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How to upload a .gpx router or course from your mobile phone to your garmin watch when you're outdoors in the wild, offline (no GSM or bad connection). GARMIN CONNECT DOESN'T WORK OFFLINE SEE ANSWER BELOW

Jordi Torrens
10 months ago

How to upload a .gpx router or course from your mobile phone to your garmin watch when you're up in the wild, offline (no GSM or bad connection).

It is possible through te garmin Explore app. 

At home you need to install and let the app automatically login with your account into the garmin explore app, make sure you see your watch and are able to synchronize it via bluetooth. no need to download maps etc.

Then once on the mountain, with or without GSM, turn on Bluetooth, go to the file manager on your phone and open the .gpx file. Then the file manager will ask you which app you want to use to open it. Choose garmin explore. (It may happen that you need to open the file using 'open with' option. This trick works with all files and all apps in Android. Don't know what happen in a classy Iphone)

Garmin Explore app will open the file and make some questions and will show you the route....(on top of a map if you downloaded maps on garmin explore or in a blank screen if not) Then go to the watch icon at the lower part of the app and choose your device (or Garmin watch) to sync... and that's it. Your .gpx is available in your watch.... all of it totally offline. Neat!!

This is a very important safety feature for me, because once everything goes wrong,  the bigger screen on your mobile can help you understand better how to get out of a messy route down to civilization. The  you van create a route and use it to get out of the mess. And I have always use oruxmaps app and  Brouter with offline detailed maps to do it, sending the 'escape' route to my phone in order to follow it and to save the battery of my phone for safety reasons.

There are other two ways of doing it but those are more cumbersome...

1)install and pay DWMAP from connectIQ and follow the same procedure but opening at dwmap. By the way DWMAP was the only way to follow gpx route in the good old days with the first garmin smartwatches... and it mY work for you if you have an old garmin watch. It works seamlessly and awesomely really good. I used it for 7 years until I just bought this fenix 7 and was shocked to discover that I could do less than with the old DWMAP until I discovered this trick in garmin explore.

2)or carry a USB otg cable with a Garmin cable to connect your mobile to your device, and copy paste the .gpx file into the gain folder of your device using file manager. This does not work in my android (bussiness phone) so it not work also with your phone or your classy iphone

  • 0 10 months ago

    Explore is really the only option. The other two ways do not work on the Fenix 7 (unless you carry a laptop or Windows tablet). 

  • 0 10 months ago in reply to #Matthias#

    Ok I see.. the new fenix 7 does not have the option to set the internal memory access as MASS STORAGE. It only allow MTP ie windows or Mac access... Garmin has removed also that way....

  • 0 10 months ago in reply to #Matthias#
    • I spend 2 days trying to upload a gpx onto my fenix 7. I launched a lot if queries on Google searching for a solution and I saw a thread fr sven gavos  5 years ago dealing with the same problem and nothing else

    Why Garmin does not have a FAQ explaining it? In my opinion, I think it is a safety issue that can save lives. How can I get a Garmin support person to realize this and the existing easy solution??? By they way I'm afraid that Garmin may close even that Garmin Explore door...

    Why any other user posted anything?.. : (

  • 0 10 months ago in reply to Jordi Torrens

    I agree it is annoying that it only works in Explore. But I don't think that Garmin plans to remove that functionality. The whole point of Garmin Explore is that it can be used offline.

    Concerning safety: the watch is capable of calculating it's own routes, just select a point on the map and it can calculate a route to this point. 

  • 0 10 months ago in reply to #Matthias#

    Also you can do something similar with Explore offline too

    In the past I  had plotted a route along a river footpath - half way along it was obviously a bad idea, so I stopped the route - used Explore off line to plot a route to a different destination. Explore can squirt the new route to the watch and start the new route without stopping an existing activity.

    Explore isnt going anywhere soon as its used for a lot of the handhelds, so its worth keeping it on your phone, and syncing routes between it and Connect for offline use

  • 0 10 months ago

    This is nice.  Thank you.  BUT... In your experience, is Explore klunky as heck?  All I would like to do is put a course on my Garmin in the wild.. and you have to create a "collection" and if you do not, you will lose all of the courses that are already on your GPS.  Moreover, you must wait for everything that is already on your device to sync with Explore.  In my case, this usually takes about 30 minutes.  So, it is still extremely inconvenient. I definitely appreciate your article, my "complaints" are more directed at the Explore app and how this much-needed feature is not streamlined in any way.