Bluetooth dropping during ride, won't reconnect without quitting

i had this as well (atv w latest ios, h3) but i might have fixed the issues as i was able to complete the 8 workouts and 4 group rides of the zwift academy without any issues. in the beginning before my changes to the procedure and system, resistance was lagging and sometimes a dropout.
-applied stabilant 22 to the power plug tip, this increases conductivity of the power supply
-moved the atv to the left side of the bike/h3 at 40cm distance. this improved signal significantly
-moved most of the wifi devices to 5ghz, inc the one with companion
-allow only wifi ch6 of the 2.4ghz band. this gives enough (discovery) channels to ble and ant+ (i use ant+ to record ride on garmin 530 at the same time).

and now important, before i close the atv, i swipe away all running apps. and before i start a new ride , always reboot the atv.

if i donā€™t reboot, i might get lag in the ride again resulting in 400 watt during downhillā€¦

also, i do all my workouts on tempus fugit, most of the issues i had was with hilly rides. it also looks strange doing a 100w segment on a 6+% so i keep it a flat route for these workouts.

the only thing i still have is that cadence is sometimes erratic. fluctuates a lot between 75-100 during fast switching segments in a workout. (with erg on) difficult to get the stars then.

Will soon openup the h3 for maintenance, and probably put extra fan on it for additional cooling of the electronics

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2 weeks after opening a ticket and no answer from Zwift support, so had to try something.

I moved Zwift to Apple TV instead of iPad, and I placed the Apple TV like 20 cms from the Saris H3: so far, no more dropouts. Will keep testing, in any case it seems that after last iOS update, Zwift needs a shorter range bluetooth connection between the trainer and the Zwift client (saying Zwift because this doesnā€™t happen with other apps such as Rouvy or RGT).

If you can bring your Zwift client near to the trainer, try it.

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Iā€™m having exact the same problem here and I also noticed my Apple TV remote disc first.

Iā€™m desperate!!! Please send help!!!

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Same here!! I have a Saris Hammer that is fairly new (bought in the summer) and Iā€™'m using that with an iPad. However, Iā€™ve been using the software since early 2017 with no issues and I started having problems about a month ago. I think someone in the thread mentioned that it might be related to iOS 14.1. I canā€™t remember when I put that on the iPad but I think it might be related. I started using Rouvy a week ago and I have had absolutely no connectivity issues. Yesterday morning I tried with Zwift again and got dropped after 3 minutes. I wholeheartedly agree with everyone that I think it is definitely Zwift related. I wrote to them twice and they sent me a useless reply about how other things can interfere with the Bluetooth connection. Has anyone gotten a real response? Iā€™m going to have to cancel my subscription - the software is useless to me unless this can get resolved.

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Zwift was no help but Yahoo was. They suggested Ant+ I moved my cadence, trainer and HR to Ant+. No issues so far. Two successful rides.

H3 with AppleTV here. I echo a lot of the comments/issues here. Iā€™ve been using this setup for a year without issues, although I do know that there were times in the past, most memorably right after crossing the line of a race, when I would see the ā€œRemote Connection Lostā€ message, although trainer and HR strap would stay connected. Now when it happens it takes all the other BT connections with it and have to exit the program to restore. Believing it to be interference related, I swapped the TV Iā€™ve been using because it broadcasts out on 2.4 Ghz. Even with a different TV i had the drops yesterday, just after crossing the line of a TTT. Iā€™m now going to disable the 2.4 Ghz wifi every time I ride and see what that does. It does seem to be focused around Saris products, though.

Did you find a solution?

Unfortunately not. I switched to my laptop (windows 10 OS) and Zwift works fine. Same internet connection, cadence sensor, & wahoo kickr.

Then I tried my iPhone again, and the issues came back. Wifi drops, bluetooth issues etc.

Thanks,
Nic

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You know of course that AppleTV is capable of only 3 concurrent bluetooth connections, and one of them is used by the remote. I just wonder if there is a possibility if several devices may be competing for connection to your Apple TV. You would not have this limitation with a laptop, and ANT+ in my experience works even better.

Another factor could be the distance between your trainer and AppleTV.

if you have a PC, why would you even consider using AppleTV?

Because it is my work PC so I donā€™t like using it for personal use. Also, I am using an iPhone, not Apple TV.

Nic

Meanwhile I finally got a reply to my ticket.

It suggested me to try with the latest Zwift version and see.

I think this is a good strategy: if it always takes 2 to 3 weeks to reply to a ticket, they can simply always suggest to try a new version and see.

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Iā€™ve tracked my issue down to the Zwift companion app being very greedy in scanning BLE devices. It seems to be running an active scan the whole time in the background and if you have a sensor drop off line for any reason it grabs it and re-pairs it as a different client. The biggest issue is when you have the companion app running on a device that you donā€™t want your sensors to pair to, because then if anything reconnects, the first Zwift companion app that scans the BLE device claims it and 9 times out of 10 itā€™s the wrong companion app that grabs it. Zwift needs to stop active scanning unless the app is on the pairing screen!

Zwift - Instead of active scanning, please just save the Mac address of the previously paired FTMS, heart rate and cycling power sensors and reconnect directly with the address. Itā€™s faster, easier, and will save developers many headaches.

This is only an issue on mobile devices. The Zwift PC app does not cause these issues and only scans on the pairing screen - as it should.

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I have this same issue and thought it was a problem with my iPad Air 2 (getting older) or the H3. I just found this forum today. It definitely sheds some light on my problem.

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Very useful observation! If I understand correctly this mean I should only use the Zwift companion app on my iPad because Iā€™m connected through this device and stop using the Companion app on my cellphone, correct?

Or just turn Bluetooth off on your phone that is running the companion app if you and not using the companion app as a bridge.

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Gerrieā€™s solution should fix your specific issue.

Let us know!

Same issue here and itā€™s been driving me crazy, I usually stream my music from the iphone to my Bluetooth headset or speaker which would be a bummer. I believe I tried connecting all my sensors directly to Apple TV and not using the Zswift Companion App and it still dropped out after 1 hour ride. Doesnā€™t make sense but hopefully things get fixed very frustrating.

Tried it todayā€¦and the connection dropped twice! This is driving me crazy seriously

I had this earlier on in the year when windows had an update that messed up usb specifically ant and bluetooth, once I uninstalled and blocked the update it worked flawlessly for months. Now I have been having issues for about a month and when riding I can hear windows disconnect and reconnect a usb device then bingo the trainer loses connection. But zwift wonā€™t reconnect unless you restart, great way to ruin 2 workouts so far this week and interfere with leading a zwift event.
I have tried searching today but unfortunately I canā€™t uninstall any updates once they have been installed for 10 days so am stuck with it. But my guess is that windows has recently had an update that is creating issues. The same update has left me with no internet when I turn computer on from sleep mode and have had to resort to shutting down every day which is not ideal.

Iā€™m having the same exact issues as the original poster. The issue really only started up within the past ~2 weeks. Prior, I had no connection issues.

Iā€™m running the latest H3 firmware (31.063) and version of Zwift on iOS (1.0.58982). The BLE connection for both my trainer and HR monitor (Kickr Fit) drop out immediately after the game stutters for ~1 sec. The only way I can reconnect is to force quit the app and re-pair. Unfortunately, Iā€™m rarely able rejoin activities/group rides where I left off.

Iā€™m using a Gen 1 iPad Pro 12.9 (iPad OS 14.2). Iā€™ve tried using my iPhone XS (iOS 14.2) instead with the same result.