On July 3rd, during a race my Zwift application suddenly froze. This was my first ever Zwift freeze in 4 years, so I thought it was just a one-off PC crash… However, as I’ve been reading more and more, ranging from Facebook Groups, my teams TFC discord to in-game race chat, I think we are not looking at some random Zwift freezes, but there’s a pattern.
Yesterday I had my 2nd Zwift application freeze, and I found out about more people having the same issue: they all never had a Zwift freeze in years, and suddenly now they had the Zwift application freeze in the middle of a Zwift ride/race.
So to give this issue the priority it deserves, let’s start a register of people who fit the above description:
Having years of riding on Zwift without any Zwift freeze, but in recent weeks having a Zwift freeze.
Name / ZwiftID
Time without any Zwift freezes
Date of freeze(s)
OS
G. Hoeberigs (1505746)
4 years
July 3, July 17
Windows10
D. Hardie (96086)
6 years
July 14
MacOS
Y. Chronakis (34016)
5+ years
‘early July’
MacOS
T. Knigge (4724654)
300+ rides
July 2
Windows10
S. Bulloch (1330223)
2 years
early July
MacOS
S. Ferron (2631134)
3 years
July 17
iOS
C Berletin (851134)
4 years
July 17, July 24, July 25
tvOS
T. Guaiwu (381462)
5+ years
July 15
tvOS
Calico (1286763)
4 years
July 15
tvOS
E. Kruglakov (480721)
?
July 15
tvOS
T. Ketela (851740)
5 years
July 15, 12:15pm EST
tvOS
S. Bortolot (2029876)
2+ years
July 1?, July 20?, July 25
tvOS
…
Characteristics:
The Zwift application video freezes, but the audio continues as normal
Zwift server continues to operate though the application as audio keeps coming and power input is being processed.
It is also possible to continue by opening the Zwift Companion app
Summarized:
The most likely scenario is that incorrect code was introduced to the Zwift application when update 1.43 was released (June 28 - June 30) causing the Zwift application to crash when generating graphics under certain circumstances.
I will expand the list with more riders when I receive more information
I had one 30 minutes into an AHDR one hour group ride on july 2. Never had that happen to me before in 300+ rides on Zwift sofar. Not sure if there is a connection, but I was using the new Zwift Play contollers during that ride (on firmware 1.1). This was on Windows 10.
I think i can join you on this…i never had problems but since 1.42 i noticed that Zwift sometimes stutter/freeze for a second or 2. Never had that before.
I’m also streaming and I’m not sure if it is related to new Nvidia drivers or Zwift update. I changed encoders in OBS from GPU to CPU and it was the same.
My warm up for about 15 minutes was fine, then had a game freeze entering the pen (first week in July). Reboot and all was okay. First time in 2 years using atv.
Funny thing was my companion app was still showing power and cadence values.
Was probably my 2nd time to use my new zwift controllers.
Yep, first time ever the game just froze on me mid race half up titans in the tfc mad Monday event, and from what I can gather at least 3 other ART riders in that event experienced the same roughly around the same time all running on iPads
Thanks for sharing; which other 3 ART riders by the way? And were they able to continue? Because if I look at our event on Zwift-racing app I can see 3 riders who started the race and didn’t finish. You, me and Jamie (ZSUNR): https://www.zwiftracing.app/events/3761696
2 different kinds of freezes are being tracked? Sounds like there are some where the freeze occurs for short period of time and then unfreezes by itself. For others, the freeze is game ending and requires a reboot.
No, I am only counting the freezes which lead to game being stuck. So I didn’t list Dejan Presen and Stuart Middlecoate’s short freeze. But it’s good they reply; might be valuable information for Zwift devs in tracking whether this is related.
I’ve not had a freeze, but last week when I was about an hour into one of the Dirt Destroyer workouts and Zwift just shut down, I restarted but all sign of the ride had vanished?
Worst part was I’d have levelled up once complete!
I noticed short video stutter that are happening to me just after we pass the Sprint, KOM or Finish Banner. It’s happening at least once in a race just after the Confetti.
Hey James, have you heard anything back from the technical team?
I have also tried to study the log files; but I think it confirms there was an application error, as internet etc. continued to work fine. Below are the analyzed logfiles of both the July 3 and the July 17 races where my application froze:
Several riders and myself using Appletv have also experienced game freezes over the past month. We can follow along group using the Companion app and save the ride later. The screen remains frozen in place. It happens in Makuri, France and Watopia so not limited to any one world. On July 15th two of us had our screen freeze at roughly the same place during the AsC Sunday Ride. The other riders have been clearing and reinstalling Zwift, I have not and that does not appear to help them with crashes better than me not reinstalling.
