Get recorded tracks off your Garmin

INVIA copies your recorded tracks off the Garmin and into your library, in the browser. It reads the device over the same USB cable that sent the route out. A finished ride comes back the way a route went out, so there is no second connection to set up.

Import your rides#

INVIA reads every track the Garmin holds and draws it on the device map before you save anything, so you pick what to keep by looking at the lines rather than at filenames.

1. Connect the Garmin on the Device page. Choose File transfer (MTP) or USB drive, whichever your Garmin model uses.
2. Wait while INVIA reads the device. The panel counts Loading activity N/M while it reads, so you can see how much is left.
3. Press Activities to show only what you rode on the map, which keeps planned courses out of the drawing while you choose.
4. Press Save All Activities to INVIA to save everything shown.
5. To save part of the list instead, press Select, pick the tracks you want, then press Import Selected.
6. The saved rides land in your INVIA library as rides. They are available on every device you use, because your library lives in your account rather than on this computer.

Press Activities again to bring everything back. While the filter is on the button reads Activities ✓, and hovering it says Showing only recorded activities, click to show everything. The filter changes only the map, which means the On Device list still holds everything the Garmin carries whether the filter is on or off.

The tracks you did not select stay on the Garmin. They are unchanged and still listed on the Device page, because INVIA never clears tracks on its own. Taking anything off the Garmin is a separate step that you ask for.

What the device list holds#

On Device lists three sources together:

• GPX tracks from internal storage
• GPX tracks from the memory card
• Recorded activities from the Garmin's Activities folder

INVIA merges the three sources and removes duplicates by comparing the recorded lines, which means a track held in two places is listed once rather than twice. Both copies are still on the Garmin. Every track in the list is drawn on the device map, so you can tell one ride from another before you save it.

The save dialog#

Every import opens a save dialog with the name and details of what you are saving, so you can check the ride before it joins your library. Three messages can appear in it:

• The dialog offers to keep the ride: Save it to INVIA too? Build your library, keep every ride in one place, ready on any device.
• A planned Garmin course with no GPS recording says so: This is a planned Garmin course (no GPS recording). It can only be saved as a Route.
• The dialog reminds you: Do not disconnect your device.

Save the course as a route. It lands in your library as a route rather than as a ride, because a planned course carries no recording of a ride you took. Leave the USB cable connected until the import finishes, so the Garmin can hand over every file INVIA asked it for.

Clearing tracks off the device#

INVIA verifies what it saved before it offers to remove anything, so a track leaves the Garmin only after a copy of it is confirmed in your library. Three results are possible:

• If the check passes, you see Clear Device Tracks? asking Would you like to clear the imported tracks from your device?
• If verification fails, you see Import verification failed, tracks kept on device for safety.
• If the Garmin is unplugged during the clear, you see Device disconnected after clearing N of M tracks. Remaining tracks kept on device.

Press Clear Device Tracks and INVIA asks once more under Final Confirmation before it removes the imported tracks from the Garmin, which leaves room for the next ride. Press Keep on Device and they stay on the Garmin. Either way the rides are in your INVIA library, so clearing is tidying up after the import rather than part of it, and the choice is always yours.

Clearing after an import is not a Pro feature, so every account that gets a passing check sees the same Clear Device Tracks? prompt and can clear the tracks. The Pro requirement for deleting tracks from the device covers the delete buttons in the track list, the file browser, the map's right-click menu and the sidebar menu rather than this prompt.

If the check failed, nothing was removed, because INVIA clears only what it has confirmed. Every track is still on the Garmin and still listed under On Device. Import them again.

If the Garmin was unplugged during the clear, the rides INVIA already saved are in your library and the interruption does not reach them. The tracks INVIA had not reached are still on the Garmin. Reconnect the Garmin and clear them again, or leave them where they are.

Rides, courses and waypoint files#

INVIA tells the three kinds apart on import, because a recorded ride, a planned course and a file of saved places each belong in a different part of your library.

A Garmin photo-waypoint export is the third kind, a file of places with no line to draw, so INVIA files it into your waypoint library. No empty route is created, and nothing is dropped. Look for those places in your waypoint library rather than among your routes.

How INVIA classifies files.

Device waypoints#

1. Open the Waypoints panel. It lists the device's saved places by source file, so you can see which file each place came from.
2. Press Import all, or pick the places you want and import those.

A place you already have is skipped, because INVIA counts a place as already saved when it sits within 15 meters of one in your library. Nothing is added a second time. The place already in your library is unchanged, so you can press Import all after every ride rather than working out which places are new.

Waypoints on the device.

What needs a Pro account#

Listing, viewing and importing work on every account. On a free account, import fewer than 20 files at a time, because a batch of 20 or more needs a Pro account. Every other task in the table needs a Pro account.

Clearing the tracks INVIA has just imported and verified is not one of those tasks, so the offer to clear works on every account. The row for deleting tracks from the device covers the delete buttons you press yourself, which is a different step from the prompt that follows an import.