I installed Zwift on my acer Windows laptop.
When I click let’s go… the app disappears. I asked an IT friend to check and he told me that the prefs.xml files give an error and are empty.
Uninstall & reinstall might be your easiest option? (I thought it would recreate a new prefs.xml from scratch if it was missing, though.)
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It does. Seen this invalid thing come up loads of times on here and never understood what the problem is. Maybe it’s the PC preventing Zwift from writing to the Documents folder in some way.
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Re-instal didn’t work. Same issue time after time
OneDrive or the likes of it? Anti-Virus?
Try disabling/uninstalling (if exist.)
Hey did anyone ever determine the cause. I haven’t had this issue (prefs.xml) until last week’s update. I’ve spent a week trying to resolve… losing my mind.
Hi, this is me in March 2025!
Just so people know… I had 2 PCs running Zwift and both have stopped working after installing update 1.86. With both, the issue seems to be with the prefs.xml file, which I am unable to fix, and so it seems is Zwift. I get the screen after the login screen for about 10 seconds, then the app crashes to a close. In the Documents folder I have Pref.xml stating it’s an invalid file.
Going back to ZWIFT once last time to see if they can fix it. If it were one PC then fair enough, might be my error, but two after an update…
I’m not hearing or seeing Zwift come forward with this as an issue.
One PC is running W10, the other is W11 but unsupported (no TPM 2.0).
I will try and update on this as there’s no updates online.
Just to square the circle on this issue. Zwift support have twice asked me to do exactly the same thing after my having given them details of what I had previously done and the outcomes.Bottom line however is that the only thing that has worked on the two devices that cannot run Zwift after update 1.86, is a full windows reinstall. This is not acceptable really but it is what it is. I tried updating numerous drivers, adjusted firewalls settings etc… nothing. If anyone else has this issue (and I can’t believe that two machines being impacted after the same update is an isolated incident), save yourself time, back up your stuff, and do a fresh install.