Get a GPX file onto a Garmin watch or Edge

There are two ways to put a route on a Garmin, and they end in the same place: the Courses list on the device, from where you press start and the watch guides you along it.

Way 1: Garmin Connect

On the Garmin Connect website: Training & Planning, Courses, Import, choose the GPX, name it, save. Then sync the watch or the Edge with the Garmin Connect app or Garmin Express. The course appears under Courses on the device. The Connect app on the phone can import a GPX too, from the share sheet on iPhone or the file picker on Android, and syncs it the same way.

Connect builds the course from the file, adds turn cues where it can, and keeps the original. Elevation on the course comes from Garmin's map, not necessarily from the file.

Way 2: USB

Connect the device by cable. It appears as a drive. Copy the GPX into Garmin/NewFiles; on the next start the device converts it and files it under Courses. Older devices and some watches want a FIT course rather than a GPX; GPX to FIT writes one in the browser, and the same folder takes it.

USB skips Connect entirely, which is the point of it: a route from a friend, a race organiser's course, a plan from Komoot, on the device in a minute, with no account involved.

What the file needs

A course is a line to follow, so timestamps do not matter: a route from a planner and a recording of last year's ride load the same. Positions are all that count. The Garmin Connect import is the one that also builds turn cues; USB gives the line without them on some devices.

Long courses can exceed a device's point limit; if a 300 km GPX loads with straight lines through the corners, simplify it in the GPX editor or split it in two.

Going the other way: GPX out of Garmin Connect

Open the activity on the website, the gear icon top right, Export to GPX. *Export Original* gives the FIT the device wrote, which is the better file if you are keeping it. The app has no export; use the browser. Export from Garmin Connect walks through it with the other options.

The Apple Watch case

Apple's Workout app does not export GPX. The workout is in Health, and apps that read Health — HealthFit, RunGap, WorkOutDoors — export it as GPX or FIT, which then loads on a Garmin like any other file. Apple Watch workout to GPX.

For a print

None of this is needed for a print: the editor takes the GPX or the FIT directly. Drop in the recording, or the route if it is the plan you want on the wall — track vs route says what the difference means for the numbers.