3DoF mode. This will take you beyond the tracking lost error and to the location where you can make the necessary adjustments to the settings.
Check for Reflective Surfaces and IR Signals
The tracking rings of the Quest Touch controllers are equipped with infrared lamps.
These LEDs provide the headset with information that it can use to detect the position and location of the controller about itself. However, suppose your playing area contains any additional infrared-emitting devices, such as cameras, television remotes, or a wide variety of other infrared-emitting devices.
In that case, they have the potential to confuse the tracking mechanism of the Quest, which will ultimately result in the tracking mechanism failing. Similarly, reflecting surfaces and mirrors also have the potential to create tracking problems for the same reason. Remove all of the devices in your play area that uses infrared technology, as well as cover up (or relocate) any mirrors to see if this makes a difference.
Avoid Standby Mode
It should be noted that this is anecdotal information; however, our testing has shown that the tracking loss problem is more likely to occur when the Quest is turned on after being in standby mode rather than when it is turned on after having been turned off entirely.
It has been suggested that, in between VR sessions, you turn off the headset while it is not being used to see if this helps lessen the number of times the issue appears.
Ensure sufficient lighting
When attempting to track hand movements, adequate lighting is necessary.
It is possible that the camera will not gather sufficient data if you use hand tracking in an environment with low light. If you have to use it in the evening, either switch on the light in the room you’re in or go somewhere else with a lot of available light. Virtual reality can be disrupted by lighting in a room with bright, primary colors. It is not recommended that colored light be used as the primary source of illumination. Virtual reality’s light source in your room should be ordinary light.
Contact support
We have high hopes that, as a result of following the process, you have already found a solution to the challenge you were facing. If you cannot remedy the problem despite your best efforts, you should get in touch with Oculus support. They will offer you the best possible answer to your issue and lead you in the correct route to find it.
The Oculus Quest 2 comes equipped with a very useful function called hand tracking. After the hand tracking was enhanced to version 2.0, it started to stand out as something exceptional. It is a frustrating experience when you are unable to use your hands to engage in activities such as playing a game or communicating with your loved ones and friends.
In this article, we discussed the several workarounds we have found for the issue where hand tracking in Quest 2 does not function properly.
FAQ
Why are my Oculus Hands not working?
Check to see that your Rift and PC have been updated to the most recent versions. Check that the Touch controllers are appropriately linked to their respective devices. Make sure your Touch controllers’ battery life is not dangerously low by checking the levels of the batteries: Launch the Oculus application that was just installed on your personal computer.
Why do my Oculus quest controllers keep losing track?
If your Rift S periodically loses track of your Touch controllers while they are being used, you can rectify the situation by following the procedures below: Please ensure that the batteries in your touch controllers are installed in the correct positions. Ensure that the remaining battery life on each touch controller is adequate. If the levels are low, the batteries have to be changed.