Zwift Ride Missing? What to Check Before You Restart

You finish the ride. Legs are toast, the fan is roaring, the towel is soaked. You hit save, reach for your phone to admire it on Strava… and nothing. 🫠

Or worse: a Wi-Fi wobble, a power trip, or a laptop that decides now is a great time for an update, and Zwift simply disappears mid-ride.

Your first instinct is to reopen Zwift and poke around. Hold that thought. A few minutes of calm checking first gives you the best chance of keeping your ride data — and the evidence Zwift support needs if something properly broke.

One honest disclaimer up front: this guide can’t promise your ride will come back. Sometimes the file is simply incomplete or never got written. But you’ll know exactly where to look, what to keep, and when to hand it over to support.

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First: Two Kinds of Files (Don’t Mix Them Up)

Zwift saves two very different things on your device, and they need different handling:

• 🚴‍♀️ Activity files (.fit) — your actual ride: power, heart rate, distance, time. These are what you upload to Strava, Garmin, and friends. Zwift keeps them on the device you rode on and on Zwift.com (if the ride saved properly).
• 🔧 Log files (.txt) — Zwift’s behind-the-scenes diary of what went wrong. Support uses these to diagnose crashes and drops. They only live on the device you rode on.

Here’s the important difference, straight from Zwift’s own file guide:

• Copying your activity file is fine. Grab a copy and upload it wherever you like.
• Reopening Zwift, or moving/copying log files, is the risky part. Zwift says this can remove files needed for troubleshooting.

So the only question is: do you want Zwift support to investigate? If it was a crash, a race, or a recurring problem, leave Zwift closed and the Logs folder untouched until support tells you what they need. If you just want the ride on Strava, carry on below — no need to wait for anyone.

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Start Here: Which Situation Are You In?

Pick the one that matches what you’re seeing, then jump to that section below. 👇

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A: Ride Missing From Zwift Itself

This could mean the upload to Zwift didn’t finish, or it could be a temporary hiccup on Zwift’s side. Here’s the order I’d check things in:

1. Check zwift.com, not just the app. Log in, go to your feed, and look for the ride. Sometimes Companion is just slow to catch up.
2. If it’s there but won’t open, try again a bit later — it may be a passing issue. In the meantime, your local file is your backup.
3. Find the local .fit file on the device you rode on (exact folders in the “Where Your Files Live” section below). Files are named by date.
4. Copy it somewhere safe — your desktop is fine. Work with the copy, never the original.
5. Upload the copy to Strava or Garmin manually so at least your training history is complete.

⚠️ The bit nobody likes hearing: Zwift doesn’t accept .fit file uploads, so you can’t push the file back into Zwift. Riders have been asking for this for years. So your Strava and Garmin can be fixed, but Zwift’s own stats, XP, drops, or event completions may not be restored. If it was an event or a race, contact Zwift support or the organizer and explain — just don’t bank on credit being restored.

Back to the three options

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B: Ride Is in Zwift but Missing From Strava

Good news: this is the easiest one. Your ride saved — the hand-off to Strava (or Garmin, or TrainingPeaks) just didn’t happen.

1. Give it a little time. Syncing isn’t always instant.
2. Still nothing? Download the .fit from Zwift.com. Go to zwift.com/feed and sign in → select Just Me → open the activity → tap the cog icon → Download Fit File.
3. Upload it manually on the Strava website (or Garmin Connect).
4. Fix the link for next time. If uploads keep failing, Zwift’s forum team often suggests disconnecting and reconnecting Strava to Zwift.

💡 Upload to one service at a time and check before adding another. If Strava and Garmin are linked, uploading to both can result in a duplicate ride. Not the kind of double session you want.

Back to the three options

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C: Session Interrupted Before You Could Save

This is the one that makes you want to throw the remote. (I’ve been there — my load-shedding saga is basically a love letter to this exact feeling. 🕯️)

Zwift saves your progress to the device while you ride, so there’s often something left behind. Here’s how to approach it calmly:

1. Decide before you relaunch Zwift. Want support to look at the crash or a race? Keep Zwift closed and leave the Logs folder alone until you’ve heard from them. Just want the ride on Strava? Carry on.
2. On PC or Mac, check the Activities folder (you don’t need to open Zwift) for a file from today. Riders sometimes report a file with a name like inProgressActivity.fit — that’s likely the unfinished ride.
3. Copy the likely file to your desktop, then try uploading the copy to Strava. If Strava rejects it, the file may be incomplete. Some can’t be rescued, and that’s not your fault.
4. Check zwift.com later. Riders occasionally report a partial ride appearing afterward, but don’t count on it.

If the drop happened because your trainer kept losing connection, sort that out before your next ride — my trainer not connecting guide walks you through it step by step.

Back to the three options

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Where Your Zwift Files Live (by Device)

💻 Windows PC — read this one carefully

Zwift moved where it saves files on Windows in February 2026. Older files were not moved over — so if you’re hunting for an older ride, you may need to check both places.

• New location (rides from February 2026 onward): C:\Users\YourName\AppData\Local\Zwift — then open Activities or Logs. Shortcut: type %LocalAppData%\Zwift into the File Explorer address bar.
• Can’t see AppData? In File Explorer, choose View → Show → Hidden items.
• Old location (older rides): Documents\Zwift, or OneDrive\Documents\Zwift if your Documents folder syncs to OneDrive.
• Logs shortcut: right-click the little Z icon in your taskbar (click ˄ if it’s hidden) and choose Open Logs Folder.

🍎 Mac

Open Finder → Go → Home → Documents → Zwift, then choose Activities or Logs.

📱 iPhone, iPad and Android

On the Zwift title screen, tap the grey file icon in the top-right corner. Activity files are in the right-hand column, log files on the left. Select what you need, tap OK, and email it to yourself.

⚠️ Getting there means opening Zwift. That’s fine if you only need the ride for Strava, but if you want support with the investigation, contact them first. iPhone and iPad users can also connect to a computer and copy the Zwift folder via File Sharing — see Zwift’s official file guide for the steps.

📺 Apple TV

You can’t browse files on Apple TV yourself. If the ride isn’t on zwift.com, contact Zwift support and let them take it from there.

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When to Contact Zwift Support (and What to Send)

Reach out when it’s a race or event, when Zwift crashes, when you’re riding on Apple TV, or when this keeps happening. Make life easy for them:

• ✅ Date and rough time of the ride
• ✅ The device you rode on and what happened (crash, freeze, drop, no save button)
• ✅ The event or race name, if there was one
• ✅ Log files only when they ask, using their instructions
• ❌ Don’t bundle your .fit files in with crash logs unless they ask — Zwift’s own crash-log guidance asks you to leave them out

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Small Habits That Save Future Rides

• Keep free storage on your device. Zwift saves the activity file while you ride, so it needs room to write it.
• Set your device’s date and time to update automatically. Zwift says a time change mid-ride can cause problems with the activity.
• Exit Zwift properly, and avoid being logged in on two devices at once.
• Keep Zwift and your launcher updated — but update before a ride, not mid-warm-up.
• Old habit check: if you used to grab files from Documents\Zwift on Windows, update your bookmark to the new AppData folder.
• Glance at Strava after every important ride. Fixing it the same evening is easier than three weeks later.

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Final Thoughts

A missing ride stings — especially when you suffered for it. Breathe, figure out which situation you’re in, keep a copy of your activity file, and leave the logs alone if you want support digging deeper.

And if the ride really is gone? Your legs still know you did it. That fitness counts, even if Strava never sees it. 💪

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🩷The Endurance Diaries🩷