Garmin down: why the outage, is it to try to to with ransomware, and what are you able to do?

Garmin down: why the outage, is it to try to to with ransomware, and what are you able to do?

Our guide the way to help

There's nothing worse than grabbing a private best during a run then checking out you cannot brag about it to the planet.

OK, there are many things worse - and truly, that sort of behavior probably isn't healthy - except for those folks in denial, the recent Garmin outage are some things that are causing tons of consternation.

Since July 23, the fitness brand has been affected by a scarcity of connectivity, which was originally right down to 'maintenance'. This meant that anyone trying to upload a run, swim, cycle, yoga session or any quite fitness workout to the Garmin Connect service was unable to try to so.

We are currently experiencing an outage that affects Garmin Connect, and as a result, the Garmin Connect website and mobile app are down at this time. (1/2)

— Garmin (@Garmin) July 23, 2020

So far, Garmin has yet to elucidate what's actually happening, just saying the subsequent during a Tweet:

What's actually happening?

However, while maintenance is usually scheduled for quiet hours to permit the corporate to update key services, an outage of this length is nearly certainly something far more in-depth - and a report from ZDNet is stating that "several Garmin employees took to social media to share details about the attack, all calling it a ransomware attack".

BleepingComputer is saying that first-hand sources with knowledge of the matter have confirmed this is often a ransomware attack, locking parts of the Garmin system.

Garmin has yet to verify the explanation for the outage, merely putting an equivalent statement from its Twitter account on its platforms, and therefore the app saying "Sorry, we're down for maintenance. Check back shortly."

The same report from ZDNet cites a report from the Taiwanese technology site iThome, which is saying that a memo has been sent to Garmin's Taiwanese production facilities. This memo says that 'servers and databases' were attacked, which production lines were being packed up for 2 days for maintenance.

Garmin Instinct Solar Tactical EditionUsers are now finding their devices are unable to process any activity information while the cloud connection is broken. (Image credit: Garmin)
The ZDNet's report is stating the software employed by pilots, flyGarmin, for his or her Garmin navigational systems has experienced an outage and is reportedly grounding some planes - the statement on flyGarmin's status page says:

"We are currently experiencing an outage that affects flyGarmin and as a result, the flyGarmin website and mobile app are down at this point. This outage also affects our call centers, and that we are currently unavailable to receive any emails or chats, but do have limited availability for calls. We are working to resolve this issue as quickly as possible and apologize for this inconvenience."

Garmin at the moment pic.twitter.com/o25JRtCtqu

— Freddie Shires (@fshires) July 24, 2020

No sign of the criminal who took down Garmin. Apparently he ransomware 😐 #ukrunchat pic.twitter.com/0sm7xGuLTj

— Ben Clarkson (@btpclarkson) July 24, 2020

Wow. With Garmin down, the dinosaurs have finally returned to Strava. The app is healing, we are the Virus.
#Garmin #garminoutage pic.twitter.com/ADQ4wIpFXL

— Jeremy (@JeremyArdanuy) July 24, 2020

However, the regular updates here suggest that this service is slowly returning, with flyGarmin moving from 'down' to 'operational' and other functions also returning online. Whether this is often associated with the Garmin Connect outage remains to be seen.

While Garmin isn't confirming the rationale behind the outage, which suggests it's merely speculation that this issue is due to nefarious intentions, there's clearly a problem that the corporate is functioning to affect.

Garmin Connect(Image credit: TechRadar)

Strava's data shows that there is been no upload activity to the location from Garmin Connect since July 23 - with overall Strava uploads down by over a 3rd therein time, meaning that this issue affects third party services also.

We've contacted Garmin for a press release and can update this piece if we get any longer information.

Is my data safe?

Some sites are speculating that historical data is missing from the Connect database, which is understandably resulting in worries that user data has been compromised.

However, there has been no suggestion at now that user data has been taken by hackers - we've asked Garmin for confirmation of things when it involves user data.

We'll update this piece if we discover any longer information if any user data - whether it profiles or physiological - has been compromised.


In less worrying thoughts, your day-to-day data goes to be saved on your watch - whether that's brooding about your body battery, stress levels, or having the ability to sync notifications from your phone to your watch, that's still getting to be possible.

Currently, some online data still seems to be passing from your phone to your watch - weather data, for instance, remains functioning and daily step counts are still getting to be recorded.

When the service returns, all this data are going to be brought back to the Connect app so you will be ready to see everything that's happened physiologically.

But how am I able to upload to Strava?

If you're wanting to get your data from your watch onto Strava or similar platforms (in order to urge the popularity for your Friday run to the shops and back... or perhaps a 200-mile cycle ride) then you'll still do that manually.

You'll need to urge the cable that you simply use to charge your device and plug it into your computer. for many devices, it'll show up as an accessible drive (in the case of Windows) or in Finder (for Macs).

Open up the device, click the 'Garmin' folder, and head to 'Activity'. Here, you will find your fitness workouts as '.FIT' files - they'll be listed from oldest to newest, so search for one with a recent date and save that to your desktop.

(If you've got a more modern watch that has music storage capabilities, it'll show as a 'primary' device. Click this, then follow the equivalent option above.)

Garmin connect file explorer in Windows (Image credit: TechRadar)

Once you've your relevance.FIT files, head to Strava.com on your browser, log in and hit the '+' icon within the top right-hand corner. Select 'Upload activity' then choose 'File upload on the left-hand side of the subsequent screen.

From here, simply navigate to your desktop (or Garmin watch directly if you are feeling fancy and decided to not copy the files across) and click on the right files. If they're new activities (as in, you didn't accidentally already upload them) then they'll process, and you'll fill within the information on your workout as normal.

Then watch because the kudos appear, as most of your friends are going to be scratching their heads on the way to get their runs online.

(If you would like more depth on the way to upload your runs for other devices, including discussions on the way to get your runs off older, ANT+-enabled devices, DC Rainmaker has a superb guide to see out).

What's the internet saying?

Whenever an outsized company has issues or a service many believe, goes down, Twitter is invariably flooded with hot takes and comedy 'sideways looks' at the difficulty - and this is often no different:

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