I’m having the same problem as others here. Last November I got a 100mbit internet BT FTTP (full fibre to the BT hub in the house) connection which has been very reliable. Late December I started running Zwift on a new Apple TV (rather than on Android). The Apple TV is connected wirelessly to a router in the garage (4 feet from the Apple TV) that is connected to the main BT hub via an ethernet cable. For 3 months everything has been perfect. Then, last race but one it disconnected mid race and like someone else said, you pedal like mad to try and not be dropped as you can’t see anyone. Todays race was perfect, but it disconnected on the warm up. The equipment shows no signs of disconnects with anything else.
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Losing the other riders like that means you have lost your connection to Zwift’s servers. I’m afraid this is likely to be a problem at your end somewhere.
You mentioned that your Apple TV is connected wirelessly to a router. I would try using an Ethernet cable to connect, since it seems to be close by.
Thanks Steve, I should try that. The reason that I havn’t so far is that I use the sterzo steering add on and therefore I have to have the bluetooth connections handled via the companion app (on android) as apple TV does not have enough bluetooth connections. I thought that maybe if apple TV connected to the router via ethernet then the criteria that the apple TV and companion app on android connected via the same wireless network would not be met.
My Apple TV is on Ethernet but my companion device is on wireless and it’s fine.
This all depends on your routing. As long as the two devices can see each other on your network then it doesn’t matter how they’re physically connected. There are lots of variables here though, and some people seem to find that their routers stop devices on different parts of their home network communicating. Mesh networks can be problematic (though I have a mesh network and it’s fine).
Try it and see.
There’s something screwy going on for a lot of people since the last update. My own experiences documented here:
TL;DR: cross-platform (brand new Windows 11 PC with updated drivers connected via ANT+ as well as an AppleTV4k on BLE) both disconnected from sensors yesterday.
Nothing has changed in my RF environment, I never use the Companion App as a bridge and my WiFi router (not mesh) is located 4-meters from my Zwifting station.
Hopefully this is just a transient, post-game-update issue but I’m watching for ongoing issues like a hawk now. A year of zero hiccups… and now this.
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Thanks @shooj There appears to be a bug causing a lot of dropouts the last few weeks. This is affecting most of my teammates (including on the first ZRL race yesterday) and is plaguing me and my co-leads on group rides because it causes Companion to disconnect which means no messaging until connection is restored. It is clearly not a home internet issue. I have also gotten feedback on a Zwift forum confirming this is happening to a lot of riders. Any chance this was fixed in today’s update? Or will it be soon?
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Hello @H_Williams_Velos!
I moved your comment over to this discussion thread as there are some good resources on troubleshooting and avoiding the “Connection Disconnected” alert banner. This alert appears when your internet connection to the Zwift server has been disconnected for at least 5 seconds.
As some Zwifters have mentioned up above, it can be due to low bandwidth, and not always a full internet outage.
I’ve noticed a fair few Connection Disconnected messages in the last couple of weeks. Maybe it’s my internet.
But every time it’s happened has been during an event.
Other riders do not disappear and their power is continously updated.
Messages and ride-ons are still received.
The only indication (apart from the Connection Disconnected message) is that my placing in the leaderboard (in a race for example) is no longer displayed. Instead of say 28/45 it goes to --/45.
Looking at the log file on Zwiftalizer for the race I did today where I had a Connection Disconnected message shows one TCP Network Disconnect.
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This is not normal. It’s seems that affect Wahoo’s simulatirs
I’m having the same problem. I have purchased a wifi extender to make sure the wifi signal in the room I am zwifting in is as strong as possible…I’ve looked at the log file in zwiftalyser and there are no drop outs although my client to server connections are around 16 average…
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Hi!
The past couple of rides I’ve made, I’ve been having some sort of connection issue warning on my Zwift/Apple TV 4K setup. I’m using it with a Wahoo Kickr Core smart trainer (firmware unknown right now).
Everything in-game seems to work, there’s no metrics missing from the screen, and I can just keep pedaling as normal, and after a while, the disconnection message disappears, so I can only assume that there is an issue with the wifi connection to Zwift servers. There’s no indication of what is disconnected, there’s just the discrete semi-transparent warning at the 30-40 top pixels on my tv reading something along the lines of “Connection disconnected” or something like that.
I’m always playing an Apple Music playlist while I Zwift, and the music plays as normal, without connection artifacts/issues, so the Apple TV 4K itself obviously has the ability to connect to the rest of the world.
Any insight to resolve this issue would be very helpful 
–
-Tom
Hi Tom
I have been having exactly the same issue with IPad using Stages SB20 on Wi-Fi connection at random times. Zwift continues to work as normal and as you say no idea what connection is actually disconnected as power, cadence and HRM all visible and riders on the map also visible during this time Wi-Fi connection has not disconnected from internet.
I had this happen Monday during a crowded Tour de Zwift ride. All sensors were fine but my position blanked out (" — / 607 riders") and some of the riders disappeared. Clearly there was a transient connection failure to the server that self-corrected.
Of note: the connection warning has been observed to be “sticky.” Even after the connection is reestablished, the error can persist for a while.
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The warning has nothing to do with Wi-fi disconnects. If you get that then the riders around you will disappear.
The message is a disconnect of one of your connected peripherals, be it ATV remote, trainer, speed or cadence sensor, HRM, power meter…etc
I occasionally get it whilst running, it’s my cadence sensor causing it but analysis shows it’s such a brief disconnect that none of the metrics are affected.
Unless you suddenly grind to a halt I wouldn’t worry too much.
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Zwift Staff state this relates to a server connection issue:
…which correlates with my not having a position number in the group.
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This makes totally sense as everything apparently acts completely normal – no disappearing data from HUD, no missing fellow riders etc. I can go on as nothing has happened and after a while the message disappears.
The last time it happened was yesterday in a regular free ride workout, but it also appeared on TdZ stage 1, which I completed on monday. I’m not sure if the current position at the time was blanked out, as the ride was so hard (who said it’s not a race?
)…
Thanks for your suggestion.
I’m leaning towards the information given from Zwift staff, quoted by @Otto_Destruct, as there’s absolutely no issues with metrics from my sensors when the banner appears.
I’ll also check the Wi-Fi access point in my cave - I have a distributed Wi-Fi network with multiple base stations in our home, making sure everything is connected to the same network, and the Apple TV in the cave may have connected to one of the other base stations (giving a weaker, more unstable signal) without me noticing it.
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It can be both your internet or your devices, and apparently an error communicating with Zwift servers that could spawn from your ISP or something completely out of your control it seems.
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Isn’t it that the message when it’s at top left is supposed to be to do with sensors, and when it’s right across the top of the screen then in theory it’s a server connection issue?
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I believe so
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