Dear all,
After hours searching for an answer to my bluetooth connection issue on Zwift, I try my luck sharing with you all! I know connection issues are common and problably have many causes, yet I wasn’t able to find someone experimenting my exact problem: if I missed it, I apologise.
Here’s my situation:
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I’ve used Zwift in the past with an “old” Thinkpad computer working on Windows 10, using an ANT+ key paired with my Elite Turno home trainer (ant+ and BLE 4.0 compatible). It worked well and I’ve never experiment any drop outs or real lags during my races.
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Sometimes, I’ve also used my phones (first an iPhone 7, then an iPhone XR) as well as my phone’s friend (an OnePlus 8T): all of them worked fine using BLE connection.
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More recently, I’ve bought a Samsung Galaxy Tab S8 hoping to up my confort using Zwift. However, when I tried to use it, it appears the BLE signal wasn’t working properly. When looking to pair the home trainer, the BLE signal is detected, with 4 full green bars. Yet, when pedaling on the bike, signal is lost and there is never a steady data flow. I’ve only succeded to make the bike in the game moves for about 3 seconds before droping the signal again, in my ~10 trials.
To fix this issue, I’ve tried all the most common quick fixes you can find on the Internet, like the tips on Zwift FAQ on interference troubleshooting tips, as well as other fixes you can find on forums, websites, blogs, YouTube…
I’ve also tried more “in-depth” solutions, like installing ANT+ on the tablet to use my ANT+ key which was working fine on the computer. However, I’ve realised that the ANT+ apps on Android are not functionning correctly since Android 11, as the specific authorisations required to use it cannot be set anylonger.
Using Zwift Companion would have been a good fix too, but I cannot find the way to make it work. I know that on computer, you can select Zwift Companion to connect instead of the computer itself, but on the tablet, as well as on phones, I didn’t find how…
Finally, I’ve tried using other cycling apps to see if the problem came from Zwift itself. Surprisingly, on Kinomap, the Oneplus 8T phone does not work but the tablet partially does (let say I can connect 50% of the time versus 1% of the time on Zwift): this makes me think that the issue includes both the BLE home trainer itself AND the app I’m using.
If anyone has an idea on what to try or why it does not work, I’m ready to try everything
Many thanks to anyone reading this and happy to try my luck here!
M.