Other Specialized App (black icon) Issues

Didn't find a thread for this, so here we go. Please post questions and answers to problems with the Specialized app here.


I've been using the Specialized App with ever-increasing success. I'm gonna miss a few things about the Mission Control App when it goes away. Neither are perfect.

Most often the bug I have with the Specialized App is how it records the ride. Or, doesn't record it, as the case sometimes is. I'll ride the ride, press Finish, then it promises me if I wait it will process the ride in thirty seconds, or something to that effect.

I'll wait, give up, have a beer, then take another look and a new message says "Ride queued. We'll upload your ride once you're online"... glances at phone, 5G full strength, I'm online. Go to a website, Check! Online.

Days later, same message still associated with that ride. This doesn't happen every ride, but often enough to be annoying.

On Mission Control it would always process the ride almost instantly and then display everything.

Now it is as if the processing was being done in the app. This makes me wonder if the Specialized app is processing it in the cloud, rather than on the phone, and there is something buggy that hoses the process up every now and then.

I have contacted Specialized support, but nothing has come of it beyond verifying I have all the phone (Android) settings correct. They've kicked it up to the next tier of support, but no response after a week.

The trail I ride most often does have dead spots for cell coverage in places. Maybe it is uploading as I ride and the connection is broken and it never reconnects? If so, that is short-sighted of the developer to think a mountain bike will always be in cell tower range.

It would be nice if they would design it to keep everything on the phone. That way there is no need for an internet connection to complete the processing of the ride. Maybe give the user the option to store their rides online, or not to.

Maybe they are monetizing the data online somehow, to offset the cost of providing an app. Either way, I wish the Specialized App was more dependable.

Also wish it provided all the information the Mission Control app did.

The Autostart feature on Mission control worked better, as you didn't have to press a button every time to start the ride, and, I miss Smart Ride, as it usually did a pretty good job.

If anyone else has experienced the "Ride queued. We'll upload your ride once you're online" message and found a fix, I'd love to hear about it.

...and yes, turning it off and back on again usually fixes it, but they should just make it part of the app to restart the phone when you start the app if that is the only way to make it work consistently. Am I right?

Is there a forum or other where one can see what features Specialized are planning for the new black app (Mission Control replacement)? As at Feb 2024, the new black app is missing some key features. I have a number of Presets (profiles) to set the ECO/Trail/Turbo levels depending on who I'm riding with or the type of ride.... But the new Black app is missing this feature.

Has anyone using this App seen a notification for new TCU/motor/battery firmware available? Spesh website says the Bike Status field in the app should alert the owner to new firmware.

My understanding is that the App can't do FOTA updates the way Mission Control used to. The latest version of MC has removed all firmware functionality.

I haven't seen anything (either MC or Black App) for my Gen2 2019 Levo since the battery firmware update 12 months ago.

Specialized Australia can't give me any accurate idea about upcoming firmware releases.

One aspect of the latest version that is troubling is how, after bringing the app back up on the phone, in order to end a recorded ride it is necessary to first press the "Record" button on the main screen in order to get to the "Finish" button. This is not intuitive and has left me thinking the recording had stopped.

The loss of a recorded ride was an issue it had been having, and I had been working with Support on that. Fortunately, I am no longer getting an error message about how the app is waiting for an internet connection (when the phone has five bars and a 5G signal). That seems to have been resolved.

This bouncing back to the main screen during a recorded ride after exiting the phone's screen and pocketing it is annoying. I feel that it should display the map of the recorded ride the next time the app is viewed on the phone, unless I have manually navigated elsewhere during the ride being recorded.

Anyone else seeing this behavior?

I have given up on the new one... Only use the old one. More features including Smart HR which the new one does not have.

The "Ride queued..." error happened again. This is where it waits forever "to upload once I'm online" even though the phone has a solid 5g connection when I press the "Finish" button at the end of a ride.

I hope my feedback and any info they can access will lead to ridding the app of this pestilence.

As a trail builder I use the data to get accurate wheel mileage after adding a new section to the loop. I have other apps on the phone that can record a GPS track, but the mileage always comes up quite a bit shorter when compared to an app that counts wheel revolutions.

I also wish the app would let me fine tune the wheel diameter the way most bike computers will. Specialized could do this without allowing for abuse (faking the software to allow higher speed with false diameter) by establishing a range of diameter that is limited at a high and low which covers those small variances between tires' tread heights.

