Can Garmin Connect send activities to Strava automatically?

Yes. In Garmin Connect, open Settings, then Partner Apps or Applications, authorize Strava, and new activities push across on their own. Manual file export is only needed for older activities, repaired files, or moving data in the other direction.

Can Wahoo and Garmin read each other's FIT files?

Yes. FIT is a shared standard, not a Garmin-only format. A Wahoo ELEMNT recording uploads to Garmin Connect, and a Garmin file works in the Wahoo app, though each platform recomputes its own fitness metrics.

Which format should I use when uploading to Strava manually?

FIT whenever you have it. It is the native device format and preserves heart rate, power, laps and session summaries. GPX uploads strip most training data.

Do I need to convert files at all if automatic sync exists?

Usually not for day-to-day uploads. Manual export and conversion earn their keep for bulk archiving, moving history to a new platform, fixing a file a platform rejected, or sharing a single activity with a coach.

Moving Activities Between Garmin, Strava and Wahoo Without Losing Data

Switching from a Garmin to a Wahoo, leaving Strava, or sending rides to a coach — the same questions come up every time. Which export do I use? Does the automatic connection cover it? Will my heart rate data survive the trip?

The good news: moving between these platforms is mostly solved. The bad news: the defaults are tuned for convenience, not for data completeness. Here is the map.

First, check whether a direct connection already exists

Before you export anything by hand, look at the built-in integrations:

Garmin → Strava: Garmin Connect has a first-party Strava connection (Settings → Partner Apps). Once authorized, every new activity pushes to Strava automatically, as a full FIT file, metrics intact.
Garmin → other platforms: the same mechanism covers TrainingPeaks, Todays Plan, Komoot and most coaching services. Garmin is the most connectable of the three.
Wahoo → Strava: the ELEMNT app links accounts directly and forwards activities automatically.
Strava → anywhere: Strava is a destination, not a source. There is no Strava-to-Garmin auto-push. Files you want on Strava but recorded outside it (or recovered from an old device) go up manually.

Automatic sync is the right answer for ongoing training. Manual export is the right answer for everything else: migrating years of history, grabbing a single activity for a coach, or fixing a file that a platform refused.

How to export from each platform

Garmin Connect (web)

Sign in at connect.garmin.com, open Activities → All Activities, click the activity, then use the gear icon (top right) and choose the export option. The original FIT file is what you want in almost every case — it is the device's own recording, complete with laps, heart rate, power and session summaries.

For leaving Garmin entirely, there is also a full account export: Account Settings → Data Management → Export Your Data. It produces an archive of your history, but it takes time to generate and needs unpacking before it is useful — fine for a backup, clumsy for day-to-day.

Strava (web)

Open your own activity page, click the ellipsis (⋯) menu, and choose Export GPX. This works on the free plan. Note the format: Strava hands you a GPX, which carries the track, timestamps and elevation — not heart rate or power. If you want Strava's richest version of your own data, the bulk export under Settings → My Account → Download or Delete Your Account includes original files where Strava stored them.

Wahoo

The ELEMNT app syncs recordings to your paired cloud accounts automatically. The files themselves are standard FIT and can also be pulled from the device over USB. Anything that reads FIT reads them — including Garmin Connect and every converter on this site.

Which format keeps what

The export you pick decides what survives the trip:

FIT → FIT (the common case): everything travels. Laps, intervals, heart rate, power, summaries — intact.
FIT → GPX: track and elevation survive; training metrics do not. Right for maps and route tools, wrong for training analysis. Our FIT to GPX converter does this in your browser, file never leaving your device.
GPX → FIT: useful when a route or an old export needs to go up to a platform that expects device files — convert GPX to FIT first, and the upload behaves like any other activity file.
TCX anywhere in the chain: only if something old insists on it. FIT to TCX and TCX to GPX exist for those corners.

Two moves people actually make

Bulk history to a new platform. Export originals from the old platform (FIT from Garmin, GPX from Strava), keep them in a dated folder, and upload in batches. Platforms rate-limit bulk uploads; expect it to take a few sittings rather than one.

One problem file. The activity that uploaded with a broken map, a doubled track, or got split in two by a dying battery. This is less a sync problem and more a repair problem: merge the fragments or repair the file first, then upload the result as a fresh activity and delete the broken one.

The habit that outlives any platform choice

Every platform in this article can hold your data hostage to a subscription change, an API shutdown or a merger. Your folder of original FIT files cannot. Export regularly, keep the originals untouched, and treat every service — including the ones you love — as a view over the data you own.