Over the last 3 months or so (probably since IOS26 firmware upgrade) I’ve had intermittent Companion App., connection issues while riding Zwift (I’m Zwifting on my Apple Mac Mini using the most recent IOS Sequoia). I note while riding on Zwift very few also riding appear, like me, to be connected to their Companion App (almost everyone was in the past.)
Is there a general connection issue?
Have you already tried reinstalling Zwift on the Mac Mini? OS upgrades can remove permission to use the local network which are sometimes resolved by reinstalling and approving any permission requests when running the game for the first time afterwards.
Thanks. I’ve already tried that as well as following another suggestion: in Privacy & Security<Local Network ensure Zwift is shown and checked (it was, then I unchecked and checked it, and it worked for that ride alone.) Given the number of riders not showing their Companion App when riding I suspect their is a general issue (not just Mac related.)
There are many common reasons for failure to connect which are more about the fragility of the design than bugs. One of the most common is the devices not being on the same WiFi network, and depending on the network equipment, may also need to be on the same frequency (2.4GHz or 5GHz) plus range extenders and mesh nodes can defeat the discovery process, so it’s always hard to guess without understanding the network topology details. Rebooting all network gear sometimes fixes it as well.
Thanks again Paul. Understood, but this appears to be a widespread issue affecting almost all Zwifters (based on so few showing their Companion App., connection while riding) and a recent phenomenon.
I think you are mistaken about that. There is always a steady drip drip of people reporting Companion connection problems, more than I would like to see, but nothing notable lately. Many people simply don’t use it because they don’t care about anything that it does or they run Zwift on a phone so they can’t run Companion without buying another device. That’s been true for as long as I can remember.
This is Haziel from Zwift. As Paul mentioned, this is something that usually occurs, but there is no specific bug; this is normally linked to local network permissions or devices being on different Wi‑Fi bands (2.4 vs 5 GHz). One thing that could help is reinstalling the companion app, which has also helped some riders clear out similar issues.
It doesn’t look like a full platform‑wide outage. I’ll share this article that goes into more detail: Issues with Zwift Companion App.
If the issue persists or you need further assistance, please don’t hesitate to contact us. We’re here to help!
I never have issues with the companion app connecting. I also traveled with my trainer and bike over the holidays and set it up in a new location for 10 days and didn’t have any issues using totally different equipment than usual. Now back home and it still works just fine here… I am pretty convinced anyone who has issues has a complicated home network situation.
My turbo is set up in the bedroom and our router is less than 10 metres away following the corridors, the most direct route has two thin internal walls between them.
2.5GHz wifi is far more reliable for me to use on the Surface Pro 4 that runs Zwift, my Xioami Mi A2 mobile that runs Zwift Companion app and my Jetblack Victory that has a direct wifi connection option.
5GHz wifi does sometimes connect if I choose that option for my Zwift equipment, but it will often fail, so I no longer actively choose that option.
Thank you Paul. I don’t think I’m alone in believing there are now far fewer showing a Companion App., connection while riding. But I could be wrong of course.
Hazel, thank you. I won’t try too hard to resolve this as seeing the Map on my iPhone/Companion is not a major issue, just irritating when it would connect without issue for many years. Something more recent is causing this now. Hey ho. It won’t spoil my Zwift rides which I always look forward to (if not while I’m right in the middle of a set of intervals 
.)
I will, however, check I’m using 2.4GHz not 5, as I’m curious.
These issues are pretty much always solvable without any change to the Companion app, if we get into all the details. It is unfortunately pretty breakable, but nothing new about that. Like if you went to one of the Zwift Facebook groups and said “Companion doesn’t connect, anyone else have this problem?” you would get loads of replies from people with a wide variety of problems all saying things like “never works” “breaks all the time” “breaks after every update” and in pretty much all the cases it’s not a bug, it’s something else that can be fixed.