UPDATE (April 17, 2020): with Meetups now allowing Zwifters to schedule events on all 6 open worlds, world hacking via a Meetup may be your simplest option. Especially if you’re on AppleTV, Android, or iOS! See this post for details.
When selecting a route to run or ride, Zwifters must choose between Watopia and two guest worlds which rotate according to the monthly course schedule set by Zwift HQ.
If you want to ride on a guest map that isn’t featured for the day, 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). Before starting up Zwift, open this file in a text editor like Wordpad and simply add one of the following tags to force Zwift to place you in Watopia, Richmond, London, or Innsbruck.
To ride Watopia, add: <WORLD>1</WORLD>
To ride Richmond, add: <WORLD>2</WORLD>
To ride London, add:<WORLD>3</WORLD>
To ride New York, add:<WORLD>4</WORLD>
To ride Innsbruck, add: <WORLD>5</WORLD>
To ride Yorkshire, add: <WORLD>7</WORLD>
This text should go just after the opening <ZWIFT> tag near the top of the file. (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! Invalid values will just make Zwift behave unpredictably or even crash. Follow the instructions above carefully and you’ll be safe.
Sample
Here is a sample prefs.xml file which forces Zwift to always allow Richmond access (added text is in red):
<ZWIFT>
<WORLD>2</WORLD>
<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>
</ZWIFT>
Is there a world number for Bologna?
Bologna is 7, Crit City is 8. But you can’t world hack into either of them.
do i have to close everything of zwift, and then edit the xml, and then restart zwift?
Because it doesn’t work on my computer.
You should edit the XML file BEFORE you start up Zwift. Zwift checks the XML when it starts up, and re-saves it when it exits. So any changes made while Zwift is running will be overwritten.
Yeah. I’m having the same problem. Can someone please confirm this hack still works?
I apologize. I failed to notice the tab for “Watopia” actually did correctly read the name of the world I did the override for. All is right with the world, so to speak. Thanks!
Christoph, in the event you haven’t resolved this, it MAY be because Zwift is still running in the background even though you’ve closed the Zwift window. If you click the upward-pointing arrow (“Show hidden icons”), and the Zwift icon is visible, right click on it and click “Exit”. Then, edit your “prefs.xml” file to identify the world you want to ride, and fire Zwift up again. Hopefully, you’ll see your world of choice on the first world tab.
I used this exploit to try Yorkshire a couple weeks ago, and on the subsequent ride I noticed that all of the “drops” I earned on that ride had been erased. I’m not sure if this happens for anyone else or if it also applies to the XP/levels. Has anyone else noticed this?
I read the article on riding any course at any time. I use the app in Apple TV. When will be able to pick any course any time?
thanks
No idea, Norman! AppleTV is the one device we haven’t figured out a world hack solution for.
The top of the page says “world hacking via a Meetup may be your simplest option. Especially if you’re on AppleTV, Android, or iOS! See this post for details.” Can you now pick a route on Apple TV? thanks
How do I find the documents/zwift directory on my iPad?
Here’s the link you want: https://zwiftinsider.com/world-tag-ios/
how do you get to it on a PC?
I tried to do as you wrote. Does not work.
I exit from Swift and write:
4
Launching a Swift.
The prefs.xml file is renamed to prefs.xml.INVALID
The popup opens in windowed mode.
I exit from Swift and write:
ZWIFT>
WORLD> 4
DEVICES>
I am writing <. The site does not allow to write this symbol in front (
Eric, I love and appreciate your stuff.
Can we ride hack the Event only cities? (Not that anybody would WANT to ride Bologna but Crit City might be cool.
Thanks
Unfortunately no! I agree, though, it would be cool.
I assume I need to go in and delete this tag when done??
As long as the tag is there, it will force you to that world each time you start Zwift.
Does this hack still work with the recent changes (2nd guest world) ?
Yep. I used the hack tonight and it worked fine.
how do you get to the zwift user directory?
I think Zwift has recently changed this with one of their updates. I can no longer find the WORLD tag in the preference file.