The latest Zwift update has been announced and will be released in phases over the next few days.
This release has no new features: just a lot of bug fixes and some quality-of-life tweaks. Read on for details!
Zwift Play Connectivity Improvements
Zwift’s release notes for today’s update include four entries related to Zwift Play controller connectivity:
- Fixed an issue with Zwift Play that could occur when reconnecting the device.
- Improvements to controller connection reliability
- Fixed an issue where Ride-On Bombs or braking may not work properly if the controllers lost connection to the game and then reconnected
- Fixed an issue where braking would still have haptic feedback (i.e. controller vibrations) when haptic feedback was disabled in settings
Zwift is clearly devoting significant developer and hardware QA time to improving Play connectivity, and that’s great news because consistent performance is needed if Zwift Play is to be embraced by the everyday Zwifter. In the past several weeks, we’ve experienced (and reported to Zwift) erratic Play connections at various times:
- moving between events and free rides
- starting a fresh Apple TV activity
- changing from built-in Bluetooth to Companion connections when Zwifting with a PC
- and sometimes, one controller would disconnect mid-ride!
Hopefully this update fixes all or most of these niggles. We’ll know soon enough!
Fix for Garmin Connect Users
Zwift’s release notes include this blurb:
Fixed an issue where activity progress (i.e. FIT files) could become corrupted after quickly skipping Workout intervals, resulting in Zwift getting stuck on the Save screen and inability to upload affected FIT files to Garmin Connect
Zwifters have been reporting problems with uploading workouts to Garmin Connect for some time now. The cause of the issue (when quickly skipping intervals in a workout, Zwift doesn’t write timestamps to the lap data) was surfaced by Shane Miller (GPLama) quite a while ago, so it’s good to see the fix making into the game. Good on ya, Shane!
Zwift Racing Score Taken Offline
This isn’t technically a part of today’s game update, since the changes are all handled on the server side. But it’s worth mentioning that yesterday Zwift announced that Zwift Racing Score was being temporarily disabled “while we work on improvements to the overall scoring mechanism, which is currently in development and targeting a release in the coming months, though we don’t have concrete details for you yet.”
Readers may recall that Zwift Racing Score was soft-launched back in late June. You may also recall that some members of Zwift’s racing community were, shall we say, “less than impressed” by how Zwift chose to handle the scoring.
We can’t share any details due to NDA, but from what we’re hearing internally, Zwift’s revamped scoring mechanism should be a big improvement over the first iteration. Zwift clearly heard the community’s feedback, and they appear to be trying to deliver a Scoring mechanism that is in step with the high standards set by other community projects such as zwiftracing.app.
When will the new scoring scheme roll out? Zwift’s just-released This Season on Zwift plans state that Zwift Racing Score is launching in late November.
More Release Notes
Here are additional notes provided by Zwift on the tweaks and bug fixes included in this update, with additions from us in italics:
- Kickr Bike: You must now press and hold the U-Turn button (i.e. the Right Minus button) before a U-Turn is initiated. No more accidental U-Turns. Hurray!
- Fixed an issue that could occur when trying to access Climb Portal after switching worlds via joining or completing an event between France and Watopia
- Fixed an issue which caused some Custom Workouts to not sync across multiple devices
- Fixed an issue where activity progress (i.e. FIT file) would not include progress made after resuming an interrupted activity after a game crash
- Zwift Play: Reduced the amount of time required to hold the Z-Button before giving a Ride-On Bomb. Hurray for easier Mega Ride On Bombs!
- Zwift Play: Reduced the amount of time required to hold the D-Pad Down button before initiating a U-Turn
- Zwift Hub: Fixed an issue which could cause some text to unexpectedly appear in the in-game HUD after closing the Settings screen
- Elite Rizer: Fixed an issue which caused steering to not work. This should fix what the previous update broke.
- Climb Portal: Average power shown at the end of the climb now only includes watts generated while in the Climb Portal and not before entering the portal. Thank heavens, this one had been bugging us since the Portal launched!
- Climb Portal: Fixed an issue where Emotes could not be heard by nearby users. I’m toast!
- Fixed an issue in the France Ven-Top route where previous route time was shown as blank in the in-game HUD
- Improved elevation tracking in London and Richmond worlds. At long last – the elevation counter moves in 1-foot increments instead of changing every ~6 feet!
- iOS:
- General improvements to game memory usage. Lots of iPad users complained of Zwift locking up after the previous update. Hopefully this helps!
- PC:
- Intel Arc A77M GPUs now have the Ultra graphics profile enabled. A mobile GPU from Intel running in Ultra? Laptop lovers rejoice!
See and discuss release notes in the Zwift forum >
Questions or Comments?
