I’ve been using my Dell laptop for years to connect to Zwift with little issue, except for maybe the RunPod. From what I can tell the runpod uses BLE not Ant+. I had trouble getting my Zwift to see my pod and would get dropouts. I was having other issues with the laptop so I decided to reinstall Win10. Downloaded Zwift and tried to run. Nope, can’t connect the pod at all now. Zwift says the BLE is off, it’s not. I actually have my Sony headphones connected via bluetooth right now and it’s working fine. I even tried to update the drivers. All up to date. What is happening?
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A clean Win10 install lacks that runtime environment that used be included in Win7. Follow that link that Ben posted. That vc_redistx64.exe file solves this exact problem you’re having.
Would you follow up and let us know if this resolved your issue? We like hearing a conclusive yes.
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Totally worked. Why the F doesn’t Zwift tell people this. I was ready to crack open my PC to try and fix or replace the bluetooth radio. Thank you. If anyone from Zwift is listening, inform people of this.
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Worked for me too on clean win 10;install. Thanks
Thank you.
I’ve spent weeks looking for an answer to get Bluetooth working in zwift, when it would work fine with every other windows application.
Unfortunately this hasn’t resolved the issue for me, I was hopeful! By any chance do you know your receiver / bluetooth type? Mine is CSR (I think), maybe there are multiple types and some work with the fix and others don’t?
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Problem solved by buying this adapter and installing today
Its therefore clearly dependent on what type of Bluetooth adapter you have on your PC. I did have a plug in USB dongle previously which wasn’t working, think it was CSR chip on it so think that’s the issue.
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Yes it worked for me. I have a Surface pro 3 and I needed to re install Windows 10. After I did I got the Bluetooth not switched on error from the Squirrel. I installed the C++ from this link and it worked immediately. Thank you.
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This worked for me too. Thanks very much.
This is some time down the line but thanks for posting this solution Ben. I have spent ages looking for why Zwift didn’t work with BLE when other apps were working perfectly ok with my trainers. Finally came across this thread today, installed the vc_redistx64 file Ben linked to and voila, Zwift will now find and connect to my Win10 machine. It now gives me an option other than AppleTV for BLE only devices.
Same story here, been having problems recently with my laptop and Zwift so decided to do a full refresh including the Windows 10 operating system. On reinstalling of both Windows and Zwift I discovered this dreaded Bluetooth issue, needless to say it was working fine before I started meddling with software. Ben’s fix worked perfectly so thanks all for keeping this thread alive.
Worked perfectly. Thank you very much! Zwift should install it or at least require it during their install process.
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Absolutely nothing preventing them including the relevant executable files in the installer. Other software does it.
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Thanks for this! I thought my only solution would be to connect using the Companion app, but following your instructions solved it and I can connect directly from Zwift over Bluetooth. Much appreciated.
Not that they’ve announced it (really helpful as usual) but I believe the new Zwift launcher now includes them as part of a clean install.
Thank you for this info!
It fixed my Zwift/Bluetooth connectivity problem on my PC running Windows 10.
I have the same problem… and this install did not work for me. I’m using a Windows 10 desktop with a Bluetooth (TP LINK) dongle. The Windows Bluetooth application can see the kickr, so that’s working… just not the connection between zwift and pc Bluetooth
Any other suggestions before i look at buying the Bluetooth card suggested above??
Try running the Techpowerup cumulative C++ package installer.
Thanks for the suggestion… but unfortunately after a download and a number of restarts, I was still getting the dreaded yellow warning triangle… 