Zwift currently places everyone on the same course, according to the monthly course schedule which is posted each month in the Zwift Support Hub. Eventually riders will be able to choose which course they ride on, but until then here’s an easy hack that lets you ride any course at any time.
You have a prefs.xml file in your Zwift user directory (which is in your Documents/Zwift directory on PC/Mac). Open this file in a text editor like Wordpad and simply add the following text to force Zwift to place you in Watopia, Richmond or London.
To ride Watopia, add: <WORLD>1</WORLD>
To ride Richmond, add: <WORLD>2</WORLD>
To ride London, add: <WORLD>3</WORLD>
This text should go just before the </ZWIFT> tag. (If you place it inside of a section like “<DEVICES>” then it will not work.)
Using Zwift iOS? Here’s how to accomplish this same hack on your iDevice.
Important: Do not insert bogus values into your preferences file!
There are no “hidden” courses, secret maps or back doors which can be found by inserting the wrong values into your prefs.xml file. If it’s invalid, Zwift will just behave unpredictably or even crash. Follow these instructions carefully and you’ll be safe!
Sample
Here is a sample prefs.xml file which forces Zwift to always place you in Watopia (added text is in red):
<ZWIFT>
<DEVICES>
<LASTCADENCEDEVICE>720996</LASTCADENCEDEVICE>
<LASTPOWERDEVICE>720996</LASTPOWERDEVICE>
</DEVICES>
<CONFIG>
<RICHMOND_BRANCH_PREFERENCE>0</RICHMOND_BRANCH_PREFERENCE>
<BRANCH_PREFERENCE>4</BRANCH_PREFERENCE>
</CONFIG>
<WORKOUTS>
<USE_ERG>1</USE_ERG>
</WORKOUTS>
<WORLD>1</WORLD>
</ZWIFT>
Note: special thanks for this hack go to to David A. Desrosiers who first discovered this option.
Just tried this today and doesn’t seem to work. Always goes to London course:(
I found the same issue with it defaulting back to London after I added the # hack. But found if you add the line of code at the second to last line not at the top of the code it works.
#
But why? Why not make every course available at any time?
Hi – thanks for the tip and same here. You have to add the 1 tags at the end, i.e. in the second to last line. When using other positions in the file ZWIFT would alway rewrite the file to the default set and remove the 1 tags, as well as all settings.
…
1
Thanks, updated the post!
Jesper Nielson zwift-preferences script is MUCH better and much easier than doing this manually.
Except it doesn’t appear to work with a Mac, and this other process looks a bit too daunting for this little black duck
Could just make it an option in the start screen instead of making some work around hack.
This sounds like a fantastic hack. One question: if you manually select the map, do you lose the other riders? In other words, are you riding alone because the servers are only supporting the scheduled map that day?
Yep. Anyone who forced the same “off schedule world” as you will visible on course, but nobody else.
Which saves lots of network traffic, I assume?
If I change the file on my windows pc will this also the iOS zwift ride?
Any ideas on how to do this on the iOS version?
None that I know of, unless you jailbreak your phone and edit the file directly.
Actually you can use the same approach as uploading workouts and use iFunBox to download, edit, and upload the prefs.xml file with the node in place.
Really? I don’t see prefs.xml in the sandbox on iFunbox. Are you sure you see it? On a non-jailbroke phone?
Yes, it says ‘Jailed’ in iFunBox, 6S Plus iOS 10.2. I found it under AppFileSharing->Zwift->Zwift->prefs.xml. It works too as I rode London Sunday, yesterday and today.
so after having ridden the London course far too many times now, how do I get it so it plonks me down it whichever is the monthly route again? I tried reversing the above but I still seem to get London all the time!
Just edit your prefs.xml file and remove the tag line entirely. So X would all be deleted. Then save the file and start up Zwift. Viola!
Hi
I can enter the Wapotia world but you can’t see the volcano routes ???
Can you help
Make sure you’ve got Zwift updated.
OK, I have been riding Richmond for my workouts and I love it. But, just for knowledge sake, how do you set it back to the default?
Just delete theX section you added to your prefs.xml file.
Thanks! I’m code illiterate. Unless I can just cut and paste, I’ll screw up. But, since this is just cut without the paste, I can handle it.
Just tried this and it resulted in an invalid file, which I can’t open. Zwift won’t pick up my trainer now, any advice?.
Sure. Read the instructions above again and do follow them exactly! It’ll work.
And if it doesn’t, just erase whatever changes you made to the original file and re-save it.
Stumbled on the solution for IOS users! Last night I kicked off my workout and was in Watopia, I was going along wondering why it was so quiet. Once completed my ride did its usual upload to Strava and TP yet something wasn’t right. Strava sent me a notification that it had been uploaded but wasn’t on there, then looked at TP and it was down for this evening ! I then noticed I had my clock on my Ipad set 24 hours ahead. So have just tested today with an iphone, currently Zwift showing Watopia (22/03) changed date on phone to Monday 27/03 and relaunched Zwift = London!
Please could someone confirm this is still working as mine wont since last app update
Just checked–it’s still working for me.
Does this hack work to get the Mayan Jungle before level 10?
Nope. That’s just a portion of Watopia, not a world in itself, so it’s unrelated to this hack.
Is there a way to do this on the AppleTV?
Not that we know of!
That’s unfortunate.
My prefs file includes way more info than the example above. Adding in the world 1 text exactly, in the 2nd last line doesn’t appear to work.
Tried this today. Didn’t work and MacBook Pro converted the file to “equation editor” format, whatever Thai is. Zwift opened to London as scheduled, not World 1. When I closed zwift and tried to open the file again, it was corrupted. I deleted the file, then uninstalled and reinstalled Zwift. The pref file did not come back, but Zwift seems to work fine without it.
Can two individual people (or more) perform this and do a private group ride? Or does it just give the course to each person alone?
You can ride with someone else if you both do the hack.