When I open the ZC app during a ride, this activity is not recognized by the app.
The menu item “Game” is not displayed. This makes chatting through the app impossible.
What did I already try?
Update smartphone
Update ZC app
Update Zwift software
Update Windows
Reboot smartphone
Reboot laptop
Reboot router
Reinstal ZC-app
Firewall on laptop temporarily disabled
Firewall on network temporarily disabled
Airplane mode on smartphone ON
GPS on smartphone ON
Bluetooth on smartphone ON
ZC-app given access to GPS & devices nearby
PC and smartphone connected to the same WiFi network (2.4Ghz)
Can anyone help me? I would like to use the chat function during meet-ups that I organize.
I’m using Windows and Android.
This firewall is on your PC, or on your router? It sounds like you’re pretty tech savvy. If you’re comfortable logging into your router, you may want to open up ports on the firewall to explicitly allow this traffic.
Also - do you have a VPN app running on your PC, phone, or router? That will cause this symptom as well.
As long as you’re logged in to your router - you may want to refresh the table showing which devices are on your LAN. Check the IP and subnet masks for the PC and your smartphone are both on the same subnet. Being connected to the same WiFi network isn’t technically the same thing as being on the same subnet.
Important note: The chat was working just fine a year ago.
Firewall
The firewall I mentioned earlier was on my laptop. Just now I also temporarily disabled the firewall on my network. This unfortunately did not fix the problem.
VPN
I am not using a VPN currently.
LAN-network
I checked what devices are on my LAN-network at the moment.
Even though I set the frequency of the WiFi to 2.4 GHz only, it indicates that my smartphone is using 5 GHz. After this, I again set my LAN network settings to 2.4 GHz only. In doing so, my smartphone still displayed “Band: Wi-Fi 5GHz”. Nevertheless, the 2.4 GHz connection suddenly does seem to have succeeded. My Zwift Companion app finally displays the “GAME” section again.
In my network settings, it says that my smartphone is still using the 5 GHz connection. Despite the fact that I have disabled it.
Special thing is: when I set my network settings back to 2.4 AND 5 GHz, my ZC-app still stays connected.
@Hipnie
Wooo! Thank you for letting us know it’s working again.
When Companion doesn’t switch over to game mode, it’s almost always a local network issue. Sometimes it’s fixed by rebooting the router. Other times, it’s more complicated. I’m glad that you’re tech savvy and were able to figure out the 2.4 Ghz band vs 5 Ghz distinction.
The problem may also occur if you are already connected with another smartphone. I use a different smartphone than my usual one on my bike and have ZCA installed on both. If I open ZCA on my usual phone before riding and don’t close the session there, it connects to Zwift and my ZCA on the smartphone on my bike does not connect to Zwift. This happened to me accidentally last Sunday. Only one instance of ZCA can be connected at a time.
The problem was probably solved (both the first and second time) by a bug at Zwift. I did not make any specific adjustments that resolved the problem. I think the first time was two years ago, the second time was last year.
Thank you for this usefull addition. Unfortunately, this is not the case.