I am convinced Specialized (or their I.T. contractors) don't know how to write good software. The number of bugs that take forever to address is terrible. BLEvo shows how good software development is done.

Why is the new app so much worse than the mission control app?
It's sad.

I was actually pretty happy with the misson control app.
The new app does not add anything benificial but lacks usefull features, I have gotten used to.

I don't need any features, but even the simple "Support" setting is annoying now...

the features I am missing:

- saving tune settings
- fullscreen display of stats. (i don't need a map to show me, where I just went)

haven't found these options yet.

Autostart (that actually auto-starts without having to push the Record button) and Smart Ride (or whatever it was called in Mission Control) were functional and useful features for me.

At this point, I just want it to tally up the ride and provide me the details rather than just a message that it will do so once I'm online, while I'm looking at a 5G icon and five bars of signal. That is frustrating. As a trail builder, getting "wheel" mileage and elevation data on new construction is something I count on.

More accurate Elevation data would be nice. Rode with a friend on a YT emtb and the app for his bike (as well as Strava, based on his Garmin data) both showed about 1500 ft climbed for the loop, where the Specialized app indicated 1150 ft. That seems a significant discrepancy.

I'd be perfectly happy if the app didn't rely on being "online" at all, and saving my data to the Specialized cloud was an option. There is no good reason that this data cannot be processed on the phone. (other than a need for Specialized making use of the data for their planning, development, ad targeting, etc. which is expected with any free app)

They could improve the app by making the cloud upload something that happens only after the phone has compiled the data and saved the data locally to the phone. Rather than what seems to me as some dependency upon cloud processing during the ride where a loss of signal results in a hung subroutine and no data when the ride is "Finished." (best guess as to what might be going on).

fone said:

the features I am missing:

- saving tune settings
- fullscreen display of stats. (i don't need a map to show me, where I just went)

haven't found these options yet.

Click to expand...

I think when you drag the Tune Settings to custom values they are maintained until you change them again. Just don't select any of the pre-configured Tune Settings buttons. Mine have remained where I set them.

Ridenfool said:

I think when you drag the Tune Settings to custom values they are maintained until you change them again. Just don't select any of the pre-configured Tune Settings buttons. Mine have remained where I set them.

Click to expand...

Yes, that's correct, tune stays the same until you accidentally select a preset. "doh!"

I was using 3 custom settings wich were different from the tune presets now available... I am looking forward to that feature returning.

What I gather from the replies to the comments in the app-store, they are still working hard on the new app.

fone said:

Yes, that's correct, tune stays the same until you accidentally select a preset. "doh!"

I was using 3 custom settings wich were different from the tune presets now available... I am looking forward to that feature returning.

What I gather from the replies to the comments in the app-store, they are still working hard on the new app.

Click to expand...

It would be nice if there were a "Custom" button we could save our settings to.

Hi, I have a 2017 Specialized Turbo Levo FSR bike. Today I got a message on the Mission Control app saying that the app has been canceled and the new Specialized app needs to be installed. But it looks like the new app only supports bike models from 2019 and newer and you can't add an older model to it. I don't want to believe that they would turn off the working one and leave only the new one accessible, which does not support all models. Does anyone have experience connecting the 2017 model?

Mission control still works on my 2019 Levo, although they've dropped firmware and service support. Check to see if MC still can work on your 2017 for tuning and rides. I never used MC or the black app for riding.... always used BLEvo instead.

I'm facing the same issue with Specialized app since the last update. I've good internet connectivity and still the app queues the rides. From the date of the thread, it's a old bug and i don't know what they fixed in the recent April update.

BushLevo said:

Has anyone using this App seen a notification for new TCU/motor/battery firmware available? Spesh website says the Bike Status field in the app should alert the owner to new firmware.

My understanding is that the App can't do FOTA updates the way Mission Control used to. The latest version of MC has removed all firmware functionality.

I haven't seen anything (either MC or Black App) for my Gen2 2019 Levo since the battery firmware update 12 months ago.

Specialized Australia can't give me any accurate idea about upcoming firmware releases.

Click to expand...

I’d leave firmware updates to your dealer. Even then they can go wrong. It’s not 100% reliable but must be better/ more reliable plugged in than via cell network and Bluetooth.