Does anyone actually use it? I think I’ve reached the final straw, can’t seem to view/download any of my activities at all right now. Utterly dreadful user experience. Think I’m going to dig out my old Suunto.

There’s really no need to use it. All the other sites (strava, etc) will sync your data automatically

It passes through to Strava, works with my watch and 520, what doesn’t it do for you?

I recently moved to Wahoo which combines so well with Strava and Komoot.

Cheers for the replies. Currently it won’t show any activity when I try to view one. I thought it was just old activities, but its actually all of them. I’ll guess, that at some point it’ll start working again. Think I’ve just had enough of it, I find it pretty poor even when everything works as it should.

Even my garmin devices don’t work as well as they should. My Fenix 3, a top of the range, premium device, has lag of 10s of seconds following key presses, in certain (common) circumstances.

A long history of disappointment about sums up my Garmin experience.

Sorry for big gripe. Just frustrates me.

They had some kind of issue a few days ago which meant I couldnt’ sync and I ended up losing an activity.  That’s the first issue I’ve ever had with it though in what, five years of using it.

garmin produce notoriously bad software and firmware. It’s a hateful experience keeping Mrs Stoner’s devices running.

But Im more astonished that no-one else has managed to step up and properly compete with them.

I just put the SD from my Garmin Edge 800 in my laptop and upload the file directly to Strava, no need to use the terrible connect service.

Edge 25. Bluetooth to phone and Garmin account linked to Strava. Do everything else from there. No need to go anywhere near the Connect app (other than a manual sync every so often) or the website…

Creating and uploading courses is laughably bad so I don’t bother with Connect anymore other than a pass-through to Strava and RideWithGPS…

Creating and uploading courses is laughably bad so I don’t bother with Connect anymore other than a pass-through to Strava

Yep.

I have a continual battle to sync my Fenix 3.

I thought you had to go through Connect to get it to upload to Strava, is that not the case?

Creating and uploading courses is laughably bad so I don’t bother with Connect anymore other than a pass-through to Strava

Yep x2

I used to prefer the original Connect when it actually worked pretty well.. then they started on a development  phase and it’s ended up in this bland pretty unusable piece of software. Even the maps have lost definition, once you could actually differentiate between a bridleway and footpath but not now. And creating a route where you have to go through about 99 clicks and into some unintuitive clickbait, well it’s just poorly executed isn’t it.

Its no wonder RideWithGps has become the default is it.

I thought you had to go through Connect to get it to upload to Strava, is that not the case?

No, it does it automatically if it’s set up properly. I have a Vivoactive HR watch that connects to my Android phone through Bluetooth. It generally takes less than a minute for everything to upload and appear on Strava.

Mac user here

On the flip side, I keep the Garmin Express thing up to date. Plug in the Edge 800 and wait until I see the device and card on the desktop.

Launch G Express and its done sync-ed straight away. No problems here. Links straight through to Garmin Connect.

As above I finish a ride and in a minute it’s on Strava.

i tend to view my rides using ConnectStats on iOS that pulls down the data from strava.

I quite like Garmin Connect tbh, not really had a problem and like how it’s laid out.

OP, the only time mine loses data is when I have charged my watch. Switching the watch off then on again once charged seems to sort it.

Not being using it long, but so far it works fine.

The android app sucks so bad.

Probably 50% of the time I have to kill the app to upload a ride despite the Garmin declaring proudly that my phone is connected.

I just find it hard to believe that didn’t come up in testing

The android app sucks so bad.

Probably 50% of the time I have to kill the app to upload a ride despite the Garmin declaring proudly that my phone is connected.

The alternative for me is I hit stop on the garmin 520, it uploads to connect, bounces through to strava and my watch beeps on my phone confirming it within a 10s, the watch gets a bit confused if the tablet tries to claim it on bluetooth so thats it.

The web site is both good and bad. There’s a lot of nice bits, but a lot of bugs. Though at least they can deliver British Statute measurements unlike Strava who have been asked to provide this for years and ignore us (i.e. C for temp, Miles for distance, feet for elevation etc, not bloody F for temp if you want miles and feet!).

Main annoyance with Connect site I find is the log in. I used Google to authenticate with but it sometimes forgets and then won’t pop up Google authenticate to re-authenticate. I can’t log in with the alternate credentials of email and password at all despite having it set up. Sometimes the login window just won’t pop up at all either. Terrible.

I do sync with Connect though despite using Strava as I don’t trust Strava either to not screw up or deny access to my raw data, plus connect gathers the full FIT file data with a lot more info. I can also use it to sync with some other service especially as I get increasingly frustrated with Strava’s lack of MTB awareness and concerned about privacy.

Connect app on Android is okay. My Garmin Edge 510 however is a pain to sync with the phone. It’s not Connect as I’ve had the same issue just doing basic Bluetooth pairing to the phone and to my old Windows phone, and older Android phone before that. There’s a trick to it though. Save the ride, shut down the Garmin, power on and activate Bluetooth on it and phone. It will pair that one time. Next ride you have to do it again.

And Garmin Express I never use since it was causing issues with some other apps on my PC. I just manually upload FIT files to Connect or use the Connect app on the phone.

Garmin firmware is also pretty bad. Never blindly accept a firmware update. I’ve had rides trashed due to that. Wait a long time until people are not reporting too many issues with that version. There’s a web updater from Garmin somewhere that you can manually update firmware too, instead of using Express which auto updates to the latest.