I have been on Zwift a few years now and experienced no issues until of late. During random points during my past three workouts I have dropped connection with sensors. The strangest thing; looking for some guidance or help since Zwift support has not responded to my issue.
I have verified internet connection is still strong, often times the Zwift avatar is still on the screen.
I have double checked the ANT function with over programs and experienced no issues.
I have verified kickr has not dropped power and it consistently displays power with other cycling platforms.
Cadence sensor and hrt monitor definitely work fine as I have changed batteries and they function well with other cycling platforms.
IMHO it’s happening due to Tour de Zwift. Too much traffic and their servers can’t scale fast enough.
This is part of the problem. As mentioned they are breaking records with 13,000+ concurrent users. This is good and bad. Obviously demand has never been higher. But unfortunately it is causing scaling issues. This will be resolved in time, and is a good lesson. I also think it will speed up world choice options, hopefully.
As for those who quit because of this, I guess it is the cost of success. Trainer road is not in the same business as Zwift. There is not a group aspect or social aspect to it. I would argue that if you have to pick just one platform, choose the one you enjoy the most. If you have multiple accounts then enjoy them all. I personally use Zwift and Sufferfest. Zwift is my go to, and I haven’t had any problems, but I think I have just been lucky…
I have been on Zwift a few years now and experienced no issues until of late. During random points during my past three workouts I have dropped connection with sensors. The strangest thing; looking for some guidance or help since Zwift support has not responded to my issue.
I have verified internet connection is still strong, often times the Zwift avatar is still on the screen.
I have double checked the ANT function with over programs and experienced no issues.
I have verified kickr has not dropped power and it consistently displays power with other cycling platforms.
Cadence sensor and hrt monitor definitely work fine as I have changed batteries and they function well with other cycling platforms.
Any ideas or solutions to remedy this issue?
Thank you-
Are you connecting through the Zwift app on your phone or another bluetooth method? I was having this same issue when using it in my garage. Went through the support with Zwift which was very quick and they were great. You are able to send them your ride logs, so they can trouble shoot. Even though my internet connection was still showing strong on my laptop and phone in the garage, it wasn’t strong enough and was dropping the connection. I put a wifi booster on the wall that abuts my garage and I’ve had zero issues since.
I agree with the other posters above. I’ve noticed with the last few rides the numbers have been over 10,000 users. It’s been glitching or skipping a little bit if that makes sense. Kind of annoying. I only use it for prescribed workouts my coach builds in Training Peaks and link it to Zwift. I like that the workout is already in the program and it automatically will change the power for each interval. I have heard Trainer Road has a similar function but there is something interesting about watching Zwift.
IMHO it’s happening due to Tour de Zwift. Too much traffic and their servers can’t scale fast enough.
This is part of the problem. As mentioned they are breaking records with 13,000+ concurrent users. This is good and bad. Obviously demand has never been higher. But unfortunately it is causing scaling issues. This will be resolved in time, and is a good lesson. I also think it will speed up world choice options, hopefully.
As for those who quit because of this, I guess it is the cost of success. Trainer road is not in the same business as Zwift. There is not a group aspect or social aspect to it. I would argue that if you have to pick just one platform, choose the one you enjoy the most. If you have multiple accounts then enjoy them all. I personally use Zwift and Sufferfest. Zwift is my go to, and I haven’t had any problems, but I think I have just been lucky…
This is actually not at all correct. Our server load has actually been fine throughout the tour. We made some pretty significant changes after we did have server load issues during our Fondos in late 2017/early 2018.
What Tour de Zwift has exposed is some issues with lower end machines on the client side not handling certain aspects of 13,000+ concurrent users well. But that doesn’t make any sense in this context.
None of the particular scenarios you mention should be affected by the server anyway. The workout file is stored locally and processed entirely on the client.
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This is actually not at all correct. Our server load has actually been fine throughout the tour. We made some pretty significant changes after we did have server load issues during our Fondos in late 2017/early 2018.
I wouldn’t be so quick to dismiss this. During some tour stages I experienced some oddities even with a wired gigabit internet connection. The avatars for folks would stop showing their w/kg and there would be speech bubble (greyed out) over their heads. It would clear up after a few seconds and reoccurred a few times. Once the stage was over, it didn’t reoccur.
