How to get your data out of a Garmin watch

We all love cloud services, because they store data remotely and allow us to access them from anywhere – that is, until the cloud goes down. You may not realize it, but your Garmin watch requires the company’s cloud service to do almost anything, including connecting to your smartphone, and when Garmin services drop, your watch loses all of its synchronization.

But luckily, your workout and fitness data isn’t lost forever – it’s still stored locally on your watch, waiting to be uploaded as soon as it connects to the cloud … whenever possible. And if you are impatient, and many of us are, you have the option to manually extract this data from your watch to save it to your computer or upload it to another exercise service.

Get data from a Garmin watch with Windows

Surprisingly, one of the few Garmin services that is still operational is the Garmin Express desktop software download. If you are using a Windows computer, downloading and installing Garmin Express will give you the best chance for your computer to recognize your watch. Now, the Garmin Express software itself won’t really work when the Garmin cloud is idle, but it will install the necessary drivers for your computer to recognize your watch.

Get data from a Garmin watch with macOS

If you are using a Mac, the process is different. Garmin Express will actively get in the way of accessing your watch’s internal storage, so you need another tool. The Android Google File Transfer app is designed to allow you to take pictures of your Android phone, but because Garmin watches use same The “MTP” protocol also allows you to browse your watch from your phone. Android File Transfer is notoriously meticulous and unstable, but trust me. does job. It may only take a few tries to connect and disconnect your watch, along with closing and restarting the Android File Transfer app.

Where to search and what data to back up from your Garmin

Once you have Garmin Express installed on your Windows computer or Android File Transfer installed on your Mac, here is what you should do:

1. Connect your Garmin to your computer with the included charger cable.
   • Yes, that cable with the strange connector also carry data!
   • If you have trouble getting your computer to recognize the clock, on your watch go to Configurations, System, USB mode and choose MTP.
2. Open File Explorer (Win) or Android File Transfer (Mac) and find your Garmin in the side menu.
3. Open the GARMIN binder.
   
4. To back up your workouts, open the Exercise folder: activities will be listed by date and time.
   • Chances are, every The training that your watch has recorded since it was configured (or restarted) will be saved here, because the files are very small.
     
5. Select all .adjustment files and copy (or drag) them to your local desktop or folder on your computer.
6. To back up your settings, workouts, music playlists, logs, and other data, select the corresponding named folders and copy (or drag) them to your desktop.

What can you do with these files

Those “activity” files ending in “.fit” are actually a standardized file format that a variety of fitness tracking services can import and read. Strava, MapMyFitness, Endomondo and Many others will upload .fit files and create complete activity logs for each. Once you import them, it will look exactly the same as if the files had been synced through the Garmin Connect app.

As for the other data, there is not much you can do with it. Still, it’s a very good idea to keep a copy of your watch settings, training, logs, and playlists, in case things get weird when Garmin Connect comes back online. Not entirely likely, but there’s a chance that when Garmin reappears there will be sync issues creating a collision between what’s on your watch and the cloud – it’s best if you have a local copy in case something happens. bad .