How to connect Garmin to Apple Health
You turn on sharing in the Garmin Connect app (More → Settings → Connect Apps → Apple Health) and then choose in the system prompt what it may send to Apple Health. Data flows only one way, and it transfers after your watch syncs while Garmin Connect is open in the foreground.
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Garmin watches don’t write to Apple Health directly. The go-between is the Garmin Connect app on your iPhone: the watch syncs with it, and the app passes steps, workouts, heart rate or sleep on to Apple Health. It won’t do that on its own, though — you have to allow it.
The connection has three parts: permission in Garmin Connect, permissions in the Health app, and the order of data sources. The third one is the most common reason the numbers don’t add up.
On Android? The setup is different there: How to connect Garmin to Health Connect. Sharing steps between iPhone and Android is covered in a separate article, How to share steps between iPhone and Android.
Turning on sharing in Garmin Connect
The steps, according to Garmin’s help:
- On your iPhone, open Garmin Connect and tap More.
- Select Settings.
- Open Connect Apps.
- Under Available Apps, select Apple Health.
- Tap Connect with Apple Health.
- The Health permission prompt appears. Select what Garmin Connect is allowed to write and tap Allow.
Labels can differ by app version. If you don’t see Connect Apps, look for Apple Health directly in Settings. Garmin mentions this path mainly for when access to Apple Health was declined the first time you were asked.
Permissions in the Health app
The other side of the same switch lives in the Health app. This is where you check what Garmin is actually allowed to write:
- Open the Health app.
- Tap the Profile button in the upper corner.
- Under Privacy, tap Apps.
- Select Garmin’s app. In the list, it’s called Connect.
- Turn on the categories it should write. If movement is what you care about, don’t skip steps and workouts.
Once sharing is on, Apple Health also pulls in older data — according to Garmin, up to two weeks back. If Connect isn’t in the app list at all and the only device registered to your Garmin account is an Edge bike computer, Garmin says that’s expected: with an Edge alone, Connect doesn’t show up in the Health app.
What Garmin sends to Apple Health
Garmin only sends data to Apple Health. It reads nothing back, so steps from your iPhone or workouts from other apps won’t reach Garmin Connect this way.
| Data | Transfers to Apple Health | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Steps | yes | |
| Workouts | yes | activities uploaded to Garmin Connect, without the GPS track |
| Heart rate | yes | all-day heart rate; for workouts only the highest and lowest value |
| Sleep | yes | sleep analysis |
| Active and resting energy | yes | |
| Walking + running distance | yes | |
| Flights climbed | yes | |
| Weight, body fat, BMI | yes | |
| Water | yes | |
| Activity rings | no | only Apple Watch data moves them |
Because workouts only carry the extreme heart rate values, Apple’s Activity app may show “Chart Unavailable” instead of a heart rate chart for a Garmin workout. Garmin’s own metrics, such as Body Battery or stress, aren’t on the list.
When the data arrives
Garmin Connect sends data to Apple Health after every successful watch sync. The catch: the app has to be open in the foreground. If you close it or switch to another app, the transfer stops and only finishes at the next sync with the app open.
In practice: after a workout, open Garmin Connect, let the watch finish syncing and keep the app open for a moment. Only then will Apple Health — and the apps that read from it — see the workout.
Steps missing or doubled? Source order decides
Your iPhone counts steps on its own, so once you connect Garmin, Apple Health has at least two step sources: the phone and Garmin. It doesn’t add them up. When several sources send the same type of data, Apple says the one at the top of the list takes priority.
That’s where the feeling of “missing” steps comes from. If the iPhone sits above Garmin in the list, the Health app mostly shows steps from the phone. But the phone may be lying on your desk while the watch is on your wrist. That’s why Garmin recommends moving Garmin Connect higher. According to Apple, a newly added source automatically goes to the top, above the iPhone, but the order is worth checking.
To change the order:
- In Health, open the Browse tab, the Activity category, then Steps.
- Scroll down and tap Data Sources & Access. Only sources that actually send steps are listed.
- Tap Edit.
- Touch and hold the reorder control next to Connect and drag it above the iPhone.
- Tap Done.
It works the same way for sleep, heart rate and other data. To turn off a third-party source, tap the checkmark next to it in the same list. Tab names can differ slightly by iOS version.
Duplicate workouts have a different cause. When Garmin Connect and, say, Strava both write the same run, Apple Health can end up with two entries. The fix is to keep workout writing on in only one of them.
Is another app showing double the steps? Compare its number with the one in the Health app. If the Health app is right, the issue is how that other app reads the data, and its support team is the one to contact.
And the Activity rings? Garmin won’t move them at all. That’s not a settings problem: according to Garmin, only Apple Watch data moves them.
What other apps get out of it
Once Garmin writes to Apple Health, apps that read from it see its data too. Tada!, for example, doesn’t connect to Garmin at all; it only reads Apple Health. Steps and workouts from your watch therefore count toward your active day on their own, and when two workouts overlap, only the longer one counts. There’s a short how-to in the Tada! help, too.
Garmin on your wrist, streak on your phone Tada! reads steps and workouts from Apple Health, so you keep your watch and your active days count themselves. No sign-up, no ads. Download for iPhone
Still not working?
- Garmin Connect is up to date and open. Sync your watch while the app is in the foreground.
- Connect has its categories allowed in the Health app. Health → Profile → Apps → Connect.
- Connect is missing from the Health app. Go through the path in Garmin Connect again: More → Settings → Connect Apps → Apple Health.
- Data doesn’t show up even though everything is on. In Steps → Data Sources & Access, check that Connect is in the list and above the iPhone.
- You want to see individual entries. In Steps, scroll down to Options and tap Show All Data.
- A workout is missing the route or detailed heart rate. That’s down to what Garmin sends. No setting will change it.
- The rings won’t move. Garmin data doesn’t move them.
Frequently asked questions
Does Garmin send older data to Apple Health, too?
Partly. According to Garmin, once sharing is on, Apple Health pulls in data from up to two weeks back.
Can Garmin Connect read data from Apple Health?
No. Garmin says it sends data to Apple Health but doesn’t pull anything from Apple Watch or Apple Health.
Does Garmin Connect have to run all the time?
Not constantly. But the transfer to Apple Health only happens during a sync while the app is open in the foreground.
Sources
Cover photo: Md Mahdi / Unsplash
