Garmin Explore Web - Recent Threads

Zombie message won't go away from MapShare page

6125703 — Wed, 08 Apr 2026 19:35:38 GMT

When I was testing out my inReach Mini 2 and MapShare page before a trip, I sent a check-in message "to mapshare" and it appeared on the sidewalk where I did the test.

Even after I deleted the message and adjusted the visibility timestamp for my MapShare, this lone check-in message continues to appear and seems to cause the MapShare page to zoom by default to this location near my home. I can't figure out what else I can do to purge it. Edit: it shows on the map while the "messages" section indicates zero messages.

During the trip, I did several tracking sessions which appeared as intended on the MapShare. I have since deleted them in my Explore map collection, and they disappeared in MapShare too. Edit 2: the check-in timetamp is also earlier than the time cutoff I set on my MapShare settings.

I am not sure I sent any actual messages during the trip, so that zombie message might be the "most recent" I ever did. I'm not sure.

Has anybody else seen this behavior? I want to clear the slate so there is no personal location content in the page until my next trip. And I'd want it to zoom to whatever wilderness routes I decided to share for that trip, not to this location near my home!

Toggle Map Visibility for Collection EYE hides all activities in Map view including the one you wish to view.

6756833 — Thu, 12 Mar 2026 22:44:49 GMT

Hi Guys, I am new to the Garmin Stable and have a Inreach Mini2, Garmin Explore Web (GEW) and Garmin Explore App (GEA). I think I have all the units syncing correctly. I have completed a number of Activities on the Mini2 and synced them with the GEA and can view them on the Samsung 24S. They even appear to sync up correctly to the GEW. I walk regularly in the same general area so many activities are overlapping previous activities. What I wish to be able to do is show individual Activities on the Map View screen. The key to this appears to be related to the “Toggle Map Visibility for Collection” EYE. If I turn off the eye on the collection header line all the activities disappear and all that remains are a few Black Dos representing the activity I wished to view. I have cleared out Browser History, Cache, Temporary files to no avail.

On very rare occasions this has sort of worked but I can’t work out the logic of it.

Any help greatly appreciated. The Map View already looks like spaghetti and unusable.

RE: Toggle Map Visibility for Collection EYE hides all activities in Map view including the one you wish to view.

4870762 — Wed, 08 Apr 2026 12:39:20 GMT

The “eye” (visibility toggle) in Garmin Explore Web doesn’t always work as expected, especially when activities belong to collections. Even if you hide one item, it may still appear if it exists in another visible collection.

RE: Map to aerial view when zooming in?

PeteGl — Sat, 28 Mar 2026 23:45:19 GMT

Thanks Jim

Map to aerial view when zooming in?

PeteGl — Sun, 08 Feb 2026 14:20:42 GMT

Is it possible to stop the view changing to aerial when zooming in?

RE: Map to aerial view when zooming in?

JungleJim — Sat, 28 Mar 2026 12:33:18 GMT

Nope, unfortunately that's not possible.

RE: How do I remove a device from garmin explore?

TourleTour — Tue, 24 Mar 2026 10:55:38 GMT

Thanks for the suggestion, but as I said there is no "Remove Device" option.

How do I remove a device from garmin explore?

TourleTour — Mon, 02 Mar 2026 12:14:20 GMT

I have my Inreach and my Fenix both connected to explore. For some reason this means that every course that goes onto my fenix gets sync'd to my inreach and fills up the memory. I get no value from having the fenix connected to Explore so I want to remove it. I looked at garmin support, but it suggested I go to explore, select the device, and select "Remove Device". There is no "Remove Device" option. So can anyone tell me how I can achieve this, or even just get it to stop syncing every course?

Thanks

RE: How do I remove a device from garmin explore?

3913841 — Tue, 24 Mar 2026 10:01:57 GMT

Open Garmin Explore, go to Devices, select your device, and tap Remove Device. Also unpair it from Bluetooth if needed to fully disconnect it.

RE: Map to aerial view when zooming in?

7382498 — Sun, 22 Mar 2026 18:48:19 GMT

I think no

RE: GPX track imported into Garmin Explore shows incorrect distance and does not render in desktop app

9742874 — Wed, 18 Mar 2026 21:12:46 GMT

It looks like the question was already reposted under the Garmin Explore forum, thanks to whoever moved it.

To follow up on the comment from trux , the tracks in the map share link that I shared (share.garmin.com/U7YS77OR55) look correct, but there are two problems

1) When I open the track in the Garmin Explore on my phone I get a length of the track that is completely off, like 310 km or so. See image

2) The same track that looks correct in the map share link does not share in the private Garmin explore on my desktop (accessible here https://explore.garmin.com/)

GPX track imported into Garmin Explore shows incorrect distance and does not render in desktop app

9742874 — Mon, 16 Mar 2026 21:23:46 GMT

Hi,

I am experiencing two issues with Garmin Explore when importing a GPX track file.

