Zwift does not start after Update

Hello,
since yesterday - after i tried to update - Zwit does not start anymore. I just see the the small Zwift Logo for a few seconds on the bottom right then it disaperars without a message. Taskmanager shows no Zwift Prozess.
I am Using Windows 10 - Since i downloaded a fresh version it should be updated.

Deinstalling/deleting folder for fresh install does not help me - same problem afterwards.
As mentioned- no error message- just stopping silently.

Missing Wattopia :frowning:

Thanks for help!

What are the specs of the PC?

Hi Paul,

thank you for comming by, my specs are:

Operating System: Windows 10 Pro 64-bit (10.0, Build 19041) (19041.vb_release.191206-1406)
Language: German (Regional Setting: German)
Processor: Intel(R) Core™ i7-2600K CPU @ 3.40GHz (8 CPUs), ~3.4GHz
Memory: 8192MB RAM
Card name: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 570

The issue could be with the NVIDIA GeForce GTX 570 since it is 10 years old.

The card ist working fine and is well within the requirements of Zwift :frowning: i will look into that

Make sure that the driver is up to date.

Are you running Zwift in Windowed or Full screen mode?

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Drivers are up to date, used to use windows modes.
yet after reinstall the loginscreen doesnt even apear

Have you tried complete uninstalling Zwift and reinstalling: Re-Installing Zwift

yes, two times i was using exactly that guide.

Why would that be necessary at all? Why do people keep recommending this? (I am sure its done in good faith, but still)

Zwift claims “Sometimes the best method to fix an issues you’re having with Zwift, is to delete and re-install the game”, while sometimes a valid suggestion, is not acceptable.

When was the last you reinstalled any app or device driver you regularly use?

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I am not saying it is a good thing, I am saying it does solve some Zwift issues.

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I am not saying anyone ever said it is a good thing.

I am asking how is it an acceptable solution? one that people keep suggesting again and again, for any and all issues?

All while Zwift seems to simply ignore the issues… after all, if it gets fixed by reinstall, why bother?

I think it is time for us all to say: No. We do not accept reinstall as an acceptable solution or workaround to Zwift issues. Zwift should fix then - not rely on us to find workarounds.

I think we can all agree to that, but who is going to listen?

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“… who is going to listen?”

Sad, but true…

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I took a look into the xmls:

Launcher_ver-cur.xml :
“Launcher URL=”" version=“0.0.0”/"

Zwift_0.0.0_maifest.xml:
"Zwift folder=“Zwift_0.0.0” version=“0.0.0"”

Zwift_ver_cur.xml
“Zwift manifest=“Zwift_0.0.0_manifest.xml” GAME_URL=”*****://us-or-tst101.zwift.com" version=“0.0.0”/"

are these correct? Version 0.0.0? May i have a problem with the launcher so that Zwift doesnt even install properly?

YES!! it works

Solution was: In the folder I found VC_redist.x64.exe → installed, Laucher showed up and updated :slight_smile:

Thanks everyone who tried to help!
ride on!

so i’m not trying to condone this at all, but i think i can give some context about why this gets recommended. again – this is not an endorsement for the fact that we have to “reinstall”, but it might help explain it.

explanation 1: memory corruption
when a computer program runs, it loads a lot of “stuff” into RAM. sometimes programs get memory leaks, and the “stuff” in RAM gets messed up, which can then have negative effects on programs you are running. rebooting your computer regularly can keep these corruptions to a minimum. if you haven’t rebooted in a while, and errors in your RAM have caused system processes to become unstable, then your installer might not install properly and/or corrupt some of the install. in my experience, windows is very prone to this sort of problem (though less so in more recent versions), and people just don’t like to reboot their computers, so it happens more often than you might expect.

explanation 2: history of installers
before update-over-the-internet, if you wanted to update your software, you had to buy a new disk and install it yourself. you could choose to install over the existing software, but that was risky, because what if some file hung around that corrupted your new install? so most people had office95, office98, office2000 folders on their computers.

