I couldn’t decide if this was a bug or a feature request but starting here and see what happens…
Both my wife and I Zwift and we’ve got side-by-side stations so that we can ride at the same time.
My setup is running Zwift on a PC, a TACX Neo and using ANT to pickup my sensor data
Her setup is using an Apple TV 4K for Zwift, a Kurt Kinetic Road Machine (dumb trainer) and a 4iiii single sided crank power meter for combined cadence and wattage.
Both of us use HRM’s (Wahoo TICKR)
In the case of my setup, when I load Zwift, it correctly remembers all of my ANT IDs and repairs to those automatically. The problem comes with her setup.
Her HRM, Power and Cadence pairing all shows up correctly but every time she starts Zwift on ATV, it automatically selects my (Neo) trainer’s bluetooth signal for the controllable trainer device. Which is completely wrong as it’s not her Zwifting station that has the Neo.
I guess my question is… can anything be done for the ATV deployment of Zwift for it not to make an incorrect auto selection of any controllable trainer that it can find broadcasting?
As I understand, it sounds like more of a feature request than a bug because the Apple TV is going to want to grab the available nearby trainer signal and pair it for ‘CONTROLLABLE’. It’s basically one of those “convenience” features taking into consideration the fact that most Zwift setups are not side-by-side using multiple trainers/devices.
Barring an upgrade of your wife’s setup to a smart trainer so that Apple TV Zwift grabs her trainer first and stops looking for your Neo as a controllable trainer, there may be no current way to fix the issue under your unique set of circumstances.
However, if you haven’t tried deleting the Zwift app and reinstalling it from the App store on the Apple TV, I would suggest giving that a try. Deleting the app will clear any pre-configured preferences at the pairing screen and maybe Apple TV will not automatically select your Neo anymore.
Other than simply pressing the ‘UNPAIR’ button each time (I assume that’s what you already do) where it says ‘CONTROLLABLE’ on the Apple TV, the only other workaround I can think of would be to shut off (unplug) your Tacx Neo, launch the Zwift app on the Apple TV, pair the devices on the Apple TV Zwift, then sit idle at the ‘drop in’ screen before starting the ride. At that point you can safely power on the Neo without risk of it being also detected by Zwift on the Apple TV.
That’s exactly the case Steven and deselecting my Neo from my wife’s ATV as she logs in is exactly what where doing today.
I logged here in the hope that there’s something that ZwiftHQ can do in their app to not try and grab any device that it can find, especially when we keep telling the app not to use the Neo as a controllable device.