Late Join / Rejoin Feature Broken

Today I experienced a serious technical glitch in the software, that others have also experienced. The ‘late join’ / ‘rejoin’ feature is broken. But that isn’t the only issue. I will describe in detail what happened today:

It took a very long time for Zwift to load and I started loading it 15 minutes before my meetup ride. It is my fave ride of the week. Once loaded, it did not recognize either my Ant+ connection or my Bluetooth connection, so I had to restart my computer.

Then, when I restarted, it again took a long time for Zwift to load. I clicked to join my meetup ride, but it took a very long time for Makuri Islands to load. As it was still loading the meetup began. When it finally loaded the meetup was only one minute in (I was only 1 minute late and only because of the software), but it said “Finding Riders” and I was 1:38 behind the group. They could see my chat, but they could not see me and I could not see them. I tried catching up, but to no avail. Finally, it just kicked me out of the meetup.

I have heard others say that the late join / rejoin feature has not worked for them since the last update.
I pay a lot of money for this software and have been a loyal user / rider for nearly 3 years. It seems that an update fixes 2 problems but breaks 5 new things. Doesn’t Zwift test the software update before pushing it out to customers? Most of the updates tailor to the racers or the professional riders, but I believe that is a very small minority of the customer base. Most of us are simply cyclists using the software to stay in shape and socialize.

Please fix these issues (and test them before pushing them out) as they caused me to miss my favorite ride of the week. And I am a voluntary ambassador (not official) as I always encourage people to sign up for Zwift, I lead a couple rides each week, and I help new Zwifters learn the software.
Thank you.

Hi.

This problem has been reported a few times, it’s not from the latest update, it has over a month, but unfortunately it seems that nobody cares to fix it.

See https://forums.zwift.com/t/late-join-not-working-consistently/584603

Apparently the problem happens when the group is on a different road than the meetup start, so in Makuri Islands (specially Neokyo) it’s very likely to happen because of the many roads and intersections.

This is Impacting a User Experience

We had two “Keep-It-Together” rides where late joins have caused a significant issue. I do not report minor issues but this one is a serious experience spoiler issue that I do urge Zwift dev team to look into.

The Use Case Story
As a later joiner for a Private Event, I would like Zwift to allow me to join “catch up” with the people who has already started in our Keep It Together private rides.

What Happens

  • Serious Issue 1: The user starts at the starting point when joined late or re-joins. The “Finding Other Riders” does show up, but the user is at the starting point of a ride. This either happens less or never on public rides.

  • Serious Issue 2: The entire people already riding slow or dragged down significantly. The pedaling resistance goes way up. This will continue as long as the late joiner keeps on trying to catch up. If the later joinder is more than a few minutes late, it will thus ruin the entire ride experience.

*Annoying Issue: On a looped course like Lutcher a late joinder will earn a “way ahead” position sometimes like -15 or even -20 min ahead. This is likely because on a looped course, they appear to be in front and not behind.

How To Reproduce

  1. Create a Private Keep It Together event on a looped course like Lutcher.
  2. Start pedaling
  3. Have someone join 10 minutes later
  4. Can’t even climb - see your load doubles or more!
1 Like

I have seen an issue similar to your issue 2 but with faster speed instead. Group was doing around 2 w/kg (30-32 km/h on flat road) when a late joiner manage to find the group (after issue 1 worked around by using “ride with” in the old home screen), then the group started moving at 46 km/h while still keeping same watts.

A post was merged into an existing topic: Late join not working consistently