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How can I get the gps coordinates from a map point in Garmin Connect?

tinkertoy
4 months ago

I sometimes use the Lap button to mark a spot along an activity.  However, I can't find any way to get the GPS coordinates of the Lap marks in an activity - I have to find the elapsed time at that point, add it to the starting time, then download the whole activity as a GPX file and find the time that corresponds to it.

That seems a little crazy; is it not possible on Garmin Connect (the website) to get the GPS coordinates of any point on a map when viewing an activity?

- Tim

  • 0 4 months ago

    1. Export the activity FIT file from Garmin (Gear icon > Export File)

    2. Upload the FIT file to https://fitfileviewer.com. Among many other things, this site shows detailed info about laps in a table, including the lat/lon at the start and end of each lap.

  • 0 4 months ago in reply to FlowState

    That's very similar to what I said I had to do anyway.  I was asking about getting a coordinate DIRECTLY from Garmin Connect.

    For a website and app that is supposed to be about tracking your GPS coordinates, it seems very strange that you can't get a SINGLE GPS coordinate directly from the mapping tool in the website/app. Don't you think that's strange?

    - Tim

  • 0 4 months ago in reply to tinkertoy

    I don't work for Garmin and I post critical stuff about Garmin all the time, to the extent that other posters tell me to stop complaining. So I'm the last person who's trying to make excuses for Garmin or anything like that.

    I know what you were asking for, and as far I know, it's not possible. Since I don't work for Garmin and I have no ability to make this change myself or force Garmin to make it, I was simply trying to give you an easier workaround than the one you already described. fitfileviewer.com gives you start and end coordinates of every lap in an easy-to-digest table of laps, so it saves you a few steps:

    - no need to determine elapsed time at each lap you're interested in

    - no need to open the GPX file in a text editor

    - no need to manually find the corresponding times in the GPX file

    I don't think it's that similar at all, because when you use fitfileviewer.com, you have no need to "manually process" any data at all. The site does everything for you. I also happen to think that it's a lot more user friendly than looking at raw GPX data. Ofc the data it shows is pretty detailed and low-level, so it's not as user friendly as Connect, but it's user friendly enough, for a free tool that shows that type and amount of data.

    If you doubt that it's easier to use fitfileviewer.com, then just don't use it. Or you could try and let me know if the following two situations are equivalent:

    - export activity to FIT, open it in fitfileviewer, look at lap table (literally 0 thinking involved)

    - "find the elapsed time at that point, add it to the starting time, then download the whole activity as a GPX file and find the time that corresponds to it." (this sounds suspiciously like homework)

    Maybe it's just me, but I think one of those situations is a lot easier and less time-consuming than the other. I have manually inspected GPX files in the past (e.g. I had an issue where I pressed LAP by accident, and I wanted to figure out what certain stats would've been had I not pressed LAP accidentally), and it seems to me that manually trying to do this stuff is not easier than having an automated tool that tells me what I want to know.

    If you want Garmin to add this feature, you could submit an idea to https://www.garmin.com/en-US/forms/ideas/. Frankly I don't have a lot of confidence that Garmin even looks at ideas submitted to that page.

    tinkertoy said:
    For a website and app that is supposed to be about tracking your GPS coordinates, it seems very strange that you can't get a SINGLE GPS coordinate directly from the mapping tool in the website/app. Don't you think that's strange?

    To answer your question directly:

    - I don't think Connect is supposed to be about "tracking your GPS coordinates" at all, from the average user's POV (unless they're geocaching). When's the last time you shared lat/lon GPS coordinates with family or friends? The most popular platform for sharing runs and bike rides seems to be strava. Strava (and Connect) show your activity as a graphical track on a map, not as a series of coordinates.

    - Whether we like it or not, the trend in tech for the past 10 years (or longer) has been for things to get simpler, which oftens means losing features (or never implementing them in the first place). This can be seen in the shift to mobile-first web browsing and apps. I noticed that most platforms which have both an app and website usually reserve "advanced" features for the website, even if it would be technically possible to put them in the app, too.

  • 0 4 months ago in reply to FlowState

    I was more addressing the shortcomings of the website/app, not really criticizing your comment (tho' I DID think you worked for Garmin or this forum, as the way the website displayed your name made it stand out, so I thought it was highlighting an admin or something).

    We'll need to agree to disagree - the amount of work it would take to do what you said (download the FIT file, upload it to the other site, and find the lap I was looking for) is about the same for me; I'm a software developer and look at XML files all the time, so looking at the raw GPX data after doing a time calculation would be about the same.

    Also disagree about what Connect is supposed to do; I don't use my Garmin devices to share things, but for my own benefit - both tracking workouts, but also recording points along the way.  I use various other mapping/recording tools (like GaiaGPS, for instance), and share data between the two ecosystems.  Given that all these Garmin devices record tracks/points/etc, it seems really weird that coordinates aren't available directly from their mapping tool - it's something I feel is pretty reasonable to expect, given what my Garmin device does.

    I may not be a typical user or want typical functionality from my devices and websites, I freely admit that. :-D

    In any case, thank you for your very detailed reply and reasoning!

    - Tim

  • 0 4 months ago in reply to FlowState

    I'll just add - I don't usually use the Lap function for marking points on the map; I usually do it on my phone with pre-downloaded maps on GaiaGPS.  The reason I wanted to do it this time was because it was raining hard and my finger wasn't registering correctly on my phone; and also, I wanted to compare the accuracy of my phone's idea of the map point with what my Garmin device recorded.  So I'd only be doing this occasionally, and for not many map points.  I agree that if I had a whole bunch of points to view, your method would be easier, so I thank you for that. :-)

    As for the way tech is getting simpler - yeah, I've been complaining about that for at least 10 years, probably more like 15.  I loved a lot of aspects of the earlier (not the very earliest, but earlier) websites, where it was expected you were on a big screen with a full keyboard and wanted to view a lot of detailed data at once.  As soon as everything started going "mobile first" (which, I have found, often is really "mobile only") with adaptive CSS etc., everything got pretty bad - very little info on the screen at once, everything being BIG and KANDY-KOLORED, as if it were designed for 5-year-olds.  I even asked a question about this on a StackExchange UX discussion site - most of the UX designers there seemed to like the move to simple and big/blocky rather than detailed.  Guess I'm a dinosaur ;-) (I'm 60, and started programming around 1977).

    - Tim

  • 0 4 months ago in reply to tinkertoy
    tinkertoy said:
    Given that all these Garmin devices record tracks/points/etc, it seems really weird that coordinates aren't available directly from their mapping tool

    Garmin‘s mapping tool is the Explore App : 

    https://www.garmin.com/en-US/p/614327