Strava data has revealed a drop in use of the social platform during the Garmin Connect outage.
Garmin Connect, the app that lets athletes upload their activities from their Garmin device to exercise trackers went down on Thursday evening (July 23) and is not yet back online.
Reports have suggested that the technical issues at Garmin have been caused by a ransomware attack, but there are still no official details on what has caused the problems.
With the Connect app down, the number of activities being uploaded to Strava appears to have dropped compared with previous days as Garmin GPS device users are unable to wirelessly upload their activities.
A statement from Garmin, posted on Twitter on Thursday, said: “We are currently experiencing an outage that affect Garmin Connect, and as a result, the Garmin Connect website and mobile app are down at this time.
“This outage also affects our call centres and we are currently able to receive any calls, emails or online chats.
“We are working to resolve this issue as quickly as possible and apologise for this inconvenience.”
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Strava upload data (Picture: Strava)
The Strava status page shows that uploads from Garmin Connect dropped off suddenly at around 4pm on Thursday before they stopped entirely at around 8pm.
There appears to have been a few hours overnight where some activities were uploaded, but from early on Friday morning no new activities have been posted through the app.
Data for the week shows that Strava uploads dropped dramatically on Thursday, and slowly crept up as Garmin users presumably started to upload their activities manually.
The number of activities being uploaded to Strava has slowly increased, but is still not back to the same level as Thursday before the Garmin outage.
Garmin Connect, available on Android and IOS, connects to Garmin GPS devices via Bluetooth and allows users to upload their activities directly to the app and to also share files with third party tracking apps like Strava or TrainingPeaks.
It is still possible to transfer activities from your Garmin device directly to Strava, but connecting your device to a computer via cable and uploading the activity file through the desktop version of Strava.
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Alex Ballinger is editor of BikeBiz magazine, the leading publication for the UK cycle industry, and is the former digital news editor for CyclingWeekly.com. After gaining experience in local newsrooms, national newspapers and in digital journalism, Alex found his calling in cycling, first as a reporter, then as news editor responsible for Cycling Weekly's online news output, and now as the editor of BikeBiz. Since pro cycling first captured his heart during the 2010 Tour de France (specifically the Contador-Schleck battle) Alex covered three Tours de France, multiple editions of the Tour of Britain, and the World Championships, while both writing and video presenting for Cycling Weekly. He also specialises in fitness writing, often throwing himself into the deep end to help readers improve their own power numbers. Away from the desk, Alex can be found racing time trials, riding BMX and mountain bikes, or exploring off-road on his gravel bike. He’s also an avid gamer, and can usually be found buried in an eclectic selection of books.
