You finish your run, upload it to Garmin Connect, and wait for it to appear on Strava. But nothing happens. Your activity just sits there, stuck somewhere between the two apps, refusing to make the journey across.
This syncing hiccup frustrates thousands of athletes every day. The connection between Garmin and Strava should work seamlessly, but sometimes it breaks down for reasons that seem completely random. Your watch works fine, your internet connection is solid, yet your morning workout refuses to show up where your friends can see it.
You’ll learn exactly why this happens and how to get your activities flowing again. We’ll cover the most common culprits behind sync failures and walk through practical fixes you can try right now.
Understanding the Sync Problem
Syncing between Garmin and Strava relies on a partnership agreement between the two companies. When you connect your accounts, you’re giving Garmin permission to automatically send your workout data to Strava’s servers. This happens through what’s called an API connection, which is basically a digital handshake between the two platforms.
Here’s what should happen: you finish your activity, your Garmin device uploads the data to Garmin Connect (either through Wi-Fi or when you sync with your phone), and Garmin Connect then pushes that information to Strava within a few minutes. But this chain has several links, and any one of them can break.
When the sync fails, your activity stays marooned in Garmin Connect. You might see it perfectly displayed on Garmin’s platform with all your stats, maps, and heart rate data intact. But on Strava, there’s just silence. Your activity feed doesn’t update, your training log shows a gap, and your friends wonder if you actually went for that ride you mentioned.
Left unfixed, this becomes more than an annoyance. You lose the social aspect of sharing your workouts, miss out on segment times and leaderboards, and eventually your training history across platforms gets messy and incomplete. Some people end up manually uploading activities for weeks before they finally investigate the real problem.
Garmin Activity Not Syncing to Strava: Common Causes
Several things can interrupt the connection between your Garmin account and Strava. Most of these issues stem from either expired permissions or temporary communication problems between the platforms. Understanding what’s causing your specific situation makes fixing it much faster.
1. Expired or Disconnected Account Authorization
Strava periodically requires apps to refresh their access permissions for security reasons. Sometimes this happens automatically, but other times the connection just expires without warning. Your accounts might look connected on both sides, but behind the scenes, the authorization token that lets them talk has gone stale.
This is actually the most frequent cause of sync problems. You won’t get any notification that it happened. Your Garmin Connect app doesn’t throw an error message. Everything appears normal until you notice your activities aren’t crossing over anymore.
2. Privacy Settings Blocking Auto-Sync
Garmin gives you control over what data gets shared with third-party apps. If these privacy settings got changed (maybe you were exploring the app settings one day, or an app update reset things), your activities might be set to private or blocked from auto-sharing. The sync mechanism still works, but your privacy preferences override it.
Sometimes people accidentally toggle these settings while trying to make a single activity private. Instead of hiding just one workout, they end up blocking all future syncs without realizing it.
3. Server Communication Issues
Both Garmin and Strava rely on servers to process and transfer your data. When either company performs maintenance, experiences high traffic, or deals with technical problems, the sync pipeline slows down or stops completely. Your activity gets stuck in a queue, waiting for the servers to resume normal operations.
These server hiccups usually resolve themselves within a few hours. But if you’re unlucky and upload your activity right during a maintenance window, it might not make it across even after services return to normal. The system doesn’t always retry failed transfers automatically.
Network connectivity on your end can also interrupt things. If your phone loses internet connection right when Garmin Connect tries to push data to Strava, the transfer fails. The app might not attempt it again until you manually trigger a sync.
4. Activity Type Compatibility Problems
Not every activity type in Garmin translates cleanly to Strava. If you recorded something as a specialized workout type that Strava doesn’t recognize, the sync might fail or your activity might appear incorrectly categorized. This happens more with newer Garmin devices that support activity types Strava hasn’t added yet.
E-bike rides sometimes cause this issue. Garmin has specific e-bike activity tracking, but Strava handles these differently. The data tries to sync but encounters a mismatch that stops the process.
5. App Version Incompatibility
Running outdated versions of either the Garmin Connect app or your device’s firmware can create sync problems. Companies regularly update their APIs and security protocols. An old app version might be trying to communicate using methods that are no longer supported.
Your phone’s operating system matters here too. If you’re on an older iOS or Android version that’s missing certain security certificates or protocols, the connection between the apps can fail even though both apps themselves are updated.
