One of the most popular posts on the blog at the moment is about recovering data when a Garmin cycle computer crashes whilst saving an activity. It’s great to know that my experience has helped others to recover their ride data and I’m hoping that this post will continue in the same vein… but this time it’s about Zwift.
You see, earlier this week, I decided to try out the new Zwift app for iOS. It’s much easier to use my iPhone than to take a PC out to the garage and use a mobile app as a bridge between the turbo trainer and the Wi-Fi network. Instead, it’s all taken care of in the app.
Unfortunately, after an hour on the trainer, I went to end my ride and Zwift told me it couldn’t log me in (and refused to let me in on the iPhone until I forcibly closed the app). Logging in on another device told me that partial ride data had been captured for the first 10 minutes but that was it. I wasn’t happy and my usual petulant self resorted to a whinge on Twitter, to which I was really surprised to get a reply from the team at Zwift:
Finally tried the @GoZwift iOS app this morning. All seemed good until end of ride when it said it couldn’t log in. Ride data lost #fail pic.twitter.com/DEYNc2VzCP
— Mark Wilson ??????? (@markwilsonit) December 27, 2016
@markwilsonit Hi Mark – did the App crash? You should have been logged in when you finished your ride?
— Zwift (@GoZwift) December 27, 2016
@GoZwift I was logged in OK at start of ride but it said something had gone wrong at the end and it couldn’t log in…
— Mark Wilson ??????? (@markwilsonit) December 27, 2016
@GoZwift I had to force quit the app before it would login in again… partial upload to Zwift (first 10 mins) but missing the rest
— Mark Wilson ??????? (@markwilsonit) December 27, 2016
@markwilsonit OK would you mind raising a support ticket. We'll see if we can help you find your lost data – thanks! https://t.co/aVSUnfxiOI
— Zwift (@GoZwift) December 27, 2016
A few minutes later I logged a support call and was directed to some advice that helped me recover the .FIT file created on my device by Zwift:
If you’re riding on iOS, you can reach your .fit file through iTunes.
1. Plug your device into your computer and open up iTunes.
2. Click on your device in iTunes, then click “Apps” and scroll down to the “File Sharing” section.
3. You should see Zwift listed, and it should have a “Zwift” folder. Click that, and then click “Save To” and save it to a location of your choice.
4. Find the saved Zwift folder, and copy the fit file out of the Zwift/Activities folder.
After this, I could upload the .FIT file to Strava (though not to Zwift itself… apparently this is “a highly requested feature” and “as such, [Zwift are] exploring adding it in the future”):