Garmin Connect on Chromebook

Pepperoni Man
Pepperoni Man Posts: 41
edited October 2019 in Road buying advice
Hi all

Hopefully someone can give me the answer to this

Increasingly I now use my phone and tablet for general web brousing and only rarely use our Windows laptop. However, the one thing i do use the laptop for is for loading up my rides from my 2014 Garmin 200 to Garmin Conect. This usually syncs automatically although occasionally I have to use Garmin Express

My wife is keen to replace the laptop and is considering getting a Chromebook. I can see that Chromebooks have USB ports and can have external devices connected but on doing some research on the net Ive noticed various posts on forums saying that Garmin Connect is incompatible with Chromebook. A lot of this information is from years ago though

So, is this likely to be a problem? I just want it to eork quickly and simply as it does on Windows. Im not particularly interested in " workarounds" etc

Thanks folk

Comments

  • photonic69
    photonic69 Posts: 2,416
    Garmin Express usually runs in the background hence your experience of the apparently seamless uploads to Garmin Connect. Garmin Connect/Strava run in web browsers so it should be possible to copy your Activity files onto the Chromebook and manually upload them to Connect/Strava etc. I don’t think Express will work with the Chrome OS. Others might have different experience with this.


    Sometimes. Maybe. Possibly.

  • Pepperoni Man
    Pepperoni Man Posts: 41
    PhotoNic69 wrote:
    Garmin Express usually runs in the background hence your experience of the apparently seamless uploads to Garmin Connect. Garmin Connect/Strava run in web browsers so it should be possible to copy your Activity files onto the Chromebook and manually upload them to Connect/Strava etc. I don’t think Express will work with the Chrome OS. Others might have different experience with this.

    Thanks for that PhotoNic69. Its the manual uploading etc that I want to avoid really and its that seamless experience that I want go keep.
  • super_davo
    super_davo Posts: 1,134
    Love my Chromebook... Light, fast, and easy to use once you learn all the tricks. Very rarely use my Windows PC anymore.

    But can confirm you can't upload to Garmin connect directly, even using the Android app, because it doesn't have the drivers to connect to your Edge.

    You also won't be able to run Zwift or indeed most other indoor training apps should that bother you, though Android apps can provide a workaround on some Chromebooks.

    So... You can get a Windows PC, which will do everything but you'll either have to pay much more or it will be much slower, clunkier etc. Or you can get a Chromebook and a more recent Garmin with Bluetooth uploads that you sync with your phone (e.g. you can get a Garmin 820 ATM for £140 from Cyclestore). My money would be on the latter.
  • mrb123
    mrb123 Posts: 4,612
    Time for a new Garmin I reckon. The automatic Bluetooth upload really is great compared to faffing around turning a computer on and plugging the device in.
  • keef66
    keef66 Posts: 13,123
    We reluctantly bought a refurbed laptop with Windows 10 to update / sync legacy USB gadgets like my old Garmin Touring and TomTom.

    With hindsight it would've made more sense to replace the gadgets.

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