Garmin Activity Not Syncing to Strava: DIY Fixes
Getting your sync working again usually takes just a few minutes of troubleshooting. These fixes address the most common problems and work for the vast majority of cases. Start with the first solution and work your way down if needed.
1. Disconnect and Reconnect Your Accounts
This simple reset fixes about 70% of sync issues. You’re essentially forcing both platforms to establish a fresh connection with new authorization tokens. Here’s how to do it properly.
Open Strava on your phone or computer and go to Settings. Find the section for Connected Apps or Applications, Services, and Devices. Locate Garmin in the list and click to view the connection details. You’ll see a disconnect or revoke access button. Click it and confirm you want to remove the connection.
Now head over to Garmin Connect. Go to your account settings and find the section for Connected Apps or Partner Apps. Find Strava and disconnect it from this side too. This two-way disconnection ensures there’s no lingering authorization hanging around on either platform. After both are disconnected, go back to Garmin Connect, navigate to the partner apps section again, find Strava, and reconnect. Sign in when prompted and grant all the permissions it asks for. Your activities should start syncing within a few minutes.
2. Check Your Privacy Settings
Open Garmin Connect and go to Settings, then Privacy. You’re looking for options related to activity sharing or connected apps. Make sure activities are set to automatically share with connected services. There’s usually a toggle that says something like “Share activities with third-party apps” or “Auto-send to connected services.” Make sure it’s turned on.
While you’re there, check if there are any activity-specific privacy settings. Some people set certain workout types to private without realizing it affects syncing. Change these to public or set them to share with connections, depending on your preference.
3. Manually Upload the Missing Activity
If you have activities that failed to sync and you want them on Strava now, you can manually transfer them. Open Garmin Connect on your computer (this works better than the mobile app for this task). Find the activity that didn’t sync, click on it to open the details page, and look for a gear icon or options menu.
You should see an option to export the activity, usually as a GPX or FIT file. Download it to your computer. Then go to Strava, click the plus icon to upload an activity, and select the file you just downloaded. Strava will process it and add it to your feed. This doesn’t fix the underlying sync problem, but it gets your missing workouts where they need to be.
4. Update Both Apps and Your Device Firmware
Check for updates to Garmin Connect on your phone’s app store. Install any available updates. Then open Garmin Connect and check if your watch or cycling computer needs a firmware update. This usually appears as a notification in the app, or you can find it under device settings.
If there’s a firmware update available, make sure your device is charged above 50% and has a stable connection to your phone. Start the update and let it complete without interrupting. After updating both the app and device, try syncing an activity to see if the problem’s resolved.
Sometimes you need to restart your phone after updating apps for the changes to take full effect. Do a complete power-off and restart, not just a screen lock.
5. Clear App Cache and Data
Corrupted cache files can interfere with app communication. On Android, go to Settings, then Apps, find Garmin Connect, and tap Storage. You’ll see options to clear cache and clear data. Start with clearing the cache first, as this won’t delete your activities or settings.
Open the app after clearing the cache and try syncing. If that doesn’t work, go back and clear the app data (this will sign you out, so make sure you know your login credentials). On iOS, the only way to truly clear app data is to delete the app completely and reinstall it from the App Store.
6. Contact Garmin or Strava Support
If none of these solutions work, you’re dealing with something more technical that requires help from the support teams. Both Garmin and Strava have responsive customer service, especially for sync issues since they affect so many users.
Before contacting them, gather some information that will help them diagnose faster: when the sync stopped working, what device you’re using, your app versions, and whether you can see any error messages. Garmin’s support team can check server logs to see if your activities are even attempting to send to Strava. Strava’s team can verify whether their servers are receiving the data but failing to process it.
Use Garmin’s support chat or email through their website, or reach out to Strava through their help center. Include screenshots if possible. Most sync problems get resolved within a day or two once the support team investigates your specific account connection.
Wrapping Up
Sync problems between Garmin and Strava frustrate even the most patient athletes. But in most cases, you can fix them yourself in just a few minutes by reconnecting your accounts or adjusting a setting. The connection between these platforms is usually reliable once you get everything configured correctly.
Your activities matter, and keeping them properly synced across platforms preserves your training history and keeps you connected with your community. Try the fixes we covered, and you’ll likely see your workouts flowing smoothly again. Keep your apps updated and check those privacy settings occasionally to prevent future hiccups.