If you spotted any other changes or bugs in the update, please comment below!
Still have issues when using atv remote
Accidentally pressing microphone or Siri button disconnects my elite trainer connection very annoying
Hmm… has it always been that way, or is this new behavior?
No, this seems to be new behaviour.
Before it would also leave the zwift screen but not disconnect.
Hi Eric, yes there is a now a bug as Wim notes and it goes further on ATV – if you edit the App to launch a PIP (picture in picture) and return to Zwift, all your Bluetooth connections are lost. I tried it with the Companion App i.e., pairing all devices to the App instead of ATV, and same thing happens – all connections dropped when launching PIP. This worked perfectly ever since Shane (GP Lama) showed us all how to use PIP on ATV while using Zwift. Hopefully you can flag this for Zwift as it might in fact be an ATV bug that has been introduced in one of their updates.
Yay – the Wattbike Atom is still not capable of steering
Concering Kickr Bike v1, any news if Zwift has de-coupled trainer difficulty from climbing percentage? I would love to ride at 50% TD and experience the entire range of elevation pitches. I know there’s a hack for the Kickr… but nothing yet for the Kickr Bike?
The best I can do now is open the Wahoo app and change virtual gearing in real time to reduce TD on the Wahoo side while still running Zwift TD at 100% in which I then experience the entire gradient range.
If they’ve shelved this request I can take a look at the source code and possibly figure it out?
Why would you wanna do that? whether you change the difficulty in Zwift or Wahoo makes no difference?
Because a reduction in trainer difficulty(TD) in Zwift also reduces gradient feel by that same amount (i.e. going up a 10% grade at 30% TD results in the nose of the bike only raising 3%).
To keep the nose of the bike tilted at 10% but reduce TD I found that you can kind of… sort of… but not really mimic this in the Wahoo App during your Zwift sessions. So, now… if my legs are smoked, and I want an easier pedaling resistance, I simply change gearing ratio’s in the Wahoo App on the fly while riding. The change in resistance is felt immediately and I keep the gradient feel at 100%. A hack that’s far from perfect but its the closest I’ve found so far.
Has anyone else found a better hack on these Kickr Bikes? Or, as I stated earlier, is this on the radar of Zwift bugs?
Zwift could fix this by adding a 2nd setting: Gradient Feel. Values: 1-100%. This would de-couple it from Trainer Difficulty to allow for full gradient feel regardless of TD setting.
It’d be a small tweak to their algorithm to help the Kickr Bike realize its full potential. At present… it’s neutered.
Adam, as I see it, what you’re asking isn’t really necessary. Just create profile with a triple chainring setup with you normal gearing as the bigger rings (#s 2 and 3) and then a really small easy chainring as the #1. Then you don’t have to constantly be switching on the fly in the Wahoo app. That way you get an easy gear ratio and keep the gradient tilt.
As you know, you can set up as many profiles as you want in the Wahoo App and they’re pretty easy to switch between, which is what I started out doing. But once I set up a triple the way I want it, I just keep it that way all the time now. You can get the chainrings how you want them but it might take a bit of messing in the app (you can’t set the middle too close to the big or something like that). Just experiment and you can figure it out. I stopped trying to use the same chainring sizes as my outdoor bike because it’s so different and the speeds are so much higher that it’s not the same anyway.
Good luck if you try it!
Thanks Andew… that would widen the gear ratios going with a 3x keeping my pencil pegs happy.
Yet, my fault… I made this too complicated.
I guess what I’m asking for is the ability to change trainer difficulty in Zwift while keeping gradient feel at 100% on the Kickr Bike. Currently, I don’t believe this is possible?
You’re definitely overcomplicating things. The effect of adjusting TD is exactly the same as changing your gearing (from the perspective on your legs), so as already mentioned just setup the kickr bike with the gearing you need. I have the same bike and have got it setup with just a single chain ring with a large spread 13 cassette. I can happy manage high speeds or climbing to the Radio tower without changing TD at all and enjoy the full range of climb simulation. What you’re asking really isn’t necessary if you setup the kickr bike to your needs (that’s the whole point of it).
Somehow, my original question isn’t being understood.
Jimmy… since you have a Kickr Bike… when you run at let’s say 30% difficulty, do you also experience the bike tilting at 10% up a 10% gradient? For me, I only recognize 30% of this 10% gradient or 3% actual gradient. This is a bug IMHO.
Has Zwift fixed this? Or is there a hack like for the Kickr Climb unit using the Wheelbase property to compensate for a lessor TD setting? Then a full 10% gradient is felt at 30% TD.