Issue 1: Incorrect track distance

When I import a GPX file containing a <trk> element, the distance displayed for the track is significantly wrong. The track should be approximately 126 km, but Garmin Explore shows ~310 km as length.

Notably, the elevation profile chart for the same track correctly shows the x-axis ending at ~126 km, which matches the expected distance. This suggests the app is calculating distance differently in the track summary vs. the elevation chart.

Additional observations:

The GPX file has been validated — coordinates are correct (WGS 84, lon/lat order) and the track consists of a single `<trkseg>` with no gaps.
When using "Copy as Course" on the imported track, the resulting course correctly shows ~126 km, but the course only retains two points (start and end), losing all intermediate shape points.
Adding `<ele>` elevation tags to the GPX track points has no effect on the elevation profile — the app appears to ignore them and use its own terrain data instead.

Issue 2: Track not visible in Garmin Explore desktop

The same GPX track file does not render in the Garmin Explore desktop application, while it does appear correctly in the Garmin Explore mobile app and on the Garmin map service (explore.garmin.com). No error message is shown — the track simply does not appear.

Troubleshooting already attempted

Downsampled the track: from ~5900 points to ~590 points (keeping every 10th point) — no change in behaviour for either issue.
Added `<ele>` elevation tags: to every track point with plausible values — the elevation profile was unchanged, confirming the app ignores GPX elevation data entirely.
Used "Copy as Course" as a workaround — this gives the correct distance (126 km) but discards all intermediate points, making it useless for navigation.

File details

The affected tracks are publicly available here: share.garmin.com/U7YS77OR55, you can look at stage1.1_route.gpx as an example. Some additonal info on the files:

GPX version: 1.1
Created with: GDAL 3.12.0
Track structure: single `<trk>` with single `<trkseg>` with ~5900 `<trkpt>` elements
Coordinate system: WGS 84

Could you please clarify the following:

How Garmin Explore calculates track distance for imported GPX files?
Why the distance shown in the track summary differs from the elevation chart distance?
Why "Copy as Course" discards all intermediate track points?
What the rendering requirements are for the desktop application?

Thanks!

RE: GPX track imported into Garmin Explore shows incorrect distance and does not render in desktop app

9742874 — Tue, 17 Mar 2026 17:07:42 GMT

Hello trux , first time poster here. Thanks for the suggestion I will repost my question under the Garmin Explore forum

RE: GPX track imported into Garmin Explore shows incorrect distance and does not render in desktop app

trux — Tue, 17 Mar 2026 15:03:01 GMT

I recommend moving your post to the Garmin Explore forum (this one is for Garmin Connect Web). Otherwise, I am not quite sure I understand your problem. I checked the link you posted, and did not find any track long ~310km. I only see the 126km route:

RE: Toggle Map Visibility for Collection EYE hides all activities in Map view including the one you wish to view.

6756833 — Sun, 15 Mar 2026 21:42:58 GMT

Hi JungleJim,

What I am trying to do is have a situation where I can select a single activity and then by pressing the EYE all the other activities will disappear from the map.

The crazy thing about this is that I had started this query a few weeks back and YES I could display a single activity, click it from the list of activities, and have the other activities disappear by pressing the EYE. Happy Days but the next time I came into the GEW I could no longer achieve this.

I have review the Garmin Forum backwards for many months and must admit that I have seen very few posts that appear to have positive outcomes. Pity it would make working on Garmin Explore much easier than on the app. I will just have to learn how to use GEA.

Thank you for the reply and regards, Heber

RE: Toggle Map Visibility for Collection EYE hides all activities in Map view including the one you wish to view.

JungleJim — Fri, 13 Mar 2026 13:39:14 GMT

My advice: forget about Explore web. It's outdated, doesn't seem to be maintained anymore by Garmin, it's full of bugs, very unintuitive to use and doesn't have feature parity with the Explore app (for example support of Courses or Outdoor Maps+ layers).

As for your issue with hiding activities, it appears that when you open a collection, the eye icon in the header does work and will hide the items within the collection. Items that are not in a collection or in a different collection are not affected so those will still be visible. Hiding a category of items (e.g. activities) by selecting the category from the library list and using the eye icon in the header doesn't seem to work at all.

RE: Export/Import

HP Drifter — Sun, 08 Mar 2026 22:45:45 GMT

Ok thanks for your input. Appreciated.

