One outing, several Garmin recordings
You finish one Garmin recording, save it, and start another for the next part of the ride. Perhaps you were switching courses, stopped at a café, or accidentally ended a run. After syncing, the parts appear as separate activities on Strava. Stitch can join those recorded parts into one new Strava activity.
A course is a route you follow; an activity records what you actually did. Changing or stopping navigation does not necessarily end the recording. Garmin explains how to change courses on an Edge while continuing to record. This guide applies when you have saved separate activities, rather than just followed several courses within one recording.
Get every part from Garmin Connect to Strava
Sync the saved recordings from your Garmin device to Garmin Connect. With your Garmin Connect and Strava accounts linked for activity syncing, those recordings can upload automatically to Strava. Follow Strava’s Garmin connection and sync instructions if you have not linked them yet.
Check your Strava activity list and wait until every part is visible before opening Stitch. If a recording is missing, resolve the sync first. Strava’s instructions also explain how to export the original file from Garmin Connect and upload it to Strava yourself.
Stitch connects to your Strava account. It does not connect directly to Garmin Connect or accept local FIT files. You do not need to export files when all the activities have already synced to Strava.
Example: three Garmin rides become one Strava ride
Imagine saving a recording at the end of each leg, then starting another. This illustrative outing has three consecutive activities, all with the Strava sport type Ride:
| Recording | Time | Distance |
|---|---|---|
| First leg | 09:00–09:45 | 20 km |
| Second leg | 09:50–10:35 | 20 km |
| Third leg | 10:45–11:30 | 20 km |
Select all three in Stitch. Their source distances total 60 km, with two hours and thirty minutes between the first start and final finish. Stitch preserves the five-minute and ten-minute gaps between recordings. Strava may recalculate the merged activity’s distance and moving time after upload.
If you kept riding while recording was stopped, that section was never recorded. Stitch leaves it missing; it cannot recover the route from the planned Garmin course.
Merge the synced activities with Stitch
Connect Strava and select the parts
Connect with Strava, then select two to eight activities from the same outing. Check their names, dates and sport types. Stitch places them in time order.
Review the preview and gaps
Check the recorded routes, times and totals. Each recording keeps its own boundary; no invented track connects the gaps. Review the suggested combined title and descriptions, and edit them if needed.
Save and inspect your backups
Download the merged file and activity backup. Save available photos in the separate photo ZIP. Open and check the files before removing anything. You can keep these downloads without uploading a new activity.
Confirm the upload when ready
Review the gaps and your Strava default visibility, then choose Continue to upload. Follow the preparation steps and, if you choose to replace the originals, remove the selected activities yourself in Strava after checking your backups. Confirm their removal and choose Verify and upload to Strava. Stitch checks the originals are gone, then starts the upload without another submit step.
Check the new activity on Strava
Once processing finishes, open the merged activity and check its map, totals, sport and visibility. Add saved photos manually. For a rejected or duplicate upload, use the duplicate-upload guide before retrying.
What happens to the Garmin originals and their data?
Stitch creates a new Strava activity. It does not merge, edit or delete the entries in Garmin Connect. Stitch never deletes activities on Strava either; removing originals there is a separate action you take yourself. Your preview is private to your connected Stitch account and expires after 24 hours.
The merged file uses recorded data available through Strava, including timestamps and supported GPS and sensor samples. It is not a complete copy of the original Garmin FIT files. Power, original laps and device metadata are not transferred. Keep your Garmin device files if those details matter; see the full data-preservation table.
Photos can be saved separately and added back manually. Kudos and comments do not transfer to the merged activity, and deleting originals on Strava loses that social history.
Which Garmin activities can you combine?
Stitch supports two to eight recordings with matching Strava sport types and up to 50,000 recorded samples in total. Run and Trail Run are different types, as are Ride and Virtual Ride. A ride followed by a run needs separate stitches.
The recordings must not overlap. A Garmin watch and bike computer recording the same ride at the same time cannot be combined with Stitch. Each activity needs recorded timestamps; a manually entered duration alone is not enough.
To combine two Garmin rides or merge an accidentally stopped Garmin run, sync both parts first and follow the same steps above. The split-ride guide and split-run guide explain sport-specific gaps and totals. For recordings without GPS, read about joining indoor workouts with FIT.