Getting Zwift started - poor user experience

I find starting Zwift a frustratingly poor user experience, and really a bit of a lottery. How long will it take? Will there be yet another upgrade? Has the upgrade screwed up my ant dongle, again, so I have to try different usb sockets to wake it, or even uninstall and re-install the device? Tonight I have missed the start of an event yet again.

I recently did a full uninstall and reinstall of Zwift, because launch was regularly taking over 5 minutes (even without one of the regular “upgrades”). If I want to join a Zwift event, I reckon I probably need a minimum of 15 minutes to be sure of getting Zwift started in time. I think that’s a bit ridiculous for a piece of software, and unacceptable for something I’m paying for.

I think you need to manage your releases better, so the upgrades are less frequent (and ideally not compulsory, so people can trade the latest functionality in order to get the application started in a hurry!) and I think you need to do some work on optimising the start up times.

I would recommend you post the specs of your PC and the equipment you are using for Zwifting to complete your Feedback, the more info the better.

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What computer are you using, 5 minutes seem very long even for a massive update. I cant put my shoes on in the time that Zwift startup.

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The PC can run Zwift fine once it launches, and the PC also has nothing to do with the regular Zwift update schedule.
It’s a complete hog of a programme to get started, and I’ve come across a number of other people reporting the same problem.

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Again, please post the specs of your PC including the storage device, good feed must include as much detail as possible.

If you are running Windows 10 I recommend an SSD for vastly improved performance.

My updates take about a minute and that’s about how long it take to get Zwift up and running also. While Zwift is loading I get my socks and shoes on, get my Garmin ready, pump up my rear tire and put my HRM on and Zwift is ready to go by then.

This certainly sounds interesting to me. I have a gaming PC with 200MB internet by Ethernet. Updates that less than 5 seconds total. And logging in has never been more than 30 seconds at most. Usually can get one sock and one shoe on before it’s on the route page. And this has been very consistent over the past year.

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The PC specs are not the problem here, because it can easily run Zwift once the programme has launched. It also launches and handles other software with ease. This is uniquely a Zwift problem.
I tried launching again last night, without updates, and had a really smooth start, which was still 2 minutes. I’m really asking Zwift why there appears to be this tortuous loading process, for something that is effectively a fairly unsophisticated video game. I haven’t checked the broadband activity to confirm this
but it almost feels like Zwift is downloading and installing something every time it runs.
The fact that it regularly loses Ant connectivity after updates is another annoyance.

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An SSD drive will making opening Zwift much faster than an old mechanical drive.

I’m not sure why you will not give the specs of your PC, but that should be included in good feed back when it comes to performance of Zwift.

For comparison.

I have 2 PC’s that I use for Zwift (1 for biking and the other for running). One PC is a desktop with an SSD drive and Zwift opens fast, the other PC is a laptop with a 5400RPM 1TB mechanical that takes considerably longer to start up Zwift.

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AMD A4 6300 4GB 1TB Windows 10
I’m sure an SSD is faster, but I have lots of software which launches fine on an “old” mechanical disk. If the hardware was the problem, Zwift loading would perform the same all the time, but it varies from slow to extremely slow. I’ve never come across software with such a frequent update cycle either. This is primarily a software problem.

What is your definition of frequent updates? Zwift updates maybe once a month.

Takes ages on my PC too. And it’s not a potato.

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That is interesting Daren. I have a dedicated Zwift PC with very limited other programs.

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my computer was a top of the line gaming machine maybe… 10 years ago? it’s borderline potato and it loads up zwift in less than 60 seconds most of the time. updates are super quick, but those have more to do with internet connection than computer specs i’d think.

anyway, this isn’t really a zwift issue, there’s something up with your machine/internet connection/both. i’ve never heard of the game taking 5 min to load unless something was drastically wrong. i’d focus on figuring out what’s going on with my system rather than complaining about a nonissue on the internet if it were me.

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There are a number of other people reporting the same “non issue”.
Here’s a whole page of people with the same problem on this very forum:

I’m keen to understand the cause and find a solution, so I’m interested in any concrete information, but so far (for me) the finger points at the way the application works.

Ok, this is just a small piece of info, when Zwift is first launched it uses Internet Explorer/Edge (talking Windows PC’s here) for the login process and then opens the application. Maybe clearing out your IE/E cache or even resetting it would help in the load time.

Thanks, I’ll investigate that. I very rarely use IE or Edge, so there could be an issue I’m unaware of there.

It seems like since the last update earlier this month my startup time has improved by quite a bit. I also had some updates to the operating system that may have improved things, but overall it seems much faster on startup. I’m using Windows 10 on a newer Dell laptop.