Same problem for me, since start of the year. As the gradient changes the resistance does not change. Riding up a 10% hill and it’s as easy as 0%. Takes the enjoyment out of the courses. Please fix Zwift, especially now we are doing tour.
Double check that you are running the latest version of Zwift. Do not depend on auto-update. Manually force an update check if you are using Apple TV, iPhone, or Android phones. Macbooks auto update when you start so that shouldn’t be an issue. Windows, I’m not so sure but double check.
Check to see that your trainer firmware is the latest and greatest.
Make sure you have everything paired correctly. Pairing power from your trainer is not the same as pairing your trainer as the “Controllable Trainer”. The “Controllable Trainer” is what provides the resistance feedback when the road gradient changes in Zwift. Note: If doing a Zwift workout, the gradient changes are irrelevant since the trainer will be in ERG mode.
When pairing the “Controllable Trainer” or “Power”, if you have more than one option for the same trainer and one is an FE-C option, then use teh FE-C option.
If you’re using ANT+ and a computer, you might consider a USB extension cable to get the dongle closer to your trainer.
Whether, Bluetooth or ANT+, you might be getting signal interference from neighbor WiFi, your own WiFi, microwave ovens, etc… Hence, you might find one works better than the other. You might also consider moving your WiFi to 5GHz where it will not share spectrum w/Bluetooth and ANT+.
I had the same today. Yesterday a training today Zwift did not control the gradient. Tried
Reinstall the app
Calibrate in Zwift
Calibrate on the tacx app
Switch of Bluetooth on my phone
Ride on my phone
Switch of the trainer and reconnect
Started 5 times in Zwift
Very annoying
When I use the training plans in Zwift the resistance changes, but out on free ride the resistance does not change for the climbs?
This says to me that it is Zwift not controlling the resistance in free ride? Yes I have the trainer difficulty set to 100%.
Any resistance changes in the training plans or workouts is based on target power/wattage and not on the terrain/gradient.
Free ride resistance changes should occur based on the terrain/gradient.
In both cases, the “controllable trainer” has to be paired correctly. It is odd that it sounds like you are saying it only works properly when riding workouts. If this is the case, I would open a ticket w/Zwift support: https://support.zwift.com/contact/
HI Lin_Alan
Yes the resistance only works in training mode and not on terrain/gradient.
i’ll open a ticket.
Thanks
All just to clarify, I have played with this every way I know how and the only way it works is with the Ant dongle and then resistance is controlled by Zwift, but there is no gear change showing in the upper left. a pain but it works. Anytime I connect with Blue Tooth from my PC, it hasn’t controlled resistance since the early Jan update. i wish zwift would fix this issue, as I would like to see gear changes and have resistance controlled. It is quite strange that if you link blue tooth thru companion app and your phone then resistance works, but again no gear shifts…still that way and zwift just updated again today.
I had the same problem earlier this week. I have two smart trainers…
…Zwift was pairing to my trainer for the cadence and power, and to my wife’s for the “controllable” connection. So, I was recording power and cadence just fine, but cycling up Alpe de Zwift in top gear.
Easy to fix when you know what’s going on - but why doesn’t the Zwift startup connect everything to the same smart trainer; it makes absolutely no sense to connect to separate machines?
And, yes, my wife’s Zwift account was making its “controllable” pairing with my bike.
Hope this helps.
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I have a similar issue with my iPad, everything is up to date. Using BT connection, resistance seems inverse (i.e. riding down hills is harder than riding up them) or random… It all works fine on my macbook pro. My saris H3 has the latest firmware. I’ve tried resetting network settings, all settings, and wiping and startign again on my iPad (current iPad air).
Has anyone else had this issue and resolved it?
Thanks, and happy easter everyone
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I have the same issue. Just purchased a saris h3 and resistance is controlled via my Mac and Bluetooth but NOT via my android phone and Bluetooth. I’ll try rouvy app tomorrow to see if it’s just a zwift thing or seems to be an android issue. Any one else having this issue?
I found that my iPad couldn’t do Spotify over Bluetooth as well as the resistance changes properly so I listen on my iPhone now and all is good
Same issue here… I have a Saris M2 smart trainer, connected via BLE to my iPad IOS.
Resistance simply doesn’t work neither in ERG or SIM mode - just doesn’t change.
This is extremely frustrating as I’m sure it is for everyone else on the thread, made worse by the fact that Zwift don’t seem interested in responding!
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Had similar issues to many here. Using a Kickr snap with an apple TV I could not get the resistance to change with grade. I tried connecting to the companion app, just the trainer and the TV, closing all apps, factory spin downs, etc. but none of them resolved the issue.
Here is what I figured out.
I was connecting to my trainer as a controllable trainer, but trying to use my power meter as the power source. In the Wahoo app I had the trainer set up to “control w/ ANT+ Power Meter” but the device ID was not configured correctly.
The solution was to configure the device ID correctly so that the power meter was talking to the trainer, and then connect to the trainer as the power source in Zwift. This solved the issue running on Apple TV.
I ended up here when searching for solutions to this issue, so in case anyone else is looking this may help. Here’s what happened and how I fixed it.
How I caused the problem
- I had started Zwift before waking up the turbo
- This resulted in Zwift pairing with the wrong output from my Turbo - ie not the FE-C for the controllable trainer.
- Once Zwift had paired with the wrong Turbo output, it paired with it every time it started and consequently refused to adjust the resistance when the gradient changed.
How I fixed it
- Always wake the turbo up before starting Zwift - NB should always do this anyway
- Don’t wear your heart rate monitor (If you don’t use one you will need to tweak this method somehow so you can do step (3) below, but the method is still valid)
- On start up of Zwift it goes to the pairing screen where it usually counts down and then pairs automatically (to the previously paired items). However if it can’t find the usual Heart Rate Monitor because you are not wearing it, it stops here allowing the next step (4) to be done.
- Unpair the various pairings for the Turbo (I have 3 of them)
- Reconnect them all again - start with the Controllable turbo link and set it to the FE-C device. Note that when I’d set the other two, the Cadence pair was automatically set because it comes from the turbo - so I didn’t need to set that one.
This worked for me and is logical.
Good luck