Zwift Connection Issues: How To Troubleshoot Zwift Pairing Issues

If you are new to Zwift or used Zwift for any period of time, you know connecting your bike trainer to Zwift can be a challenge some times. In this video I will walk you through the most common reason why you smart trainer isn’t connecting and how I personally troubleshoot these connection issues.

--- Chapters ---
0:00 Intro
0:41 Connection Methods
2:31 Why Zwift Can't find your bike trainer
3:25 Bike trainer issues
4:39 Signal dropouts
6:31 Resistance Issues
8:42 Apple TV Issues

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[Dcrainmaker]

I’m just here for the thumbnail. On point!

[tiagoafonso]

A couple of things I have learned from my experience with connection drops using a MacBook pro:
1 - iPhone interferes with the connection between the mac and my wahoo smart trainer
Turning BT off on the phone helps a lot. Or moving it away from the laptop.
2 - Ant+ dongle with a USB cable extension, helped and solved 99.9 percent of the drops in connection. Now extremely rare.
Hope it helps, nothing more annoying than a drop in connection during a race.

[itsraining]

I've been having issues since the updates in May 2023. Thanks for getting me get connected and now I don't have to lose my mind trying to figure it out.

[jamesryan]

Great video -only one time missing ~ general bugs every Zwift release seems to break something
Cant wait for Zwift to release support for wahoo direct connect

[michaelevans]

Very helpful, thank you. Just shared it to my younger brother who is just starting on Zwift. Many thanks 👍

[mlegrand]

Great video Tariq!!! I think this video will help a lot of people having issues. Only other suggest would be for athletes to do a spin down calibration if they are feeling good resistance on the trainer. Thanks for posting this one. 👏

[mrcoan]

Tariq is the man! Love your videos! So very helpful.

[patrickflanagan]

Thank you, thank you so much. Your excellent advice worked first time after hours of struggle to get my Elite Drivo 2 to pair. 5 star advice

[dannymongrain]

great video, thanks! I also ran into my fair share of connection problems, and here's the trickiest one I managed to solve, in case this can be helpful.
My Tacx Flow Smart wheels-on trainer would randomly disconnected during ride, with loss of power/cadence reading and resistance down to 0. Problem would last 1 or 10 seconds, and occur frequently. I tried everything, and managed to fix the problem permanently by adding a cheap 10$ fan, directly pointed at the trainer motor, as it was overheating. Tacx is not very vocal about this problem as they rate this trainer for 600 Watts but overheating occurs at 250-300 watts. Problem worst for 'low cadence climber', like myself, as the pedals rotation isn't fast enough to cool the trainer motor. hope this help!

[seanwillmott]

Thanksyou it ended up Being a Frimware update on the KCore restarting it fixed my issues!

[GeneVilleneuve]

Thanks for the video. I will try pairing my Bluetooth devices to Zwift companion instead of to my appleTV as when I pair only with AppleTV the connection keeps dropping during rides… either power or HRM or the whole thing just seems to drop Bluetooth connections. Strange as for weeks it worked fine on my appleTV and then two weeks ago stopped being solid. So I have been using my iPhone for everything for now.

[shinycycling]

Thanks for the info! Been frustrated with the signaldrop :(

[JanPC]

I was doing an FTP test, and just when I had started the 20 min, I had connection failure. What to do?
After the new update, there has been some connection issues.
Do you have a idea to solve it?
I’m using an pc and a Wahoo kicker Hometrainer, wahoo head wind. Everything is up to date.
Hope to get some help. Thanks 😊

[philippecapraro]

I’m having issues with connecting with the pacer group. I’m riding but no robocop or group seen. Thank you

[Stuy_B]

My kicker snap smart trainer has all of a sudden stopped showing my cadence/rpm in zwift any information for me would be great

[steveh]

Thank you for this, very helpful, nearly sent my Tacx Flow back.
I set it up on day 1, all fine, day two, no go, but I installed a new wifi repeater.
Turned off the 2.4GHZ and all seems fine, the Tacx was between the wifi repeater and my ipad? Seems the 2.4 was blocking the Tacx bluetooth connections?

[TheNovaNorm]

Your videos are great, very informative. I am having trouble pairin my HR monitor in Zwift on my Samsung Tab S6 Lite. There isn't an option to let me use the companion app on my S21 (there is on RGT Cycling and it works great). Please help!

[jean-marcleclerc]

The Device connections does not exist anymore in Zwift Companion app. So what do I do to connect my HR monitor. Apple TV offers only 3 BT channels and 2 are required for connecting the trainer.

[TheNicknails]

Hi, great info. If Bluetooth loses connection mid ride, could this be interference or do I need to be closer to PC?

[astroguyco]

Great video, what do you think about cycleops h2 smart trainer?