FitMerge

Guide

Combine two Garmin Connect activities into one

Your Edge or watch saved one ride as two activities, and Connect's Trim only cuts time off the ends of one. Add both files below to get a single FIT file, with the laps, heart rate and device from the originals, ready to import.

How to combine two Garmin Connect activities

  1. Download each part from Connect. Garmin describes this on the Connect website: under Activities, All Activities, click the first part's name, open the gear icon menu in the upper right corner and pick Export File (Export Original in older layouts). Repeat for the second part. A .zip that arrives this way can go in unopened. If the parts are still on your Edge or watch, you can copy them from the device instead. Garmin's page on exporting data from Connect lists the other formats.
  2. Join them in the tool at the top of this page and save a FIT. It all runs in this tab, so your files aren't sent to any server.
  3. Copy what you wrote, then delete the parts. Put each part's title and description into a note first, because they go with the activity when you delete it. Garmin warns that deleting an activity takes away the badges and personal records tied to it, so write down any you'd like to remember. On the website, find each part under Activities, All Activities, click the trashcan icon at the far right of its row and confirm with Delete. In the phone app, go through More, Activities, All Activities, open the part, tap the three dots in the upper right and pick Delete Activity. Clear both away before the import, so no part is left for the merged file to clash with.
  4. Import the merged file. On a computer, open the Connect website and follow Garmin's manual upload page: the cloud icon with an up arrow in the upper right corner, then Import Data, Browse, the merged .fit file, and Import.
  5. Check the import and finish it. Open what you imported and set its distance and time beside the totals this page showed. Paste in the title and description you saved in step 3.

Why Connect can't join them

Connect's editing is built around one activity at a time. Trim Activity, which the web page reaches through the gear icon or the pencil icon and the app through Edit Activity, moves the start time or the finish time of a single activity. Garmin's page on trimming and cropping describes it, and says nothing about joining. So the way to one activity is to take the files out, join them and bring the result back in.

Download FIT, not GPX, for Garmin

We imported the same merged walk into Connect twice, once as FIT and once as GPX. The FIT came in as a walk, with the timer and pace we expected. The GPX came in as Other: Connect ignored the activity type written in the file. A merged GPX also names FitMerge as its maker, where a merged FIT still carries the device that recorded your parts. In our test with an Edge file, Connect showed that Edge as the device.

Leave the download on FIT unless you have a reason. If one of your parts is a GPX, say a phone recording, it can still go in with the Garmin file. The merged result is a FIT.

What to expect after the import

  • The recording itself arrives whole: the FIT guide lists what a merged FIT keeps.
  • Moving time and climb may not match this page. In our walk test Connect worked out its own moving time and took the elevation from its own terrain data, so both came out different from FitMerge's.
  • Duplicates: when we imported the same merged activity twice, Connect treated the second as already uploaded. If an import seems to do nothing, look in your activity list for a copy that is already there.
  • Privacy: an imported activity came in as visible to you only, as our account's default is. Look at the setting yourself if you share your activities.

Questions

Does Connect on my phone do this?

The merging works in a phone browser. Garmin describes exporting on the Connect website and importing using a computer, so do those two steps on a computer.

Can I use the files from my watch instead?

Yes. Connect the device by USB and copy the .fit files from its Activity folder (GARMIN/Activity). Garmin names them by date and time, so two parts of one outing sit side by side. Copy them, don't move them. The export guide has the details for Mac. Garmin's page on uploading activities names the folder.

Can I trim the merged activity in Connect?

Garmin's trim answer doesn't rule out a FIT import. What it does rule out is activities made from a GPX or TCX file, and some activity types, Other among them. Our GPX import landed as Other, so a GPX is ruled out twice over: import the FIT. If a trim cuts too much, Edit Activity has Restore Original.

My Connect activities also go to Strava. What about the copies there?

Look on Strava. If the two parts are there as well, the Strava guide covers that side; this page deals with Connect only.

Do I have to delete each part in the app and on the website?

No, once is enough. Garmin's page on deleting says either way removes the activity from both places.

Is there a size limit for importing?

Garmin's upload page says Connect takes .fit files up to 50 MB, and .gpx or .tcx files up to 25 MB, with fewer than 99,999 data points in a file. Our merged 81 km test ride came to under half a megabyte as a FIT. FitMerge itself takes up to 100 MB per file.