It worked fine so why change it.?

During my stint as a programmer, I saw a lot of IT departments at very large companies spending big time dollars over the years constantly updating the "front end" (the user interface) to look 'modern' even though the code to actually manipulate the data was pretty much the same COBOL code that was written in the late 60's and 70's.

I my opinion, the original text based menu interfaces where much more efficient, but the corporate managers would hear all the new buzz words and think they had to do that too.

Change is good! Keeps many a programmer employed.

You might find that you have to re-configure your device to your computer. After you've done that your device should upload info to Garmin Connect as you plug it in without having to do anything else. If it doesn't look down the bottom of your screen with your pointer/arrow and it may show a box with COMPUTER indicated, click on that and then click on Garmin Connect Upload - that should do it.
Hope this helps/works for you? But I agree, WHY do they have to change things all the time??? Almost as bad as eBay ( oh sorry did I just print a dirty word? ).

I don't mind the new look, you can go to the classic look (at least for a little while) to get the familiar look and feel
From there you can upload, once this feature goes away I will no longer be able to use connect since I don't use Windows or a Mac.

Cant see any tab for downloading new activities.

The Upload button is no longer on every page of Garmin Connect. If you want to manually upload activities, you need to click the Import link on the Activities page.

Cant even find my old activities.

Click the three horizontal bars icon on the left. Click the word Activities.

That doesn't make any sense. Isn't the import feature available for the purpose of uploading data from another source file i.e. data held on excel or similar?

The Garmin webpage used to instantly allow an upload from my watch. I've tried this through the import function, and it doesn't work. There is not one shred of guidance or information on the new layout that outlines where this can be done. Neither is there a link to the old page layout.

The new set up is horrendous. Has anyone figured this out? Or are Garmin customers simply left guessing for several hours (or longer)?

Import button is the equivalent of the "manual upload" of the old GC. In fact it appears to function and look exactly as the "manual upload" of the old GC (don't confuse this with "manual activity", two different things).

If you want to have your device upload with less user intervention, you'll have to go to the device panel and install Garmin Express to your computer. For the time being, I'm happy with "Importing" my data. So I can't help you with installation, setup, or use of Garmin Express.

But as always, if you don't get the help you need from other users here in this forum, then go to the Garmin Connect Help page or the Garmin Support site and call or email them. The links I put in are to the U.S. support, if it doesn't switch automatically to your country/region then look at the top of the page to change it.

Support is free for both your device and Garmin Connect.

Ok, so I'm on the old style layout now, and can upload through that (accessed via settings).

Have tried to reconfigure my watch with the new format, but that doesn't work. Is this a macbook problem? My wife isn't having any problems with her pc.

Any advice/help gratefully received.

There is no 'reconfiguration' you do on your watch or device.

What device are you using? Does it require an ant stick? or does it connect to your computer with a usb cable? If you require an ant stick, and you don't want to install Garmin Express, then you are going to have to figure out where ant agent stores the activity files on your computer. I don't use ant sticks or ant agent, but there is a subforum for them where you can ask about it.

There is a version of Garmin Express available for Mac's but you have to have osx 10.7 or better.