Since early on 23 July, Garmin Connect has been down. This post explains how to continue to upload your bike rides to Strava during this time.
Update: On 27 July Garmin announced that its services have begun to resume. They also confirmed the company had been the victim of a cyberattack. However, they noted that there is indication that any customer data was accessed or stolen. Expect your logged bike rides to start uploading. But expect delays, due to a large backlog.
Related Post: How to Create a Route on Strava and Follow it on Your SmartPhone or Garmin Edge Bike Computer
Related Post: How and WHY to Use Strava for Cycling
Many of us love uploading our bike rides. Many of us use our Garmin bike computers to auto upload them. Then, from that, they auto-upload to Strava. This is great, for a whole range of reasons. For me it is just wonderfully inspiring to look back on my Strava records and see what kinds of rides I was doing years ago. It often motivates me to cycle more – to try and keep up with Past-Joe!
More commonly, many cyclists use Strava to inspire themselves to train harder to use Strava to compete with others.
Some take it to extremes – I remember one time I forgot to switch off my Garmin bike computer after I loaded my bike into my car. Halfway home I remembered and switched it off. I thought I would delete the ride when I got home. But while I finished the drive, the ride auto uploaded to Strava. By the time I got home, I had a frighteningly threatening message from a guy because I had “cheated” and “stolen” his record. Of course, I immediately deleted the “bike ride.”
With more and more older (and possibly more forgetful) cyclists out there, I would advise that if someone “steals” your record, with what is quite obviously a bike plus a car ride, not just a bike ride, we should lead with politely pointing out to them that they may have made an error.
Related content: All Garmin Edge Bike Computers Compared: 130 Plus vs Edge Explore vs Edge 530 vs Edge 830 vs Edge 1030 Plus
What if the Garmin Web Site is Down?
In any event, the Garmin Connect app and the web dashboard are both down. You cannot log into the desktop. You cannot synch to Strava. And you cannot even contact them – tht is down too.
Garmin has been tight-lipped about the cause, merely stating on Twitter:
“We are currently experiencing an outage that affects Garmin Connect, and as a result, the Garmin Connect website and mobile app are down at this time.”
When will Garmin Connect be Back Up?
In a word, no one knows.
What Caused Garmin Connect to Go Down?
Again, no one knows. Of course, the online community is speculating that it was caused by a ransomware attack. I would say this is very likely. I once worked for a company that specialized in online data, and we were under constant threat. We were hold hostage for ransom at least twice in the three years I worked there. Our IT department labored constantly to protect us from these kinds of attacks. And we were small potatoes compared to Garmin.
So yes, it seems safe to assume they have been successfully attacked. But they are a powerful company, and I am confident they will sort this out soon. And I hope the hijackers end up in prison – where they belong for disrupting the lives of millions of cyclists and runners!
How to Upload Your Ride to Strava while Garmin Connect is Down
It is not hard to upload your ride to Strava. Just take your Garmin device and the USB you use to charge it. Plug that USB into your computer. Then:
On Mac:
- Use Finder.
- Navigate to “devices.”
- Click on your Garmin
- Click on the “activity” folder.
- Find the *.fit (or *.tcx) file for the bike ride you did.
- Copy it into your downloads folder.
- Go to Strava.com
- Click the + (plus) button at the top right corner.
- Click “Upload activity.”
- Then Click “File” on the left
- Find the file in Downloads and upload it.
On a PC:
- Use File Explorer
- Click on the Garmin device
- Click on the “activity” folder.
- Find the *.fit (or *.tcx) file for the bike ride you did.
- Copy it into your downloads folder.
- Go to Strava.com
- Click the + (plus) button at the top right corner.
- Click “Upload activity.”
- Then Click “File” on the left
- Find the file in Downloads and upload it.
Good luck!
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