It has been a week since the Apple TV Zwift app was officially launched, and it has been hugely popular. There have been numerous post in different Facebook groups asking various Apple TV-related questions, so here is a collection of the best tips, tricks, and observations from the past week.
Apple TV Differences
The Apple TV Zwift differs from the other Zwift versions (PC, Mac, and iOS) in several ways.
Friends Online
The list on the Ride screen is only a list of your online friends and not a full list of other Zwifters.
Jon Mayfield says:
We made the list “friends only” because navigating a giant list of people on tvOS was too cumbersome without a mouse or touch screen. It was possible, but not good.
Your Garmin Device Cannot Pair with Zwift
If you try to use a speed sensor, cadence sensor, heart rate monitor, or foot pod from Garmin with your Apple TV you will have a problem. Most of these are ANT+ devices, and the Apple TV can only connect to Bluetooth devices.
Yes, there are ANT+ to Bluetooth bridges (
Ride Ons and View Other Riders
You have to use Zwift Companion on a iOS/Android device to give ride ons and view other users. It was possible to do it with the Apple TV remote until late in the beta period but the functionality was removed–it simply never worked very well to perform these actions with the remote.
Custom Workouts
So far there is only one way to get custom workouts on Apple TV: Use TrainingPeaks.
You add a workout to your calendar in TrainingPeaks, and TrainingPeaks will automatically upload it to Zwift for you on that day.
You cannot upload Zwift custom workout files (.zwo files) to TrainingPeaks. You must construct your workout directly in TrainingPeaks or use one of the file formats they can import.
Use the Remote Effectively
There are some clever ways to use the Apple TV remote:
- Swipe up to get to the blue button bar.
- Swipe down to select the powerup, then click to activate it.
Make Sure to Disconnect if You Want to Connect (?!)
You can connect Bluetooth LE devices via Zwift Companion on an iOS / Android device. Bluetooth LE devices can only connect to one app and the Settings app in iOS counts, so make sure that your device is NOT connected in Settings > Bluetooth before you try to pair it via Zwift Companion.
Known Problems
Friends are Picked – Even if You Want to be Alone…
It is a minor annoyance that the first friend in the ‘Join’ panel is checked even if you do not click on him/her. It happens when you move up to pick a workout/route or move back down, so just be aware so you do not suddenly get to ride with someone when you planned on something else.
Different World on ATV and in Zwift Companion
There have been cases where Zwift Companion shows a different map than the one in Zwift on the Apple TV. It was reported that if you made sure to use latest versions of Zwift on your devices it should be fixed, but there has been reports of this also with the very latest version of Zwift Companion on iOS (version 2.15 (323)).
Display Issues with ATV 4K and 720p HD TVs
If you have the newest Apple TV 4K but your TV set has only 720p HD resolution, the welcome splash screen fills the whole TV, but the game only fills a quarter of the bottom left hand side. Jon Mayfield has promised it will be fixed in the next update.
We will probably see an update soon…
At the time of writing the current build is 1.0.21984. There will most likely be a new version within a week or so, so check back for an update after that.
Apple TV 4K with Zwift on a 720p TV… filled the entire screen (plus a few pixels over around the edges.. cutting off flags, etc.). Apple TV 4K set to 720p in settings. Plan to move to a 1080p (or higher) screen in the future.
It may be possible for you to change picture settings on your TV set to make sure it shows all pixels of the picture instead of using overscan. E.g. on a Sony Bravia it may be a setting called ‘Display Area’ which should be set to ‘Full Pixel’ instead of ‘Normal’.
A question for you: Do you experience the problem with Zwift not using all of the screen if the Apple TV resolution is set to 1080p in Settings, but not if set to 720p ?
It was indeed the TV settings… it was set to zoom. Missed (but suspected) that in the haste of setting up for the initial ride! Apple TV 4K was fine in 1080p on 720p. No problems at all.
I use my Apple Watch and the Mobile Link along with Apple TV 4k. Works like a charm other than when Mobile Link uploads to Apple’s Activity log I seem to be getting double the active calories. Anyone else experiencing this?
Is it possible to share the heartrate from the Apple watch to the mobile link App on the iPhone or to the Zwift-App running on Apple TV?
You can share it as mentioned. No more heart rate strap. Works great with Apple TV 4k. Select the Apple Watch heart rate monitor when it lists your Bluetooth devices on Zwift. Make sure Mobile Link is open on your watch. The problem I have had it appears to do a double entry for calories burned on the Apple activity monitor. I have turned one of the settings off in Apple Health to see if this resolves it but then when doing so it doesn’t upload the completed workout. Let me know how you make out.
Thx for the information, John, but for me it does not work. The watch says “- – unpaired” On the iPhone health-app I allowed everything to mobile link (write and read). On Zwift the list for heart rate devices is empty (until I put my strap on). All OS are up to date, Apple TV 4 (not 4k), iPhone X, Watch series 2. Any idea?
It wasn’t working for me on Apple TV 4. Picked up a 4k and everything hooked up immediately. Up until now I wasn’t sure it was a TV 4 issue. Your comments confirm it is. You will have to upgrade.
Any tip for hiding the rider list or upcoming sprint/kom list on Apple TV? Can’t swipe it away like I used to be able to when I ran Zwift on the iPhone to the tv w/hdmi adapter. Sometimes I just like to have the screen as free from extra stuff, especially now with the 4K/1080p picture!
It is not possible on Apple TV
I do not know if this is normal, but i have the problem with Zwift and Apple Tv, that no one can give me ride on’s in Zwift Link – nor can they see that i am Zwifting. But when i stop Zwifting, then it annouce to my followers that i am Zwifting now. Like the Apple TV is not able to communicate when i am Zwifting. Hope it give sense what i am writing, and anyone maybe have a solution, thx 🙂
Anyone familiar with that I won’t see a screenshot of the ride once it has been uploaded to my strava ride list? I do not have my strava activities set to private. Any thoughts?