You import a FIT file on the Garmin Connect website through the cloud icon and “Import Data”; whether it then counts toward your training metrics depends on the device the file names, not on the import itself. An imported file appears in your activity list either way, but Garmin’s list of partner platforms does not cover it, and in our measurement Garmin followed the device written in the file.
What are Garmin’s steps for importing a file?
Garmin’s page How to Manually Upload Activities to Garmin Connect, read on 30 October 2026, gives these steps for the website:
- Sign in to Garmin Connect on a computer.
- Select the cloud icon with the up arrow in the top-right corner.
- Select Import Data.
- Select Browse, find your file and click Open.
- Select Import.
The same page accepts .fit files up to 50 MB and .gpx or .tcx files up to 25 MB, each with fewer than 99’999 data points. Our reference ride, 51.8 km recorded on a Wahoo ELEMNT ROAM, is 227’041 bytes with 7’632 records, well inside both limits.
Is an imported ride the same as a counted one?
Not because of the import alone. Garmin’s list of partner platforms, Can Third-Party Activities Impact My Garmin Training Metrics?, read on 30 October 2026, names seven platforms and their own links, not a file you import. The same ride reached Garmin Connect both ways, and both times Garmin listed it under the device named in the file:
| Version of the ride | How it reached Garmin Connect | What Garmin showed |
|---|---|---|
| File as Wahoo wrote it | uploaded by another sync app | listed with Wahoo as device, no Training Effect, no training load on 12 September 2026 |
| Copy with our Forerunner 570’s identity, 16 bytes changed | imported on the website, 12 September 2026 | listed as a recording of the Forerunner 570, with its device picture and software version, on 30 October 2026 with Training Effect aerobic 4.3 (“Tempo”), anaerobic 2.3 and training load 206 |
So Garmin calculated Training Effect and training load for the second version and not for the first. We did not measure whether this training load went into Training Status and acute load on the watch; why the device decides is in why an uploaded ride does not count toward Training Status.
Why does the device in the file matter and not the data?
Because Garmin calculates its training metrics itself and finds nothing to take over in the file. On 27 September 2026 we read two Zwift files and two Wahoo files field by field, and none of the four carried a Training Effect or training load field. What a file does carry is the recording device, in File ID and Device Info; in our reference ride those two entries and the checksum account for all 16 bytes that change when the file names a Garmin watch instead of the Wahoo. Which fields these are is in what changes in a FIT file when Nabe sends it to Garmin.
How long does Garmin take to list an uploaded ride?
About two minutes in our measurement. On 13 September 2026 the Nabe app uploaded a 12-minute test ride, and the app’s network log shows the ride in Garmin’s list about two minutes after Garmin accepted it, not one second after:
| Step | Time after the upload | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Upload sent | 0 s | accepted, still without an activity number |
| Activity list loaded | 1 s | ride not listed yet |
| Activity list loaded | about 2 min | ride listed |
The measurement is for an upload by the app, not for the import page. Garmin processes uploaded files in the background, so an import that seems to have done nothing is worth a reload two minutes later. More checks are in Wahoo ride not showing in Garmin Connect.
What do tools that change the device do to the file?
They rewrite the device the file names, and that is all the import needs to show another device. Fit File Tools describes its Device Changer, read on 30 October 2026, with “Change the device type recorded in your Garmin FIT file. Swap between bike computers, watches, and other GPS devices.” You choose a manufacturer and a device type from two lists; the page has no field for a serial number and does not say which entries of the file it rewrites. RunGap names a setting of its own for uploads, compared in RunGap alternatives for Garmin Connect.
Our own byte count shows what such a change touches. In our reference ride the device is named in two entries, File ID and Device Info, with manufacturer, product, serial number and software version; writing our Forerunner 570 into them changed 14 bytes there and the 2 bytes of the checksum, 16 out of 227’041, and the file kept its length. A tool that sets only manufacturer and device type writes a model, not your own watch with its serial number.
What has to happen after the import?
Your watch has to sync twice, if Garmin is to calculate anything at all. Garmin’s page on third-party activities says the device downloads the activity on the first sync, calculates, and uploads the result on the second. Syncing before the ride is listed gives the watch nothing to download, which in our measurement above meant waiting about two minutes. How a Garmin Edge and a watch share the result is in how a Garmin Edge and a Garmin watch share training load.