XREAL screen drifting? How to make it stay put

You pin the screen right in front of you. A few minutes later, it's creeping off to one side. That's drift, and it's one of the most common XREAL complaints. The good news is that most of it takes a minute or two to fix.

These steps come from XREAL's own guides for its One series, so they cover the XREAL One, One Pro and 1S.

First, is it really drift?

XREAL glasses have two main display modes. Click the X button to switch between them.

• Follow mode. The screen moves smoothly with your head. If it trails along when you turn, that's this mode doing its job.
• Anchor mode. The screen stays fixed in one spot in space. If it slowly slides away here, that's drift.

So check your mode first. If you wanted the screen to stay put, you might just be in Follow mode.

Fix 1: Recenter the screen

Screen sitting off to one side in Follow mode? Long-press the X button. It snaps back to the middle of your view. This is the quickest fix, so try it first.

Fix 2: Run Sensor Calibration

This is XREAL's official fix for drift in Anchor mode.

1. Double-click the X button to open the menu.
2. Go to Others, then Sensor Calibration.
3. Place the glasses flat on a table and wait.
4. When you hear a tone, calibration is done.

Give it a steady, flat surface, not your lap or a bumpy seat. XREAL also says to calibrate the sensors regularly to keep tracking accurate, so it's worth redoing now and then.

Fix 3: Update the firmware

XREAL pushes new features and improvements through firmware updates. Some features, like Screen Leveling below, need the latest version before they show up at all.

1. Check your version. Double-click X, go to Others, then Version.
2. Connect the glasses to a Windows PC or a Mac.
3. Open Chrome and go to xreal.com/ota.
4. Click Connect to give it access, then click Update Now.

XREAL says the update takes about five minutes. Keep the cable plugged in until it's done.

Fix 4: Level a tilted screen

Is the screen crooked rather than sliding? Use Screen Leveling. It only works in Anchor mode.

1. Double-click X and go to Spatial Screen.
2. Pick Screen Leveling.
3. Click X to switch between Roll (tilt), Yaw (turn) and Pitch (up and down). Then use the + and - buttons to adjust.

Each press moves the screen 0.5°, up to 5° either way. Long-press X to reset. Your settings stay saved when you unplug.

Fix 5: On a train, plane or car? Use Follow mode

Anchor mode relies on motion sensors in the glasses. They can't tell your head turning from the vehicle turning. So when the train rounds a bend, your anchored screen can slide too.

The fix is simple: switch to Follow mode while you're on the move. XREAL turns on its Stabilizer by default in Follow mode. It smooths out the small shakes from little head movements.

Fix 6: Seeing blur or trails instead?

Some people call motion blur "drift." If the picture smears when you move your head, that's a different thing. XREAL says it comes from the way our eyes hold onto an image for a split second.

Its advice is to lower the brightness. In Anchor mode, XREAL suggests brightness level 7, two steps below the max.

Still drifting?

• Want it locked to the room? Spatial Anchor uses the XREAL Eye camera, sold separately, to pin the screen to a spot in your room. It only shows up in the menu when XREAL Eye is connected.
• Try a factory reset as a last step. Double-click X, go to Others, then Factory Reset. XREAL warns that this resets every setting and can't be undone.
• Then contact XREAL support. If calibration, a firmware update and a reset don't help, let XREAL take a look.

More help

• No picture at all? Try our XREAL black screen fix.
• Working on a laptop? Our MacBook guide covers XREAL's UltraWide mode.
• Shopping for steadier tracking? VITURE says the Luma Pro has a magnetometer to help cut drift. Here's how it stacks up in our Luma vs Luma Pro comparison.

New to AR glasses? Start here for the five things to do first.