I struggled for a couple of days trying to get Garmin Express to recognize iTunes to download music files to my fenix 7, and encountered the problem described in several threads where Garmin Express won't find iTunes if the XML file for your iTunes music library is installed anywhere other than the default iTunes location on your C: drive. (This problem typically happens if your iTunes library is installed on a different drive, such as D:.) The thread https://forums.garmin.com/apps-software/mac-windows-software/f/garmin-express-windows/155945/garmin-express-wont-recognise-itunes suggested making a symbolic link in the default C: drive location to the actual iTunes XML file on another drive. I could not get that symbolic link method to work on my PC.
Eventually I came across a workaround to be able to use iTunes to manage playlists for music on the fenix:
- Set up Garmin Express to use the Manual method of managing your music. (If your Garmin Express is previously set up to try to use iTunes, click the gear icon at the top to change it to Manual.)
- Connect your Garmin device to the PC, and select it in Garmin Express.
- Select the Music button for the device in Garmin Express, then next to My Music, click on the blue folder icon to select where your music files are located. (Depending on how your iTunes is set up, that may be within an iTunes Media folder that could reside anywhere on your PC.) Garmin Express will scan the location(s) to identify all the music or other audio files (podcasts, audio books) that are in file formats supported by your Garmin device, e.g. mp3, m4a, etc.
- Now launch iTunes and in iTunes create a playlist containing the music/audio that you want to transfer to your Garmin device. Then select that playlist so iTunes is showing you the list of songs in the playlist.
- In iTunes menu, go to File->Library->Export Playlist... , select to save the playlist as file type .m3u or .m3u8 (NOT .txt or .xml), then navigate to save the exported playlist in a location that resides within the folder(s) where you previously told Garmin Express your music files reside.
- In Garmin Express with your device connected and the Music button for the device selected, have it rescan My Music for the device by clicking the blue folder icon.
- Your playlist from iTunes will now appear in Garmin Express, and you can select it to Send to Device.
- Next time you want to download a new playlist to the Garmin device, you can delete the old music files from the device using Windows Explorer (and if you want delete the saved playlist file from the music folder on your PC), then repeat the process to create and send a new playlist.
That might seem like a lot of steps, but once you've initially set it up, it's trivial to create and send new playlists to the Garmin device.