nowadays, with auto-update, the company is able to “push” an update to you automatically. but the mechanics are the same – remove the old version and/or install over it. i think most auto-updates have a pretty good working knowledge of what is going to change, so they install over existing software. but this STILL runs the risk of file-rot and/or RAM problems, and so every now and again, you have a file that has become corrupt and won’t work with the new version. that’s not a software error, it’s a local hard-drive problem. there’s a lot of things a software company can do to avoid this, but they all add complexity and cost.

note that this isn’t unique to windows, though i think it is more common in windows. android apps also often recommend a re-install (and they also mostly auto-update).

anyway, again, this doesn’t excuse anything, but it is actually pretty reasonable to recommend a fresh install – especially if you have received many auto-updates since your last “fresh” install.

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The down side to auto-update and pushing thing out as a general practice is that users can’t pick a version that works for them on their hardware and just stay there. Keep the Restful API consistent and let people stay with an older version that works for them on their hardware. I’m really getting tired of getting blind sided such that a planned Zwift event turns into hours of troubleshooting because today of all days there was an update that killed things.

Sigh.

Memory leaks do not cause memory corruptions - exceeding buffer length or coding errors do. Memory leaks do not mess up any other process but the one causing it (a process can only access its own private address space…) - and most times do not even mess up the process creating them. It is no longer required to regularly re-boot your computer on a regular basis - Windows/iOS/Android are mature operations systems, with millions of users, and the vast majority does not reboot regularly or re-install the OS in order to keep it functioning correctly (Microsoft/Apple/Google invest millions of $$$ in order to make sure the OS is stable and reliable). Memory leaks are not RAM errors, and will not cause installation to fail (Alpha particles will corrupt memory and processors, but this is rare to the point of being anecdotal, on earth at least.) Programmers in Software companies test their code/product to ensure all memory is tracked, and some programming languages take care of such issue themselves (such “testing” is the function of QA department or the programmer itself - no software is simply “released”, though not all S/W hold to the same standards in that regard.)

Most times, installation is performed by the installer removing past installation and creating a new one, keeping required bits and pieces (files). In this case nothing is overwritten - the old file is removed, and the new file is instantiated in his stead. An installation method of modifying existing files (“patching”) exists, but that code is thoroughly tested to avoid errors and make sure the end result is valid - for example, by checking the cryptographic signature of these file matches. File-rot is mostly non-existant with modern disks: disk blocks are CRC checked by the disk hardware itself, making file-rot extremely unlikely, to the point of non-existant (and disk-block corruption will result in a completely corrupt program, one that would not run…)

Software companies do not (usually…) re-invent the wheel. They use third-party products to build their own. Zwift does not write Windows/iOS/Android, does not write the compilers used to create Zwift code (Microsoft and Apple do…), does not write device drivers (Intel/AMD/others do - and they test everything thoroughly). The cost and complexity of developing a product like Zwift is limited to Zwift application - not third party software. A Software developer generally assumes the environment and tools are sound.

So, while there is (was) something is what you’ve written, software and computers are not like this anymore, if they ever had been (even in the “old days”.)

Problem is, technology FUD has spread to the point of people not trusting technology, taking unnecessary steps to use it, associate magical powers to computers and software, generally distancing themselves from technology to avoid it’s evil, or reverting to some perceived low complexity method of applying technology in general - and explaining it all using technical language.

In this case, all this boils down to “reinstall”.

And no, it is so rarely necessary (taking the 0.00000001% where it is), that it should not even be mentioned as a “solution” to any issue.

What actually happens is sometimes developers or software companies take shortcuts with QA, development best-paractices, or ignore user’s feedback and issue reports: bugs will always be there, and they need to be fixed, not swept under the carpet.

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this is the same thing as i was trying (possibly poorly) to say in my post in item2. i admit i used overly simple terms/categorizations.

it sounds like we agree – putting too much faith in compounding updates (ie in zwift’s QA, MSFT’s QA and any other software you have on the computer’s QA) is pretty risky business. most people aren’t going to find the offending issue, so they’re stuck with the blunt instrument approach of re-installing! :ride_on: