Zwift not picking up broadcast heart rate from Garmin Fenix 6

Android
1

Hi everyone. Until my last two Zwift rides, my heart rate was being picked up without any problem by Zwift (i am running Zwift on my Samsung S20 and am broadcasting my heart rate from my Garmin Fenix 6 wrist watch.) So, at the end of my ride, i was able to see my entire heart rate during the ride on Zwift. My last two rides, however, this is not happening - despite the fact that Zwift shows that it is picking up the broadcast heart-rate when i set up my ride on Zwift. So, somewhere along the line, i seem to be losing the link between my heart rate being broadcast from the watch and Zwift. I’m no aware that I’ve changed any settings. Any ideas, Folks?

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Are you broadcasting via Bt or Ant+

The 6 can do it either way.

3

Hi Stuart. Ant+.

4

Barry,

Firstly try this.

Zwift needs permission to use location on your phone but not only that, you must pick “only when the app is running” and not “always.”

This may resolve the issue.

Secondly are you starting an activity on your watch? It will broadcast in BT without an activity if you turn the setting on.
However to guarantee it’ll broadcast in Ant+ you need to press the top right button for activities.
This should kick in the Ant+ broadcasting. Be aware though if you don’t then start an activity on the watch it’ll time out after 10 mins. Might be longer I can’t remember.
You don’t need to save the activity at the end of your session, you can discard it if you like.

You’ve probably been lucky in that its worked without starting an activity. Mine does but not all the time. I always start recording an activity these days.

5

Thanks, Stuart. This is very helpful. My location settings were correct. From what you’re telling me, it seems that it is hit-or-miss if i don’t start an activity on the watch (strange, because i seem to have had a 100% success rate until the last two days.) So in future i will start an activity (although i don’t need to save it, based on what you say in your post. This is good news, otherwise I’ll be duplicating activities to Garmin Connect - from both Zwift and my watch!)

(BTW, I Just did a 5 min test on my bike without starting an activity and it seemed to work ok. This lends support to your theory that this thing appears to be somewhat variable.)

Thanks for the help, Stuart - and happy Zwifting!

6

No problem.

If you’ve nothing else connecting to your phone via BT you could set your watch to transmit HR via BT which is equally as stable as Ant+ even doing an activity.

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Thanks, Stuart – much appreciated!

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If you’ve nothing else connecting to your phone via BT you could set your watch to transmit HR via BT which is equally as stable as Ant+ even doing an activity.
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Stuart, many thanks – Thank you very much! you save my time bro

9

I also have a Samsung galaxy S20 with the following setup:

*Garmin ant+ HR strap
*My phone (mentioned above) running Zwift Companion app with BT turned off
*Apple TV 4k running Zwift
*Garmin fenix 6s broadcasting HR strap as BT

All works good until I start an activity on my fenix 6s, then Zwift loses connection. Also if I have started an activity on fenix it is impossible to pair.

Any ideas? I would like to record the activity so I can get left / right power ratio in Garmin connect etc.

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