Does Garmin Connect connect to Strava?

Yes, officiallyBoth directions

Yes, and it is the most established connection Strava has. Activities uploaded to Garmin Connect appear in Strava automatically, and it runs the other way too for starred routes and segments, which get pushed to your watch or head unit.

What it costs

Free on both sides.

If the official sync is not enough

  • GOTOES Tools. Ten browser tools for repairing activity files before they reach Strava. Merge heart rate, power, cadence and position from separate devices into one activity, repair corrupt FIT files, rebuild a race track from a course file when the GPS failed, shrink oversized files, send Garmin activities over one at a time, or bulk-create activities from a spreadsheet. Free, running since 2015

How to set it up

  1. Install Strava on your phone and make sure you are logged in.
  2. Open the Garmin Connect app and tap More in the bottom right.
  3. Tap Settings, then Connected Apps, then Strava.
  4. Tap Agree, then Authorize. The first sync can take several minutes.
  5. You can also start from Strava's side: on the You tab, open the settings icon, then Connect an App or Device, then Garmin.

What reaches Strava

  • Every activity uploaded to Garmin Connect, automatically
  • On the first link only, your existing Garmin Connect history is backfilled too

What comes back from Strava

  • Starred Strava courses, sent to your device on the next sync
  • Starred Strava segments

Limitations and gotchas

  • Activities created in Strava do not sync back to Garmin Connect. Only courses and segments travel that direction.
  • It is all or nothing. The controls are per data type, an Activities permission and a Courses toggle, and there is no documented way to choose which individual activities reach Strava. If you want to pick and choose, a third-party tool has to do it for you.
  • The automatic history backfill happens only the first time the two accounts are linked. Disconnect and reconnect later and anything recorded while they were unlinked has to be uploaded by hand.
  • After reconnecting, syncing does not resume until the first new activity lands in Garmin Connect.
  • If you have more than one Strava account, Garmin activities sync only to the most recently created one.
  • Trackers without GPS, such as a Vivofit or Vivosmart, produce an activity with heart rate but no map and no distance.
  • Enabling course sync only pushes routes you star from that point on. Existing stars have to be removed and re-added.
  • Whether editing or deleting an activity on one side changes the other is not documented by either company, so do not assume it does.
  • The widely repeated claim that Garmin backfills only the past year is not supported by either company's documentation. Garmin says previous activities sync, with no time limit stated.

Sources

Checked against those sources on September 9, 2026. Integrations change; if something here is out of date, tell us.

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