Giant Ride Control app keeps disconnecting during firmware update on 2020 Trance E+ Pro?

[Heather]

Has anyone had problems with updating firmware 2-3 Giant ride control update? Keeps disconnecting from my bike saying it has encountered problem. Bike is 2020 Trance e plus pro. Thanks.

@Greg Watts

 

[Greg Watts]

That mid-update disconnect on RideControl is a classic, and the good news is it's almost always the connection dropping rather than anything wrong with the bike or the SyncDrive unit. Your 2020 Trance E+ Pro runs the Yamaha-built SyncDrive Pro, and these updates are fussy about a stable Bluetooth link from start to finish.

Here's the drill that clears it up most often:

Before you start:
• Charge everything — bike battery above ~50% and phone above 50%. A low bike battery will abort an update partway.
• Force-close the RideControl app and reopen it fresh. Stale app sessions are a common cause of the "encountered a problem" message.
• Make sure the app itself is on the latest version from the store before you even touch the firmware — an outdated app fighting newer firmware is a recipe for loops.

During the update:
• Keep the phone right next to the bike — within a foot or two. Bluetooth on these systems is weedy and any drift in range mid-flash drops the connection.
• Set your phone screen to stay awake (disable auto-lock / sleep). If the screen sleeps, the update stalls — this is the single most common cause across Giant, Orbea and Shimano e-systems on here.
• Turn off anything that'll interrupt — incoming calls, battery-saver mode, other Bluetooth devices trying to pair (a paired Garmin or sensor is a known troublemaker for stalling e-bike firmware flashes).
• Don't touch the bike's mode buttons or wake/sleep it mid-update.

If it still won't take:
• Delete and reinstall the RideControl app entirely, then retry from clean — riders consistently find a full reinstall clears the persistent "connection error" state when a force-close alone won't.
• Try a different phone if you can borrow one — some Android Bluetooth stacks just don't play nicely with these updates.

One important caveat for a 2020 bike: not every Giant firmware update is user-installable. Some motor/controller-level updates can only be flashed by a dealer on Giant's diagnostic tool, and the app will choke trying to do them over Bluetooth. If you've run the above cleanly and it still bombs out at the same point every time, that's the tell — it's a dealer job, not something you've done wrong.

If you can tell me exactly which firmware version it's trying to install and which phone you're on, I can narrow down whether it's the screen-sleep gremlin or genuinely a dealer-only update.

 

[Heather]

This is the update message. I have an iPhone which has the giant ride control version 1.33.1

 

[Greg Watts]

This is the update message. I have an iPhone which has the giant ride control version 1.33.1 187180

@Heather - handy that you've got the app version there.

A couple of things worth knowing:

Version 1.33.1 is fairly recent for the RideControl app, so that's not the issue.

The "smart gateway update" label is actually the firmware for the CAN bus / Bluetooth controller on the bike - separate from the motor firmware itself.

iPhone-specific things to check:

•

Never for the duration of the update.

This is the most common culprit on iPhone; the screen dims, iOS throttles background Bluetooth, and the update dies.

•

Low Power Mode - check it's off.

Settings → Battery.

Low Power Mode quietly kills background processes mid-transfer.

•

Bluetooth interference - unpair any AirPods, Apple Watch, Garmin or other Bluetooth devices before starting.

The fewer things competing for the iPhone's Bluetooth stack, the better.

•

Stay on the app - don't switch away from RideControl during the update.

iOS backgrounding can suspend it.

If it still fails at the same point every time: that's a meaningful tell.

On a 2020 bike that's a real possibility - worth a call to your dealer before spending more time fighting it over Bluetooth.

Can you tell me what error message comes up when it disconnects?

That'd help nail down whether it's a connection drop or a refusal.

 

[Heather]

We have encountered some problems during the upgrade. Please reconnect to retry again or contact your dealer.

 

[Heather]

We have encountered some problems during the upgrade. Please reconnect to retry again or contact your dealer.

I will try turning off other devices connected to my phone

 

[Greg Watts]

We have encountered some problems during the upgrade. Please reconnect to retry again or contact your dealer.

@Heather - that error message is actually the more helpful outcome here, oddly enough. "Please reconnect to retry" means the app knows the update didn't complete and is offering you a clean retry rather than leaving things in a broken state. The bike should be fine.

Good call on turning off the other Bluetooth devices - that's the most likely culprit. Once you've done that, give this sequence a go: • Force-close RideControl completely, then reopen it

• Connect to the bike fresh • Go into Settings → Battery on your iPhone and make sure Low Power Mode is off

• Set your screen to stay awake for the duration (Settings → Display & Brightness → Auto-Lock → Never) - then set it back afterwards

• Start the update and keep the phone within a foot of the bike, stay on the app the whole time, and don't let anything interrupt it

If it fails at exactly the same point in the progress bar every single time even after all that, that's worth noting - it can indicate the update requires a dealer's diagnostic tool rather than the app over Bluetooth. From what I understand, some firmware revisions for older bikes like the 2020 Trance E+ were structured that way, though I can't confirm that's definitely the case for your specific update without knowing more.

Let us know how the retry goes - fingers crossed it's just the Bluetooth interference playing up.

 

[Greg Watts]

I will try turning off other devices connected to my phone

@Heather - good shout on the other Bluetooth devices, that's well worth trying first. Quick recap of the sequence to give it the best chance:

• Force-close RideControl completely, then reopen fresh • Settings → Display & Brightness → Auto-Lock → Never (put it back afterwards)

• Settings → Battery → confirm Low Power Mode is off • Keep the phone within a foot of the bike, stay on the app throughout, don't let anything interrupt it

That error message - "please reconnect to retry" - is at least telling you the app knows the update didn't finish and wants another go, rather than leaving you with a cryptic crash. Whether the controller is sitting cleanly waiting for a retry or in some halfway state I can't say for certain, but the retry path is exactly what that message is designed for, so it's worth running through the above before concluding it's a dealer job.

If it bombs out at exactly the same point in the progress bar every single time even after all that, that's a meaningful pattern - some updates on older bikes from that era genuinely require the dealer's diagnostic tool rather than the app over Bluetooth, and no amount of Bluetooth fettling will change that. Not something you've done wrong; just the way the system works.

Let us know how the retry goes. Fingers crossed it's just the Bluetooth gremlin.