Export/Import

HP Drifter — Thu, 05 Mar 2026 18:07:16 GMT

Hi all. Setup: InReach Mini2, Android w/Explore App, Explore Web. This question is about using Explore Web.

The red arrow in both images is an Activity that I converted to a route in Web then exported to my pute and then imported into a non-Garmin web software. It works and appears as one would expect and looks the same as a route I drew in Explore Web and imported in the same manner.

The purple arrow is a route/course/track or something that a few years back I also created from an Activity and converted to something somehow, but I do not know how I did this and have been unable to re-create it. It has many more points and resembles exactly the nature/shape of an Activity. I would like to be able to use this type of import again in the non-Garmin software as it shows exactly where I traveled, but I have no idea how I created it.

That file (purple arrow) and the file type represented by the blue arrow get exported every time in the GPX file even if I have hidden everything on the map screen entirely. The blue arrow files import as very course line, maybe lines drawn between 10 minute intervals. Where are they coming from? Is it not possible with Web to simply select one file and export it?

Import/Export in Web is so very confusing and extremely difficult to figure out.

Thanks,

William

So many aggravating inconsistencies and dead-ends

6125703 — Sat, 28 Feb 2026 21:36:22 GMT

I dipped back into this to prepare for a mountain trip. I wanted to make some courses and have them on my FR255 watch for primary navigation, my inReach mini 2 (as backup navigation), and my inReach MapShare so others can see my intended route along with my satellite tracking points.

I think I finally found a couple flows that may work, but they are clumsy in different ways.

Create a course in Garmin Connect web or mobile (like I usually do for my FR255), export to GPX on my laptop, import to Explore website as a "route" which reduces it to 200 points.
Create a course in Garmin Explore mobile and "share" to Google Drive so I can then open/share it into Connect Mobile.

But I rediscovered so many gotchas along the way.

First, what does this distinction between "tracks", "routes", and "courses" even mean in Explore?? It is so opaque in the website and then the mobile app doesn't really distinguish them in the "saved" list.
The website also cautions about needing routes for syncing to "inreach devices", but then my inReach Mini 2 seems to call things "courses" and it's all very confusing.
A default course from connect creates an absurd behavior when using it to navigate on my inReach Mini 2... a 3 mile course is alerting me every 50 feet or so with a long chirp and generic "flag" icon alert. I guess it's celebrating that I reached each point in the GPX file? I've read that turning off turn guidance before I export the course to GPX from Connect may fix this, but I haven't taken it out for another outdoor test to verify yet.
Any "course points" created in the Connect course seem to turn into disembodied waypoints in Explore that aren't even attached to the imported route. You can delete the route and the waypoints remain on the map like a ghostly reminder of the past.
Some of the web UI suggests importing to a "track" instead of a route, but this makes some hideous pile of individual point flags on the Explore map.
The Explore website doesn't have any way to create "courses" or "tracks" even though it knows they exist. It can create routes and waypoints or make a "track" via import.
The website route creation doesn't seem to have any logic at all to follow roads or trails. You just have to draw line segments like it is 1980.
The Explore mobile app only knows how to create courses and waypoints. At least it can follow roads and trails, but it is annoying to have to do this on a little phone screen instead of a laptop with a mouse and a bigger screen to zoom and pan around! Conversely, Connect website pretty much does all the same things as Connect mobile and so I prefer the website for making courses normally for my watch.
Comparing Explore mobile and Connect for course creation, the map detail for trails is quite different. And, Connect offers "popularity" routing as an option instead of following the trail network.
Every kind of import/export flow seems to lose any metadata like a course name.
There seem to be many ways to accidentally click into an empty section on the Explore web left sidebar and then the arrow to go back out is missing. My only option seemed to be reloading the whole page and starting over on the explore homepage.

It's not that my complaints are exhausted, but I think the Garmin Forum may be running out of bullets for my bullet list...

RE: So many aggravating inconsistencies and dead-ends

6125703 — Sat, 07 Mar 2026 21:27:29 GMT

Thanks. I discovered one downside of my chosen method of planning courses in Connect... The default (?) Google Maps map source seems to have imaginary or obsolete trail data for a well traveled day use area in Yosemite NP.

I ended up having to spend a few miles "off course" to follow a trail I could find with my own eyes instead of where my watch was trying to send me. After the first off-course alert, I spent about 20 minutes orienteering a steep slope in the icy woods before I decided the trail-based course on my watch was bogus. I had to loop back down to the trail I could see with my eyes and follow it instead.

