In my opinion, and I’m fairly confident in it, the problem with bluetooth is in Zwift. To be precise in Zwift implementation of Bluetooth. I have two Windows 10 laptops. An old Lenovo, and newer Dell (which I use as my work laptop). The Dell works fine with Zwift, using the buildin Bluetooth. The Lenovo didn’t work. So I got a Bluetooth stick, which didn’t solve the problem. The Zwift is showing Bluetooth as being off. So I tried two different training apps and both connected immediately to my equipment.
As resolving software bugs is my bread and butter, I am fairly confident in my following conclusion.
The Zwift implementation of Bluetooth is bugy, it probably relies on some specific driver implementation or hooks, which are probably present only in certain hardware implementation. I believe that other apps rely on OS layer on providing access to Bluetooth data.
Such implementation could be either result of bad development or a way to avoid man in the middle attack (aka cheating). Although I would bet for the bad implementation. So it would make sense to contact Zwift and keep bugging them to either get an official response or to fix it. But the issue is definitely in Zwift.
As I didn’t hook on Zwift, trying to get my wife and daughter hooked up, and the fact that my pain cave is in my garden shed, I’m not intending to invest any time in debugging this issue. Sorry I couldn’t help you more. But my recommendation try other apps, if they can pair while Zwift can’t or is showing no Bluetooth, then take the issue to Zwift and be insistent. Apparently they are trying to avoid fixing it.
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