Garmin Connect
Advanced
The content of this article is aimed at users who are familiar with our platform and have some technical knowledge.
Garmin Connect is where Garmin watches and bike computers send the activities they record. Riders who record their rides with a Garmin device can connect their account to sincrona, so their rides come in without them doing anything.
Not sure whether Strava or Garmin Connect suits a rider better? Read Strava or Garmin: which sports app suits each customer.
Authorization Flow
It works like the Strava one. When a workshop registers a rider, it enters Garmin Connect as their sports app and the rider receives an invitation. By following it they sign in to Garmin and authorize us to receive their rides.
A workshop registers a rider
The workshop creates the rider and enters their preferred sports app, in this case Garmin Connect. A link is generated through which the rider authorizes us.
The rider authorizes the application
The rider signs in to Garmin and must allow sincrona to access their activities. If they don't share them, the connection isn't created.
If the rider doesn't authorize, or ignores the notification, after a reasonable time we delete any trace of their registration.
Access to information
As with Strava, all information from Garmin is managed by sincrona. The workshop only sees the rider's bikes and rides once the rider has authorized access, and if they leave the workshop their data stays on the platform: only the rider-workshop relationship changes.
Synchronization Process
What we keep from each ride
Garmin sends us each activity with its data. From the cycling ones we keep their date and time (as the rider's device displayed it), distance, duration, sport and elevation gain, and whether it was on an indoor trainer. We use them to work out each bike's wear and your workshop's analytics.
We only keep cycling activities, including mountain, gravel, road, e-bike and indoor rides. Other activities are ignored. When an activity has several legs, like a multi-sport one, each cycling leg counts as a ride of its own.
Rides arrive when the device syncs
Garmin tells us about a ride when the rider's device syncs it with Garmin Connect, so there can be a delay between riding and the ride showing up. We don't ask Garmin for anything: we receive each ride as it is sent.
Because of that, Garmin works differently from Strava:
- No initial synchronization. We only receive the rides recorded after the rider connects. Earlier rides aren't imported.
- No bikes. Garmin doesn't tell us which bike was used. Every ride goes to the rider's default bike, which your preferences decide whether to track.
- No safety period. Strava rides wait 2 to 3 days before they affect the wear. Garmin rides are confirmed as soon as they arrive, because there is no bike to correct.
- No edits or deletions. Changes a rider makes to an activity in Garmin Connect after it was sent don't reach us.
Periodic synchronization
There are no rides for us to look up later. What the periodic synchronization does is keep the rider's authorization from expiring, by renewing it before it does.
When access stops working
We mark the connection as broken when:
- The rider disconnects sincrona from their Garmin account. Garmin tells us straight away.
- The rider stops sharing their activities with sincrona. Garmin tells us too.
- Garmin rejects the renewal of the authorization.
While the connection is broken we don't receive new rides. Each time it breaks we send the rider one notification on the channel they chose (email or WhatsApp), and the workshop isn't notified.
The rider repairs it from their profile by authorizing the application again with the same Garmin account (see check and repair your connection). Since Garmin doesn't give us past rides, rides recorded while the connection was broken aren't imported: only the ones from the repair onwards.
If a rider leaves sincrona, we ask Garmin to stop sharing their data with us.