Maybe the trail in the map existed there many years ago, before being buried by a rockfall. But the rubble field I found was well encrusted with moss, lichen, and small trees (not some fresh destruction). I never saw any signs of the trail into or out of that area where the course intersected my actual track, so if it existed the park service had already had time to well and truly erase the remnants.

In this case, it seems the OpenStreetMap data would have been closer to truth in Connect, but still might have thrown some off-course alerts where it deviates from the trodden path. The Explore Topo/TopoActive maps also seem similarly accurate, just with different deviations. The "popularity" overlap is best through this one section, but then has lots of annoying deviation in other places where people seem to veer off-trail for scenic spots...

RE: Export/Import

JungleJim — Sat, 07 Mar 2026 18:50:00 GMT

Not sure why those two tracks are always in the export. Could very well be a bug in the Explore website.

RE: Export/Import

HP Drifter — Sat, 07 Mar 2026 00:04:12 GMT

Thanks for the reply. That is kind of how I thought it was supposed to work but the items in the import screen with the specific format that my purple and blue arrows are pointing to never go away no matter what settings are used in Web export. Even if I completely hide everything by hiding all library and all collections, those items are still exported and appear in the other softwares import list. Any idea where they may be coming from?

RE: Export/Import

JungleJim — Fri, 06 Mar 2026 09:15:50 GMT

Explore web export functionality is indeed quite confusing. It will export items that are visible in your library with the filters and visibility of collections that has been configured. So it will not export the selected item, it will export all visible items in your library into a single GPX file.

If you want to export a single item, you need to create a collection and add the item to it, hide all other collections, and then click export.

However, Explore web will not export activities. So if you want to export an activity from Explore web, you first have to convert it to a track or route. Also routes will be exported as tracks, not as GPX routes. Alternatively you can use Explore app to export an activity to GPX. To convert an activity, select it in the library and use the icon with the two arrows in it.

As for tracks that are not very detailed, these are the summaries of the tracking points that have been sent via inReach. Those tracks are indeed not very detailed due to the fact that the tracking points are sent every couple of minutes, depending on the tracking interval you have configured.

Exporting Data From the Garmin Explore Website has more info on how the export functionality of Explore web works.

RE: So many aggravating inconsistencies and dead-ends

JungleJim — Mon, 02 Mar 2026 19:48:31 GMT

In the Garmin world tracks, routes and courses are different things. Historically there were only tracks (a trace of a certain path with lots of points describing that trace) and routes (a collection of points to navigate between where the device will determine the actual route). Tracks and routes usually come in GPX file format. Unless you look into the GPX file you cannot see whether it's a route or a track.

The downside of routes is that Garmin Devices have limitations on the number of points in a route. So routes are used less frequently.

Then Garmin introduced courses, which are kind of a mix between tracks and routes. A course is in essence the same as a track, but can also contain course points. These are points along the course that are used for either "helping" the device navigating, or for including points of interest like rest stops, landmarks etc. What are Activities, Courses, Tracks, Routes, and Waypoints on Garmin Watches? further explains this in the context of Garmin watches, but it applies to other Garmin devices as well.

The inReach Mini 2 only supports courses. So if you import a track or a route, it will be converted to a course when synchronizing with the Mini 2.

Now the confusing part is that Garmin Explore web only allows creating routes (i.e. location points in a sequence you want to navigate them). And Garmin Explore works mainly with courses. So there is a definitive feature disparity between both platforms.

So my advice is to forget about Garmin Explore web for doing any planning work. Basically forget about Explore web at all except for managing some inReach settings and the MapShare functionality.

Instead you could use one of the many other planning platforms like Komoot, Strava, RideWithGPS, etc. Most of them require a subscription though, but the planning functionality is miles ahead.

Export the planned route from those platforms as GPX track, and import them in Explore app, convert to Course and sync with your Mini 2.

Or use Connect web to plan your route and export as GPX. You lose the functionality for Course points, because these are not supported in GPX files.

Uploading and Syncing GPX Files to the inReach Mini 2 provides more details on how to get GPX files to your Mini 2, but as I mentioned before they will be converted to courses because the Mini 2 only supports courses.

RE: How do I remove a device from garmin explore?

Dan.Boilermaker — Mon, 02 Mar 2026 19:39:47 GMT

[quote userid="35511" url="~/apps-software/mobile-apps-web/f/garmin-explore-web/432256/how-do-i-remove-a-device-from-garmin-explore"] For some reason this means that every course that goes onto my fenix gets sync'd to my inreach and fills up the memory.[/quote]

Sound like you are either "Syncing Everything" or syncing the same Collection(s) to both devices. Change the sync settings for either/both devices to prevent your fenix courses syncing to your inReach.