Komoot routes with course points

By chance I recognized that routes made in Komoot are now transferred tp Garmin Explore with embedded highlights as course points. This seems to be new. And even better, now the routes can be edited and will not be truncated as before. It is possible to add course points in GE mobil without that the other course points vanish.

This seems to be nice, but my experience with following a Komoot route with course points is this:

1. Navigation setting routing off, so that in 'up ahead' the course points are shown. I used a routable frikart map and disabled the topoactive map. First course point showed much too short distance (20 meters instead of 400 meters). After walking a while the distance seemed to become reliable. On purpose I went of the course (purple line) without that the H1 gave me a warning. I came close to the first course point, but in the up ahead list the distance showed now a much too long distance.

2. I stopped navigation and started the same course with routing on. The now magenta line showed a straight line to the starting point and forward along the course. I followed the route for a while and got the correct voice prompts for the turn points. When on purpose I did not followed the route, I got no warning at all and after a while the the course was truncated. I stopped the navigation and restarted it with the same setting. It worked again till I quit the route the next time. So, when using a Komoot route/course, you have to stay on it.

3. I thought that maybe the problems are because the topomap was disabled and enabled it. I made a new Komoot route and transferred it to the H1. Navigation setting was routing on. Now the map on H1 showed every turn point like a way point. The voice prompt told me the distance till every turn point but also to a course point and even called it by name. Because of the many points, the H1 was almost permanently talking. Before reaching the first course point, I went of the course. Recalculating was now fast as normal, every 50 meters, if you are not on the course. Then all course points and turn points on the map vanished. The course showed now the shortest way to the destination and voice prompts were accordingly. The Navigation setting no more showed the name of the course, but coordinates instead.

My conclusion: better don't use Komoot routes on an H1, maybe even not on any Garmin device.

  • I also had a mixed experience when navigating courses with course points.

    For example, with Routing turned Off, the points show correctly in Up Ahead and on the Map. But with Routing On for the same course, the Up Ahead only contains turn instructions, and course points were not shown on the map either. This was with a simple round trip course with two named course points, created in Garmin Explore iOS app. (Garmin Explore will put the routing or shaping points in the course file as well, but you normally don't see them on the H1).

    And it seems sometimes the distances to the course points in Up Ahead are completely non sensical, this seems to happen when you've not picked upped the course yet. Or even that the names of the course points are gibberish, like the data has become corrupted.

    In another test, when I deviated from a Course with Routing On, the H1 tried to deviate me back to where I left the course, instead of trying to join at a next logical moment. After deviating for a couple of 100 meters, the H1 tried to navigate me directly to the finish instead of following the course. So I had to stop navigation and reload the course. So that matches your scenario 3.

    I don't think it's really related to Komoot courses, after all they're just FIT course files, but it be interesting to see the differences between a Garmin Explore course FIT file with course points and a course FIT file from Komoot with highlights.

    So usually I just use Komoot courses without highlights and with Routing set to Off.

    Wondering though whether course navigation works well on your Fenix 8 (at least I think you have one?) or that it is H1 specific?

  • what I mainly wanted to say with my post is, that Komoot can do course points. Some times back, you had only a starting point and end point. When I tried to edit that course in GE mobile, it was truncated and useless. Later Komoot promoted, that they can export courses to Wahoo with course points, while to Garmin it still was gpx. And now, out of the blue, without that I read anything about it, Komoot seems to export FIT files to Garmin.

    I edited the course from this morning with GE mobile, by just editing a course point. Voilá, when doing the same hike, navigating the edited course without course calculation (purple line, no tbt notifications, but up ahead), the H1 behaves like normal.

    After same km I went into the navigation setting, but there was the message, "Route is no longer valid". So I first continued without changing something to see what happens. On the map the route and course points were still there including approaching alarms.

    After a while I stopped the navigation and loaded the course again, with routing calculation (magenta line, no course points but tbt alerts). Then the course and routing was as you described above. Even worse, i had a reboot and a complete shut down. I was switching frequently between map and up ahead.  The reboot was after one switching to up ahead. Shortly after then was a shut down. I don't know what triggered it. After switching on, I could continue the course. By chance, after then I saw a message like "power of yes/no". I don't know what triggered this one either. Maybe before the shutdown popped up the same message.

    I will try another day the same route with route calculation enabled. Maybe the weird course line was because I started the routing not at the beginning, but in the middle of the course.

    Yes, I have also a Tactix 8, but was not trying a Komoot route now. I am busy with the H1, looking all the time because the map looks nice, to see how the H1 routing behaves and to see the moment when it crashes or reboots. I am looking that much on the H1, that I almost walked against a parking car Slight smile

    For the moment, I would be glad if Komoot with course points (purple line) really works well. I don't need tbt, as actually I look frequently on the H1. I will recognize easily when I am of course,

  • Ah yes, the ability to sync highlights and POIs as Course Points to a Garmin was actually introduced quite recently by Komoot, see https://www.reddit.com/r/komoot/s/36z4rP0DCb

    For now it only works for highlights and POIs that you include in a Komoot tour, but Komoot mentioned that support for custom waypoints is coming in the future.

  • Funny, they introduced it three days ago and I found it out just by chance without reading the announcement.

    So, to make it short. It seems to me like there is a problem with the Komoot courses, but you can overcome it by adding a course point in GE mobile. I am looking forward to improvements.