Hi Zwift staff, has there been any development on the Zwift play/general disconnections? Ever since the firmware updates for my controllers the connection through both ZC and Zwift normally has been pretty pants. I have now got a dual boot setup for Zwift, one Windows install for running, and one for cycling just to stop any conflicts since the duathlon debacle/waste of time as there seems little in the way of input/solutions from Zwift since I first posted.
My game controllers only worked correctly once, when I first got them, on my PC. Since that time I have only been able to connect on my Android phone and run the game there with the controllers connecting and allowing shifting. Sunday I tried and was able to connect to my PC but in the game, although it showed the controllers as connected, the shifting did not work (grey bar did not appear). Today I tried again to connect to PC, will not even see them now. When is this going to be fixed???
was able to connect game controllers on PC, but grey shifting bar does not appear. ran on phone and all works fine. What the heck???
Make sure you are connecting the trainer via BT and not ANT+, or the virtual shifting wonât work.
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Thanks Steve, Iâll give that a try.
Steve, that worked, thanks again!
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Iâm not finding it reliable at all with my Apple TV.
I seem to be able to pair my trainer and HRM and one or other of the Play controllers.
For example, today I paired the right one but the left one wouldnât pair. After my session I unpaired them both and paired the left one first; the right one wouldnât pair.
Then after forgetting them Zwift couldnât see one of them at all, despite them both being in search mode.
I donât know if you tried it but keep the charging cables connected to them - this helps to stop disconnecting on macOS.
I rode one hour and they stayed connected the whole time.
Iâll give it a go. Yesterday it was fine and I paired both my HRM, trainer and both Play controllers for a 50 minute ride no problem.
So you have the same experience as I do, thatâs interesting.
I wonder if the power is disconnected are they going into some power saving mode.
Note the talk about working when paired by Companion App - Iâm guessing the device with Companion App installed on it is nearby the Play controllers, is that right?
Today it paired left and right play controllers, and initially paired my HRM. Then as soon as I started riding, it reported âno signalâ from the HRM.
Wasnât plugged in.
Pairing through Zwift Companion bridge has been a pretty reliable workaround for the issue of frequently disconnecting/reconnecting controllers. The issue youâre experiencing, where the controllers appear paired (with a solid blue LED), but are otherwise not connecting, is being tracked separately.
This issue seems to be less widely reported. Are you experiencing it every activity?
No, not every activity. Iâve only been back on the AppleTV since Saturday, so have only done five rides; but Iâve had an issue on two of those occasions.
Yesterdayâs ride was fine. Mondayâs I couldnât connect my HRM by both my Play controllers were OK. Sundayâs I could only pair one Play controller at a time, but the HRM was fine. Saturday I donât think I had any problems on either of the sessions I did.
I havenât been tracking it closely, but I recall having similar problems last time I was on the AppleTV earlier last year. Iâve changed my phone since then, so I donât think itâs anything to do with the phone itself although they were both Android phones.
Should we wait for next firmware update or what should we do when controller keeps disconnecting? I have tried everything, switching WiFi from 2.4 to 5.0 to avoid interfernece, putting trainer on ANT+ or WiFi, pairing after everything else is paired, one after the other, many other things and the only things that made my right controller work (left one works fine) is to have it plugged in the power⌠I also seem to have problems as my BT headset keeps getting disconnected or interfered every time the right controller disconnects⌠Very weird interaction. Seems like there must be some power saving mode that is causing the issue if having it plugged in power resolves thatâŚ
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My controllers now disconnect and reconnect basically every 30 seconds. Only 4 feet away from the Bluetooth antenna on my PC. An Xbox controller connected to the same Bluetooth on the other hand works reliably from like 30 feet away.
Also, really frustrating is that in a ride on Tuesday night, it kept randomly thinking I was pressing the brake button. Honestly about ready to throw these controllers in the trash where they belong.
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Did connecting them to the charging cable work?
For me, these constant disconnects described above always occur unless the controllers are connected to external power. And it is every activity, sometimes even just 30 seconds after starting the activity.
Iâm also as close as the above user to the Bluetooth antenna on my Mac which is using BCM94360CD (a common one).
@Rowdy I bought an ANT+ dongle to pair my Tacx Neo2t trainer and Polar ANT+/BLE HRM so that I could connect the Zwift Play controllers through the BLE bridge with Companion. That words great to solve the unstable connection with the controllers, but now my trainer resistance is backwards (feels steeper going down and vice versa)!
There are a few other threads in the forums where people have noted the gradient reversal but not in context of the Play controllers that I can find. Indeed, I used to occasionally experience gradient reversal while running Zwift via Apple TV, and it was usually solved just by restarting the app. But now Iâm running a PC with Windows 10 and this is the first time Iâve experienced gradient reversalâŚwith the change being pairing the trainer through ANT+ and the controllers through Companion.
Anyone else have this issue?
Is there an update on the Samsung S6 swift play connectivity issues? A number of zwift side updates havenât resolved the issue. Is there a play controller update planned to resolve the S6 issue coming soon?
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I just thought I would share my experience with the Zwift play controllers and connectivity. I am running a Tacx neo 2t and a Wahoo tickr hrm along with the zwift play controllers through a Windows 11 gaming pc. I run the Zwift Companion app on an iPhone 13 pro as well. I also sometimes use Bluetooth headphones for audio. The gaming pc does not have native Bluetooth, so I used an older Bluetooth 4 usb adapter for connecting the headphones. I used an older ant+ usb adapter with antenna I got from Kurt Kinetic years ago (no longer available) to connect the trainer and hrm through ant +. The bluetooth and ant+ adapters are on top of the pc about 5 feet direct line of sight from the play controllers. I first tried connecting the play controllers through the bluetooth 4 adapter and had numerous disconnects and reconnects. I then tried a name brand Bluetooth 5 usb adapter and had the same results. I noticed that the signal strength displayed when connecting the play controllers in Zwift was bouncing all over the place. I noticed that if I removed the play controllers and moved them closer to the pc the signal strength improved. I then tried pairing the play controllers through the Zwift Companion app and that worked flawlessly. I was determined to get Bluetooth working on the PC directly, so I tried a long range Bluetooth usb adapter with antenna I found on Amazon with lots of reviews (Techkey). It also worked flawlessly. I ran Zwiftalizer and saw no Bluetooth issues, but my old Ant+ setup seemed to have some interference issues, though they didnât seem to affect game play. I then connected everything (trainer, hrm, play controllers, and Bluetooth headphones) through the long range USB adapter and it now all works flawlessly with clean Zwiftalizer files!
Iâve had similar issues. The Play controllers frequently disconnect and reconnect to my Windows 11 PC using an ASUS Bluetooth 5 usb adapter. My Zwift Hub also connects over bluetooth at the same distance of about 8-10 feet and has never really had any connection issues. I bought a long range Bluetooth adapter, but it didnât perform any better. Today, I just did a ride pairing through my phone via the companion app and that didnât have a single disconnect.