ZwiftPref (macOS and Windows)

This tool is no longer actively developed.

You want to use the hidden setting with which YOU get to decide where you will be zwifting today?

You want easy access to set trainer effect (also called resistance level) before you launch Zwift?

You can use ZwiftPref on both macOS and Windows to do this and more…

What is ZwiftPref?

ZwiftPref is an app for your macOS or Windows computer which helps you change settings for Zwift in the prefs.xml file in an easy and safe way.

Important note re. the new home screen in Zwift:

Since Zwift doesn’t show your last selected route in the new home screen you cannot activate a ride on your last selected route anymore. That also means that you cannot activate a ride on a route pre-selected with ZwiftPref. There is no way to circumvent this but let’s hope that Zwift bring back the functionality to see your last selected route.

World and Route selection in ZwiftPref

More screenshots:

World and Route selection in ZwiftPref – default view
Trainer Effect and Tacx New Road Feel screen
Select sport, tune the UI, remember/recall your preferred monitor, adjust workout settings, and turn power smoothing on/off
Version information and link to more information

How to use

After installation, launch the ZwiftPref app.

prefs.xml is loaded into the app when it starts and when you press the ‘Reload’ button.

Change settings as you like and press ‘Save’ to have the changes written back to prefs.xml. The changes will then apply the next time you start Zwift.

If you close/quit the app without pressing ‘Save’ nothing is changed in prefs.xml

Download

macOS

Download “ZwiftPref (macOS)” zwiftpref.dmg – Downloaded 71411 times – 78.58 MB

md5 checksum: 828687362e568594c8b145839ee32a59

Security settings

You will have to adjust some security settings to let ZwiftPref launch. See the section ‘Security settings’ in the post ZwiftMap for macOS is here. It is the same for ZwiftPref.

You also have to allow ZwiftPref  access your Documents folder when prompted by macOS, at least under Catalina. This is because of changes to the security model in Catalina compared to previous macOS versions.

Windows

Download “ZwiftPref (Windows)” setup-zwiftpref-0.6.1.exe – Downloaded 36861 times – 60.21 MB

md5 checksum: b67723ade62e5c44a00034f7f61634b4

History

0.3.2 2018-03-26

  • Fully data driven listing of worlds and routes (preparing for a new world)
  • Remember and recall preferred monitor (stores the information in a separate file named saved_prefs.json)
  • Supports –offline parameter to not read any data from the web (routes list, event schedule, map schedule)
  • For development/test: Supports –test parameter to use local file routes-test.json as input (use with –offline)

0.2.5 2017-10-28

  • Choose sport (Riding or Running)
  • More routes
  • Open prefs.xml in a text editor

0.2.4 2017-09-11

  • Change more settings
  • Pick routes
  • See upcoming events

0.1.0 2017-01-26

  • All platforms: First release

Read more

The announcement posts provide a lot more information:

License

CC0 1.0 (Public Domain)

This license applies only to the original parts of the work. The original licenses of any included packages apply without modification.

Acknowledgements

Built on

Built with

25 comments

    1. Just make sure that you have the latest version (from March). This version is prepared for new worlds and new routes – when Zwift releases them, ZwiftPref will pull the information from the ZwiftHacks server and almost magically let you choose world and routes (well, unless Zwift changes too much – then it may require a bit more work on the ZwiftPref code 🙂 ).

      Reply

  3. ZWIFT PREF is great but I use ZWIFT on IPAD. Is it possible to run zwift pref with IPAD ou IPHONE?

    Reply

  5. Would I be able to ride routes I haven’t leveled up for yet, if I choose that route in Zwift Pref?

    You guys are great; thanks!
    Best,
    Shyam

    Reply

  6. Has this been updated for Catalina? I’m new to Zwift and was very excited to find this, but even though the program opens, it only shows 3 worlds (Watopia, Richmond, and London), and I have yet to find any prefs.xml file on my machine. I’ve followed all the instructions above, but nothing seems to change. Looking into the Zwift software package, the only thing I find that looks remotely like the prefs.xml is the info.plist file, but it seems to be locked even in the administrator account, so I can’t try the manual world hack. Thanks for any help/feedback and your hard work!

    Reply

    1. I don’t of that it needs updating for Catalina – that I will have to look into.

      Regarding the location of prefs.xml: See https://zwiftinsider.com/world-tag/ where it is described how you find this file. It is not in the software package but is created in Documents/Zwift (see the post and possibly also some of the first comments).

      Reply

    2. I have tested with Catalina now and it works as it should BUT you have to allow ZwiftPref to access your Documents folder when prompted by macOS. This is because of changes to the security model in Catalina compared to previous macOS versions.

      Reply

  8. Will there be an update soon? Zwift now has two guest worlds and it seems to have broken the world selection for this hack.

    Reply

    1. In which way do you mean that it is broken? I don’t see a difference here.
      The world hack works – as before – and lets you choose a world other than Watopia as base world.

      However, I will publish an update at some point so ZwiftPref can display which courses/worlds are on the calendar currently

      Reply

      1. When I select a new world in ZwiftPrefs and save it the world I have chosen isn’t available in Zwift.

        Reply

        1. Hi Jeff, I’m sending you an e-mail because I need extra information to understand what it is you experience (or not).

          Reply

  10. France or Paris are not on there yet but friends have manualy hacked the xml on a PC and it works. On the Mac it just crashes. Will you update the hack app soon?

    Reply

    1. Until there is support for the ‘normal’ world hack in-game I won’t add France and Paris to ZwiftPref and zwift-preferences; but I’ll add it as soon as it works.

      There are several ways to get access to both France and Paris already now. I know of four different ways you can do it in Windows, and two of them work for macOS, too. However, since they are probably beyond what Zwift would deem fair use — otherwise they had probably enabled the world hack — I won’t publish the methods here at zwifthacks.com. You will have to search for them elsewhere.

      Reply

  11. The Reverse Routes don’t seem to be working – e.g. Richmond Cobbled Climbs Reverse. They are listed in the Zwift menu but don’t actually send you to the course. same problem in ZwiftPrefs and Zwift Preferences.

    Reply

    1. I think you’re right. At one point it was possible to select event only routes via ZwiftPref and then ride then in-game but that hack doesn’t seem to be working anymore. I may remove the event only routes from ZwiftPref to avoid any confusion it may cause.

      Reply

  12. I want to finish handful of gravel run . I use prefs and save prefs.xml to Document/Zwift. then i open zwift.and I found it doesnt work

    Reply

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