Character controller is not grounded

Solved it.

Whatever is happening to detect gravity happens in CharacterController.Move(). It was this thread from back in 2018 that made me realize this: https://answers.unity.com/questions/1492717/charactercontroller-isgrounded-confusion.html

TLDR make sure you're doing two things: 1. Check for grounding AFTER you call CharacterController.Move() 2. Keep a little force applied even when you ARE grounded.

I generally set normalForce to 1.

Here's my code:

public class Player : MonoBehaviour { [SerializeField] float gravity = 9.8f, normalForce = 1f;

 float gravVelocity;
 
 CharacterController character;

 void Start()
 {
     character = GetComponent<CharacterController>(); // References the Character Controller
 }

 void Update()
 {
     UpdateGravity(); // Gravity is added to player movement
 }

 // The character moves downward (negative up) at velocity (gravVelocity) per second (deltaTime)
 void UpdateGravity() {
     character.Move(gravVelocity * Time.deltaTime * -transform.up);  // Move() must be called before isGrounded              <--|| required for proper   ||
     if (character.isGrounded) { gravVelocity = normalForce; }       // A static normal force must be applied when grounded  <--|| ground detection      ||
     else { gravVelocity += gravity * Time.deltaTime; } // increase gravVelocity by meters (gravity) per second (deltaTime)
 }

}