Even the biggest MMOs (WOW, etc) with scaled servers experience server lag during peak load times.
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This is actually not at all correct. Our server load has actually been fine throughout the tour. We made some pretty significant changes after we did have server load issues during our Fondos in late 2017/early 2018.
I wouldn’t be so quick to dismiss this. During some tour stages I experienced some oddities even with a wired gigabit internet connection. The avatars for folks would stop showing their w/kg and there would be speech bubble (greyed out) over their heads. It would clear up after a few seconds and reoccurred a few times. Once the stage was over, it didn’t reoccur.
Even the biggest MMOs (WOW, etc) with scaled servers experience server lag during peak load times.
That could be entirely reflective of issues with those particular clients though. We’ve certainly been paying attention to this during TdZ because of increased load.
In any case, in this particular instance, which is related to ANT connectivity and in-game workouts, server load should never be a factor. This is strictly client-side behavior. As you said, the “oddities” you noticed were all with other avatars, not with your own. Regardless of anything else, server load and local ANT connectivity just aren’t plausibly related…
Are you using a head unit at the same time that you are using Zwift? If so, if you have the Bluetooth enabled on the head unit this could be causing drops to the ANT+ that feeds Zwift. Try turning off Bluetooth on the head unit and you should be good to go. If you don’t use the head unit concurrently with Zwift then I don’t know what to tell you. Good luck.
It’s probably radio interference. From your other devices or from neighbors. Without RF engineering experience best you can do is shut down your WiFi, cordless phone, don’t use the microwave, and try making changes to your setup until problems go away.
knowing i may have issues with drop outs and such, i logged on 30 minutes prior to the start of my event. and radio silence with ANT+, despite Garmin 520 picking up all the signals. tried quite a few different things: restarting zwift, restarting PC, etc. Finally seemed to have located the culprit, which appears to be that the Bluetooth connection (in beta mode) really interferes with the signals.
so now i’ve gotten everything to run, except zwift won’t teleport me to London from Watopia. is this what one receives when paying $5/month more? they should really make the warning regarding Bluetooth beta writ large, as it’s causing a lot of troubles. also, the failure to teleport. what the hell was that?
That could be entirely reflective of issues with those particular clients though. We’ve certainly been paying attention to this during TdZ because of increased load.
In any case, in this particular instance, which is related to ANT connectivity and in-game workouts, server load should never be a factor. This is strictly client-side behavior. As you said, the “oddities” you noticed were all with other avatars, not with your own. Regardless of anything else, server load and local ANT connectivity just aren’t plausibly related…
Of course we really don’t know if there was some local interference causing his dropouts, but what can happen is too much traffic to the client can cause the client to get overloaded and that could cause local drop outs. Consider the server sending the info about 3000+ nearby cyclists continuously to your client. Every client/server has it’s breaking point (think DDOS attacks and how they work)
What I experienced was everyone around me stopped updating periodically. I’m on an i7 16GB of memory and a gigabit wired connection and my client experienced some glitching. Perhaps it was a server glitch but who knows. I didn’t experience any ANT+ dropouts but without looking at some local client logs you can’t fully rule out the possibility that his client got overloaded.
Usually, I’ve only ever done stages with under 1500 participants. This week however, it’s been consistently over 2800.
Dropouts? Yup. A lot. In addition to the interference from other ble devices, I’ve concluded I need to buy a powered usb hub. I guess the pc ports dont put out enough juice to keep the signal steady.
Consider the server sending the info about 3000+ nearby cyclists continuously to your client. Every client/server has it’s breaking point (think DDOS attacks and how they work)
Without getting too much into the nuts and bolts of how it works, we don’t send the info on all nearby cyclists. We explicitly limit this information precisely for this reason (among others).
Dropouts? Yup. A lot. In addition to the interference from other ble devices, I’ve concluded I need to buy a powered usb hub. I guess the pc ports dont put out enough juice to keep the signal steady.
which powered USB hub would you buy? at this point, i’m about to adopt the kitchen sink method here
Issue I’ve been having: twice now as I’ve gotten halfway up Alpe du Zwift the edges of everything start getting blurry and the colors fade out. It’s only on the ride screen, though. All of the maps and numbers and everything are crisp and clear.