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How to connect and sync Garmin with Apple Health

Yes, Garmin syncs to Apple Health, one way. The Garmin Connect setting, what comes across (runs, steps, sleep, heart rate), using it with an Apple Watch, and what to do when it stops.

Updated 15 October 2026 · 4 min read

Yes, Garmin works with Apple Health. Garmin watches record the best running data on the market, but the numbers stay inside Garmin Connect until you tell it to share them. One switch in the Garmin Connect iPhone app writes every activity to Apple Health as a workout, along with your steps, sleep and heart rate.

Connect Garmin to Apple Health

  1. Open Garmin Connect on your iPhone.
  2. Tap More (the three lines), then Settings.
  3. Tap Connected Apps or Partner Apps, depending on your version.
  4. Tap Apple Health, then Connect.
  5. In the Apple Health sheet, turn on Workouts, Heart Rate and anything else you want, then tap Allow.

Sync your watch. The next run appears in Health with Garmin Connect as the source.

What syncs from Garmin to Health

Depending on your watch and the switches you turned on, Garmin Connect can write:

  • Workouts: runs, rides, walks and other activities, with distance, duration and calories.
  • Heart rate, as samples through the day and inside each workout.
  • Steps, walking + running distance and flights climbed.
  • Active and resting energy.
  • Sleep: time in bed and time asleep.
  • Weight, body fat and BMI, if you log them in Garmin Connect or use a Garmin scale.

What stays in Garmin: Body Battery, training load, training status, VO2 max estimates and running dynamics such as ground contact time and vertical oscillation. Health has no place for most of them.

Runs from before you connected stay in Garmin Connect only. The link starts from the day you turn it on.

It only goes one way

Garmin Connect writes to Health but reads almost nothing back. A run recorded on an Apple Watch never appears in Garmin Connect, and there is no setting to change that. If you want everything in one place, Health is that place: it can hold your Garmin runs and your Apple Watch runs side by side.

Using a Garmin and an Apple Watch together

Plenty of runners wear an Apple Watch every day and a Garmin for running. That works, with two things to know.

Pick one recorder per run. If you start the Workout app on the Apple Watch and an activity on the Garmin, Health holds two runs and your weekly distance doubles. If you forget, Runtile merges runs that overlap in time and keeps the one with more distance. The duplicates guide has the details.

Choose who counts your steps. Both watches, and your iPhone, write steps. Health does not add them up: where sources overlap, it keeps the one highest in its list. To change the order, open Health, Browse, Activity, Steps, then Data Sources & Access, tap Edit and drag your preferred source to the top.

Garmin not syncing to Apple Health?

Work down this list. Most problems are the first two.

  1. Check the permissions. In the Health app, tap your profile picture, then Apps, then Garmin Connect. Every category you expect, such as Workouts, Steps and Sleep, must be switched on. A Connect update can leave new categories off.
  2. Sync the watch. Garmin Connect writes to Health after the watch syncs to the app, not when the run ends. Open Garmin Connect and pull down to sync.
  3. Update both. Install the latest Garmin Connect from the App Store and the latest watch software. Sync bugs are usually fixed in an app update.
  4. Reconnect. In Garmin Connect, open Connected Apps, Apple Health, disconnect, then connect again and allow every category.
  5. Restart the iPhone, then sync again.

If only steps are missing, check the step source order above: your iPhone may simply be ranked first.

Why not through Strava

Strava can pass Garmin runs on to Health too, but it leaves out the route, so the run has no map. Garmin Connect writes the full run. Use the Garmin switch above, and if Strava is connected to Health as well, turn off Send to Health in Strava (Settings, Manage Apps and Devices, Health). With both on, every run lands in Health twice. The Strava guide covers the Strava side.

What you get in Runtile

Distance, duration, pace, heart rate and the route, all read from Health. Your Garmin's running dynamics stay in Garmin Connect, but cadence is derived from step samples when Garmin writes them.

Questions

Do old Garmin runs sync to Health?

Garmin Connect writes activities from the moment you enable Health. Runs from before that stay in Garmin only.

Do heart rate and cadence come across?

Heart rate does, as samples inside the workout. Running dynamics such as ground contact time are Garmin only and are not written to Health.

Does Garmin sync steps to Apple Health?

Yes, when Steps is allowed in the Apple Health sheet. If your iPhone also counts steps, Health counts each step once, from the source highest in the list under Steps, Data Sources and Access.

Can Apple Health send data to Garmin Connect?

No. The link only goes from Garmin Connect into Health. Runs recorded on an Apple Watch do not appear in Garmin Connect.

Do I still need Strava?

Not for Health. Strava can pass Garmin runs on to Health, but without the route, and with Garmin Connect also writing you get each run twice. Keep Strava for the social side if you like it.

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