Eric Schlange.. hopefully you’ll read this and at least acknowledge what I’m trying to describe? Or maybe this is fixed? If not, does Zwift acknowledge this issue?
Thanks all. 🙂
I understand what you’re describing/asking, Adam. I’ve never heard Zwift acknowledge this as an issue. And I don’t know of a “fix” akin to the wheelbase hack for the KICKR.
Initial findings – right Zwift Play controller does not connect despite being discoverable. M1 MacBook Air running latest version, firmware updates updated.
Does the update include crashing if overdoing half wheeling 🙂 If using a TT bike does the rider crash if riding “head down”. Both of those would add to the realism. After my recent crash (neither of those causes) I’ll be using a handcycle on Zwift and in the real world.
I’m probably just being stupid, but is it possible to close the big blue results screen at the end of a race from the companion app? It takes up the whole screen and I have to get off the bike to close it before I can ride on if I don’t want to stop at the end of a race.
(Get off the bike and press the button on my Mac, that is)
I don’t think it’s currently possible.
I realized yesterday after installing the new update that they removed the ability to ride through banners in the climb portal after pulling a U-turn while descending. I used this method to glorious XP riches over the last few months haha. Ride to the top, start your descent, pull a U-turn at each star icon indicating a banner on your way down, collect your reward, then pull another U-turn to keep descending and do it again at the next one…all the way down the climb. I was averaging well over 2,000 XP/hour and as much as 3,000/hr doing this. I guess Zwift caught on 😅
Morning How can I check if I have the latest up date
This page explains it: https://zwiftinsider.com/update-zwift/
Hi all. I still have the problem that Zwift does not take any video screenshots. The item is missing in the settings. Both my Macbook and Zwift are up to date. The support bot from zwift is no help. Does anyone have any ideas?
I rode yesterday for the first time since this update and noticed that you are not accumulating distance or time during the countdown timer after joining a Pace Partner. This wasn’t the case previously. Has this been changed officially or is this a mistake?
I should clarify, that the moment you start pedaling is when Zwift will start your distance and time counting. Also, that moment is where Strava will show you starting as well. I joined with Bernie on Volcano Flat about 200m before the banner but didn’t clip in until right at the turn to go down Ocean Blvd and that’s where Zwift/Strava has me starting.
Been that way for a while.
Had a weird bug in climbing portals where the trainer stops working. I have had to jump off and pull the lead out and plug back in. You know when it happens the resistance feels like 300w but display shows 120w.
One thing I have always wondered is why Zwift can’t, or doesn’t post, average watts. Has there ever been talk of this?I have been riding Zwift for years now and I have always assumed that would eventually come.
What do you mean not posting average watts? You can see it on people’s rides on their profiles. It’s also on the pause screen if you’re stopped.
Hope, they will remove that annoying login screen on every Zwift start.
In the end, this will end up in easier Passwords for faster logins. And this is against every Security recommendations!
Why is that implemented? Which goal want Zwift to reach with that? It does makes no sense…
There are many other mechanism to avoid session highjacking….
I can confirm that the 1.48 fix DOES NOT WORK. Tried everything including deleting from iPhone, iPad and Apple TV then re-installing but still no steering. Deleted my Rizer and re-installed (checking the latest firmwear) but that didn’t help either. It connects perfectly and follows the gradient as it should but no steering at all.
If you ride in a group, you are forced to the extreme left hand side of the road which is useless so riding alone it then keeps you down the centre line which is better but still not right.
I’ve contacted Zwift and raised a ticket twice but still nothing. I was assured on my last chat they will get back to me via email. I’ll believe that when it happens. Come on Zwift, fix it. It worked perfectly before 1.47. Get it sorted.
With so much developer energy going to Play there’s a feature they need to add. This is heat seeking missiles for ride leaders. So many times I’ve heard complaints about flyers on casual rides. The fence was a great addition until they removed it’s ability to punt flyers from the event. Now with Play it offers the chance to really add some fun
“gameification” to Zwift. Ride leaders could use the Play controller to initiate a missile lock. If the flyer(s) didn’t return to the group within a specified amount of time, the leader could then fire the missile(s) and blow them up (maybe the flyer(s) could be offered one chance to use steering or a countermeasure powerup to evade?). Fun and exciting for the leader, the group, and daredevil flyers!
Still have the issue with the Elite Rizer. Steering is not working.
Is it possible that the app no longer supports Android V.10 on my Samsung Tablet S4?
How many years has it been since they added a keyboard shortcut? Trying to give ride-ons through the keyboard is the most frustrating thing.
Have they removed (or moved) the trainer difficulty setting? It’s not there in 1.48.2. On ATV.
Please ignore. Trainer wasn’t connected. Doh!