There is nothing worse than taking a better personal brand in a career and then discovering that you cannot show off to the world.
Okay, there are a lot worse things, and actually, that kind of behavior is probably not healthy, but for those of us who deny it, the recent Garmin outage is something that’s causing a lot of dismay.
Since July 23, the fitness brand has suffered from a lack of connectivity, which was originally reduced to ‘maintenance’. This meant that anyone trying to upload a run, swim, bike, yoga session, or any type of physical training to the Garmin Connect service was unable to do so.
So far, Garmin has yet to explain what is really happening, it only says the following in a Tweet:
This outage also affects our call centers, and we are currently unable to receive any calls, emails or online chat. We are working to resolve this issue as quickly as possible and apologize for this inconvenience. (2/2) July 23, 2020
What’s really going on?
However, while maintenance is often scheduled for quiet hours to allow the company to update key services, an outage of this duration is almost certainly something much more profound, and a ZDNet report states that “multiple Garmin employees They turned to social media to share details about the attack, everyone calls it a ransomware attack. “
BleepingComputer claims that first-hand sources with knowledge of the matter have confirmed that this is a ransomware attack that blocks parts of the Garmin system.
Garmin has yet to confirm the cause of the outage, simply by posting the same statement from their Twitter account on their platforms, and the app says “Sorry, we are unable to perform maintenance. Please check back soon.”
The same ZDNet report cites a report from Taiwanese tech site iThome, which claims a memo has been sent to Garmin’s Taiwanese production facility. This memo says that ‘servers and databases’ were attacked and that production lines were shut down for two days for maintenance.
The ZDNet report indicates that the software used by pilots, flyGarmin, for their Garmin navigation systems has been disrupted and is reportedly landing some aircraft – the statement on the flyGarmin status page says:
“We are currently experiencing an outage affecting flyGarmin and as a result the flyGarmin website and mobile app are down at this time. This outage also affects our call centers and we are currently not available to receive emails or We do have limited availability for calls. We are working to resolve this issue as quickly as possible and apologize for this inconvenience. “
However, regular updates here suggest that this service is slowly making a comeback, with flyGarmin going from ‘down’ to ‘operational’ and other features also coming back online. It remains to be seen if this is related to the Garmin Connect outage.
While Garmin is not confirming the reason behind the outage, which means it is only speculation that this issue is due to nefarious intent, there is clearly an issue that the company is trying to solve.
Strava data shows there has been no on-site loading activity from Garmin Connect since July 23, with Strava’s overall uploads over a third in that time, meaning this issue is also impacting services from third parties.
We have reached out to Garmin for a statement, and will update this part if we receive more information.
Is my data safe?
Some sites speculate that historical data is missing from the Connect database, which is understandable to raise concerns that user data has been compromised.
However, so far there has been no suggestion that hackers have taken user data; We have asked Garmin to confirm the situation regarding user data.
We will update this piece if we find more information if any user data, whether profile or physiological, has been compromised.
In less troubling thoughts, your day-to-day data will be saved to your watch, whether it’s thinking about your body’s battery, stress levels, or the ability to sync notifications from your phone to your watch, it will still be possible.
Currently, some online data still seems to be passing from your phone to your watch – weather data, for example, still works and daily step counts will still be recorded.
When the service returns, all of this data will be returned to the Connect app so you can see everything that happened physiologically.
But how can I upload to Strava?
If you’re desperate to get your watch data on Strava or similar platforms (to get recognition for your Friday run to the shops and back … or maybe a 200-mile bike ride), you can still do this. by hand.
You will need to get the cable you use to charge your device and plug it into your computer. For most devices, it will display as an accessible drive (in the case of Windows) or in Finder (for Mac).
Open the device, click on the ‘Garmin’ folder and go to ‘Activity’. Here, you will find your fitness workouts as ‘.FIT’ files – they can be listed from oldest to newest, so find one with a recent date and save it to your desktop.
(If you have a newer watch that has music storage capabilities, it will show up as a ‘primary’ device. Click this and then follow the same options as above.)
Once you have your relevant .FIT files, head over to Strava.com in your browser, log in and hit the ‘+’ icon in the upper right corner. Select ‘Upload Activity’ and then choose ‘Upload Files on the left side of the next screen.
From here, simply navigate to your desktop (or look directly at Garmin if you feel like it and decide not to copy the files) and click on the correct files. If they are new activities (as in the case that you have not accidentally uploaded them), they will be processed and you can complete your training information in the normal way.
Then watch the congratulations pile up, as most of your friends will be scratching their heads over how to get their careers online.
(For more information on how to upload your runs to other devices, including discussions on how to get your runs off older ANT + enabled devices, DC Rainmaker has an excellent guide to review)
What does the internet say?
Whenever a large company struggles, or a service that many trust, goes down, Twitter is invariably inundated with hot takes and ‘sideways’ comedies of the problem, and this is no different:
Garmin right now pic.twitter.com/o25JRtCtqu July 24, 2020
There is no sign of the criminal who shot Garmin down. Apparently he ransomware 😐 #ukrunchat pic.twitter.com/0sm7xGuLTjJuly 24, 2020
Strava when Garmin repairs its servers and all activities arrive at the same time pic.twitter.com/GwWxyFW8bc July 24, 2020
Wow. With Garmin down, the dinosaurs have finally returned to Strava. The application is healing, we are the Virus. #Garmin #garminoutage pic.twitter.com/ADQ4wIpFXL24 July 2020
