Upload fit file to Zwift

Feature Requests
42

I’ve experienced this on three separate occasions since joining Zwift less than a month ago. My Zwift reads only 300km in that time even though it should be over 400km.

This morning’s workout didn’t save or upload to Zwift/Trainingpeaks but the app behaved as though there were no problems and gave no warning. I found the relevant .fit file and it is entirely intact and contains my entire ride. Why can’t Zwift check for local files that are well formed and ensure the server is synced to include these.

I appreciate there will be some concern around faking .fit files and uploading fake rides etc. But this is already a known problem with Ant+ controllers where people create fake rides anyway. There will always be people who want to cheat, but don’t adversely affect the experience of users who are playing properly by trying to thwart a small group of cheaters.

43

My local .fit file didn’t upload to my dashboard due to my WiFi issues. I contacted support to see how it could be uploaded after the fact. Support said that, due to “technical limitations”, if a .fit file was not uploaded at the end of a ride, you’re basically SOL. So, Zwift is technologically antiquated as compared to Strava and other third party sites, which allow files to be uploaded manually if the automatic upload did not work?

So, I do a training ride, earn almost 1000 XPs, and then don’t get credit for them? That doesn’t make for a happy camper. If I was Zwift management, I’d be embarrassed about this.

1 Like
44

Ditto - lost my hour ride tonight but found the file intact in my desktop activities folders. Also - side note - I was riding solo didn’t see any other riders though it told mt there were 2,000+ riding in London

45

This usually indicates you have lost your network connection, next time wait to save and exit until after you have checked on your wifi or modem/router.

2 Likes
46

Hi Kevin,

Think of Zwift as your bike, Road and Garmin Cycling computer, if you go out for a ride and you forget to start your garmin or your garmin battery die or you lost your garmin then your .fit file is lost. You cant upload that fit file to garmin or strava.

So make sure you have WiFi before saving.

I think Strava don’t care what you upload, you can make your own fit file and load it to strava, but in zwift if you make your own fit file you can unlock all the game lavels and bikes in a day, you can mess up all leader boards. So uploading fit files to zwift is a risk. Also fit files has a fixed format, so I don’t think zwift can write a header to it.

1 Like
47

I have the same issue, I finished a 2:20 workout (part of a training plan) and never upload to Garmin. I found the .fit file and manually upload to Garmin (ok for me, but not for all users). But I detected now that the workout no was upload to Zwift, then it was not marked as complete, then to continue I need repeat the workout… It is a very critical bug, because the .fit file is into the system, then the program could re upload it automatically with all fraudulent controls.
Dear Zwift Programers let’s work on it, you can.
Thanks!

48

Had the same issue yesterday.
Started with a free ride with 19km then jumped into an event.
At the end i wanted to save and exit but the app (windows) never ended and zwift uploaded only 13.8km from teh free ride to zwift and nothing to garmin or strava.

I have uploaded the fit files manualy on garmin and strava, but they are still missing in Zwift.
Also the km are missing in the actual challenge.

49

Same issue after the Haute Route stage 1. Managed to upload the route to Strava from my PC. Can I add the details into Zwift? I think the 7800 all trying to upload crashed the servers!!

50

I would say ride a bit more before saving to give zwift a bit of time to save stuff.

1 Like
51

I realise that now haha!
I’ve sent the complete .fit file from my PC to Zwift. See if they upload it for me.
As for next time, yes I’ll leave it a bit before uploading. Thanks

1 Like
52

…and? did they?

53

I bet not. Will be against their policy. Paolo.

54

Zwift doesn’t allow a customer to upload a fit file. I’m not here to discuss if this is fair or unfair, I’m here to, again, propose a solution to the issue of lost activities.

The Zwift application needs to be able to recover from broken uploads in herself, at least when a reasonable integer fit file exists. Of course, the software needs to verify if such a file as been crafted. In other words, the file MUST be digitally signed.

And no, you don’t need to encrypt the fit file; you may want to write a second archive in parallel whit the fit archive. That will contain the hash signature for the main file.

Try this, just as an example. It’s not bulletproof (sniffer vulnerable if not already encrypted exchange) but nearly zero cost.

When a user joins Zwift, generate a sort of passphrase for him. The user must not know about it. When the user login, pass the passphrase back to the App.

When Zwift saves a fit file for an active workout, compute the hash, then save the signature to the parallel archive and encrypt with the user key.

On a login, if needed, Zwift would be able to identify a missing session and, if the signature is a valid one, recover the data. Hopefully, at least.

Our mileage may vary. There are, of course, more complexes and more secure strategies. What I wanted to highlight is that Zwift must be aware of how to sort out the issue, as they are so much better skilled than you or me.

Cu. Paolo.

3 Likes
55

That is exactly what I am doing, had never an issue with saving.
This is a reply to Gerrie - ride after the finish line some kms (free XPs today, Stage 2 Haute - Alpe downhill :grinning:)

1 Like
56

And, of course, if you’ll be allowed to ‘save without exit’ …

Allow Saves Without Exit

Cu. Paolo.

57

After doing stage 1 of Haute Route yesterday did not save, lost the activity and got no email on completion. Interesting details did upload to zwift power. Can this fit not be uploaded back to zwift considering it came from their originally ???

58

No, there is no mechanism for Zwift to manually insert .fit files into the database.

59

Respectfully, I beg to differ. Fake FIT files? easy to solve… simply save an incremental cryptographic signature of the local FIT file while riding.

Network issues? Closing Zwift? My experience is bugs are casing the app to crash, with no log saved (and none sent to Zwift…)

“Network issues” has been, for years, blamed for most everything (together with “Zwift not updated” or “Drivers not current”.) While it is true connectivity may cause issues, networking issues are a rare event (that can be addressed - see below) - crashes are far more likely.

…And Zwift can do so much more to address this… There is no reason for a ride to be lost. Zwift can simply upload the previous sessions’s FIT file at the beginning of the next ride (see above - there are ways to make sure it is not faked or spoofed…)

4 Likes
60

Thanks Paul

61

If the private key is on your device, it is subject to exfiltration, but it will take some real effort. I agree that Gerrie is spewing FUD.

Besides, there is currently no authentication of your inputs to Zwift anyway, so it’s easy to spoof in other ways.