Copy settings from watch to watch?

I had a 935 when I upgraded and I did not try to do any migration - it was a bummer to run around the house and pair all of my ANT sensors while avoiding my wife's sensors / trainer then remember my data screens and settings for 3-4 main activity profiles, but I got through it.

I was sent a replacement 945 LTE, to setup the 2nd one I tried the instructions from Garmin: https://support.garmin.com/en-GB/?faq=hWholZ8uPZ6PboXu5Nf7d6

I think another user added other steps to possibly save more settings / activity data: https://forums.garmin.com/sports-fitness/running-multisport/f/forerunner-935/137954/backup-of-user-settings

The steps going from 945LTE to a new 945LTE seemed to work fairly well (not perfect in all cases) - I think only a few things I still had to fix.

I can't say if these would work between devices of different types (non-945 LTE device to a 945 LTE) though.  I believe officially you have to setup the new 945 LTE "from scratch".

Very helpful, thank you so much for posting.  I will do some work on it tonight and see hoe it goes.  Worst case if it doesnt go well I can master reset the LTE to factory and go about it the manual way.

I have used Automatic Setup on my Edge 1030 when it was replaced under warranty and it worked very well.  Only a few  glitches with my ANT/BT devices which I renamed (I have 2 bikes with DI2 and 2x Assioma power meters and multiple HRM straps).  I  renamed the glitched devices and they worked without issue.

grateful for this forum and thread. after a few weeks of debating, i decided to do some consumer therapy and today ordered the 945 LTE. from what it sounds like, i should plan on setting things up from scratch. if i understand correctly, what will transfer (i hope) via Garmin Connect on my phone are all my personal info (age, weight), as well as biometrics (VO2max), current weekly training load, etc. ... is that correct?

i'm guessing that what i will need to spend time doing is recreating my custom activity pages (thankfully, for me, that is only running, hiking, swimming, cycling, and walking) and things like alarms and CIQ watch faces/apps. [although i guess i could try the copying of files but Dennis' experience suggests it's probably not worth bricking the watch over it.

Yeah I wouldn't try the linked procedure for different models of watches. It works more or less decently between two watches of the same model.

That goes double for CIQ apps, because many apps will likely be built differently for your old watch and your new 945 LTE, so copying over the PRG (app binary) and settings files will probably not give you the results you want (especially for watch faces and any data field that has fancy graphics as opposed to just displaying a number). If you have a fairly simple data field or app which simply doesn't exist for your 945 LTE, that could be a last resort if you must have the app, but it's not recommended in general.

Copying over old activities ("activity history") might work, but there's probably no point.

You also might be able to get away with copying old locations and courses, but those can be synced from Garmin Connect (one-by-one, though). If you have lots of locations and courses, this might be worth it.

Copying over workouts might work, too.

You could *try* copying over custom activity pages if you want. You may be able to tell which files in SPORTS/ are custom activities by looking at the filename (names longer than 8 characters will be shortened so looking at the filename may not be 100% reliable), or you could open these files in notepad or another text editor (notepad++, Sublime Text) to have more certainty (the name of the custom activity will be near the beginning).

I will caution that I've had issues with copying custom activities on my 935 (i.e. copying via the file system, not via the watch UI), such as:
- The activity list and favorites list getting "corrupted" (e.g. an entry with no name appearing or the "Other" entry disappearing). I've resolved most of these just by moving the custom activity around in the list

- Copied activities counting towards some sort of max limit of activities (40 on my 935), even after deleting the activity in question, which means that eventually you may hit your custom activity limit even after deleting custom activities.

Any issue I've had with copying data via the file system has always been resolvable via factory reset, though.

As far as settings go, a lot of things (like bluetooth pairings and wi-fi settings) aren't even accessible via the USB file system anyway. (Which makes sense, as it's private data.)

I agree.  Pretty much all my personal metrics came over with the new watch so I only needed to setup WiFi, CIQ app/field for Stryd and I setup my debit card.  Configured things like backlight and little things.  All in, maybe an hour.  Fairly easy, but not as easy as the Edge 1030.  Someday.

Battery seems about same as 945, but everything seems slightly faster. Backlight doesnt seem as bright on same setting, but I just turned it up higher (I'm old, so do not see so well).  Wore my old 945 and LTE for run this morning and they performed flawlessly,  Metrics dead on and data from HRM and Stryd were same--instant and accurate.  As I would expect since there arent huge changes with the LTE for the most part.

Just wiped my 945.  Its going to Garmin tomorrow for cracked optical glass, non warranty refurb.  Get a new 945 for $150.00, so its all good.  Be careful placing these optical watches on hard surface...this was the 3rd I have broken.  Doesnt take much.

thanks Will. this is all really helpful. i think i'll stick with TruePhysio to transfer what it can and take my time setting up the 945LTE from "scratch."

Want to sell your old 945 to me?