During a course navigation waypoints never come up

This has always been an issue since the fenix 3.  The only way to get it to work is to bypass garmin connect, which inserts the TBT, and create the course elsewhere and side load the fit file onto the watch.

However regarding your use-case of strava segments - why don't you just use the live strava segments and get start and end notifications that way?

As Subtleguru says, Connect has always inserted whatever coursepoints it sees fit into courses, governed by what it thinks the capabilities of the watch are (it was actually a step forward when they started sending any coursepoints at all to the Fenix 3, some time after it was released).

I absolutely agree it would be a big step forward if Connect would retain your own selections. And I also agree with your trail issue - the turns are governed by the topology of the trail representation, so sometimes you are told to go straight on, or told nothing at all, when the trail forks to slight left and right.

I sideload nearly everything, I only use Connect at all for simple routes close to home where I just don't want to forget about a loop I've put in to target a particular distance that day.

Strava doesn't sync downhill segments , even running downhill segments.

It still inserts segment ends into the route as waypoints, so I was hoping that would be a way for me to know when to start running harder. Oh well...

I think it is totally unacceptable that waypoints are basically broken when syncing via GC. I knew distance to next would include all the TBT but honestly I didn't expect that do be broken so much and waypoints never showing up even in notifications.

I'll try multiple channels to send feedback to Garmin about this issue, however there isn't an easy way to even get an acknowledgement if Garmin knows about how broken waypoints are. 

I can't take credit for this, but this was from a  few months ago _ I seem to remember plotaroute being mentioned a lot for this - I'll add a link to the original post, but this may be worth a try -> forums.garmin.com/.../using-course-with-custom-course-points-without-turn-by-turn

"I've done this by editing the course in a 3rd party tool. I've used plotaroute.com, but there's probably other editors that are able to this.

You can create the course in Garmin Connect (or Basecamp for that matter) and then export it + import it at plotaroute.com for further editing. You can also create the course from scratch at plotaroute.com. Either or works.

The trick is that at plotaroute.com you can display (and manually edit) all the turn-by-turn directions in a table that will look something like this: https://static.plotaroute.com/images/Posts/FewerDirections.jpg

You can then edit/delete all the turn by turn directions and manually insert custom course points like "Summit", "Aid station" or whatever you like.

Export the course and put it in the NewFiles folder on the watch using USB.

When you load the course, you should now see the distance and label of the next custom course point - and not the next turn 30 meters away.

You will still be able to view the course on the map on the watch, but you won't be able to get turn by turn directions. This is the trade off one has to make since both the turn by turn directions and the custom course points reside in the same table and the watch just shows the distance to the next one regardless of it's type. You can of course also do a compromise and leave in a few crucial turn by turn directions and delete all the more or less pointless ones.

I don't normally use this method as I often need turn by turn directions, but my plan is to use this at longer trail races where the course is clearly marked. In this scenario, I don't need the turn by turn directions, but I'm interested in knowing the distance/time to/name of the next aid station or summit."

Basically it seems the best way is use Plotaroute and manually copy. I seem to recall the one time I really needed strict TBT it worked, and TCX files were mentioned. I'll try and find out where I found the best info

Yep it was basically

"Create the route in software that allows TCX file format export with cues (e.g. RideWithGPS,plotaroute). Then use a third party tool  to convert this TCX file to a FIT file. Then transfer the FIT file to your device using USB cable into the NewFiles folder. Unplug and now you have a route with cues which you can use in "Follow Course" mode.

Saying that PlotAroute in Premiun can directly upload courses to the watch. I have a Premium account to I'll try it out this weekend by the direct method

It's taken me 9 months of scratching my head to now finally be able to use the watch to its full potential when I'm out hiking.  I just submitted the following development request to Garmin so that they can hopefully address this issue:

There is a common issue with users of Garmin Connect and the watch community (I am using a Garmin Fenix 6X Pro Sapphire) that I wanted to bring up. Many people who are into serious hiking, trail running, mountain biking, or other similar sports often want to use the 'next waypoint' and 'distance to next' data fields on their watch. There is a current limitation with Garmin Connect and GPX files. When you wirelessly transfer a course and waypoints plotted in Garmin Connect to your watch, GC automatically adds in turn-by-turn directions and many sub course points. When you go to navigate the course on the watch, the 'next waypoint' and 'distance to next' data fields do not work. Often, the 'next waypoint' field will be blank, and the 'distance to next' calculates the distance to the next turn, or to some other "unknown?" point along the course.

As a hiker, I often want to add a waypoint to a summit that I'm hiking. If for instance my hike includes 2 or 3 mountains as part of the hike, I want to know how far until the next waypoint (aka summit) on my course. The same can be said for runners who want to calculate the distance to aid / water stations. When you transfer a course to the watch via GC, the turn-by-turn directions interfere with the watch's ability to effectively calculate these important data fields.

A workaround that a few people have discovered, is that you can download the course from Garmin Connect as a FIT file. If you then manually transfer that FIT file to the "New Files" folder of the watch via USB cable, you can navigate that course as you would any other. The difference, is that the FIT file which you transferred via USB cable does not include all the turn-by-turn directions and sub-course points. The watch will then be able to accurate show the next waypoint, and distance to that next point as you navigate. As a Garmin Fenix user, it has taken me 9 months to finally learn this obscure workaround by meticulously searching the web and finding posts from other people who are struggling with the same problem.

Could you add a video or help document to the Garmin site which clearly shows this workflow for people who want to use these waypoint data fields when navigating a course? This is clearly a common issue people are struggling with (the majority just never report it), and many do not know about the FIT file workaround.

From a development standpoint, is there anything you can do to address these issues?
1) Is it possible to add an option to transfer a FIT file wirelessly from Garmin Connect without including the TBT directions? Right now it looks like you can only wirelessly transfer a GPX file?
2) Is it possible to create a setting where you can transfer a GPX file WITHOUT including the TBT directions and sub-course points?
3) Can the watch itself have a setting where you can disable turn-by-turn directions?

I wanted to throw out some of these ideas in case they were things you could consider. For folks using the Fenix 6X or other watches for navigation, I think that a resolution to this common issue would really increase the usability of the watch and make many end-users happy.

From the FAQ:

Please be aware, the following limitations apply to the Garmin Sync feature:

Full route directions from plotaroute cannot be transferred - Garmin will generate turn instructions for the route where possible.

Try manually downloading the fit file, and then putting it in /Garmin/NewFiles ?

Thank you! I've submitted a similar help request. Let's see what Garmin answers.
I think a similar help request needs to be done specifically for Garmin Connect. I think the easiest solution for Garmin is just to add an option on Garmin Connect to let user choose whether to insert TBT directions.