Syncing Strava routes to a Garmin device
This article explains how to sync a Strava route to your Garmin device the easy way, without getting your hands dirty downloading GPX files.
You must have already connected your Garmin device to the Garmin Connect app on your phone, and connected your Strava account to your Garmin Connect account. If you haven’t done these two steps, check YouTube or Google searches, or buy a team mate a pint and ask them to help you.
Our amazing Ride Leaders do a great job creating new and interesting routes for our members. They generally share these as Garmin Connect courses as Garmin still seems to be the dominant brand of GPS device amongst members. However, some leaders use other tools to create their routes (Ride with GPS, Komoot or Strava) and these club ride routes are often shared as Strava routes.
Owners of other devices (Wahoo, Bryton) will already be familiar with sending routes from Strava to their device, but to hardened Garmin owners it can seem like rocket science. There’s always a manual option to download from Strava as GPX file and import into Garmin Connect as a new course, but the method below is cleaner and keeps the courses in-sync with the Strava original. If the creator makes a change to their Strava route (eg due to road closure), it will be updated in your Garmin Connect account.
How do you sync Strava routes to a Garmin device?
Until recently a Strava Garmin Connect IQ app was available which made this very easy, unfortunately the app is now discontinued and removed from the Connect IQ App Store 🫤
So here is a summary of the settings required to enable syncing of courses, and step-by-step instructions for syncing a route/course from Strava to Garmin Connect and then to your device. I think for other devices such as Beeline the steps are fairly similar.
Garmin Connect App Settings
You only need to check this setting once.
- Open the Garmin Connect app
- Select More (bottom right)
- Select Settings
- Select Connected Apps
- Select Strava
- Scroll down to “Data shared from Strava to Connect”
- Toggle Courses on.
Garmin Connect Website Settings
This has exactly the same effect as the steps above, but adjusted via the website instead. You only need to check this setting once.
- Login to the Garmin Connect website
- Select Profile & Account (upper right corner)
- Select Account Settings
- Select Account Information
- Scroll down to the Strava section and enable the Courses toggle.
Actions in Strava
- Open the Strava route using the link provided
- Ensure you are logged-in to your Strava account
- Click the ⭐ icon to Save the route (referred to as “star”ing the course).
Actions in Garmin Connect app
- Open the Garmin Connect app on your phone
- Select Training & Planning
- Select Courses
- You should see the route listed with the same name as shown in Strava
- Use the standard method to Send to device.
Actions on the Garmin device
- Your Garmin device should download the course the next time it connects to your Garmin Connect app and performs a Sync. Check for a “Download complete” message.
- Use the normal method to select your course, eg Navigation ➡️ Courses ➡️ Select the course ➡️ Ride ➡️ Navigate to the start? No.
I hope you find this useful, do please feedback if you have any suggestions on how this guide can be improved.
(Some content has been summarised from from a support page on the Garmin website)
