Garmin Connect activity backup tool

garminbackup.py is a program that downloads activities for a given Garmin Connect account and stores them in a backup directory locally on the user's computer. The first time the program is run, it will download all activities. After that, it will do incremental backups of your account. That is, the script will only download activities that haven't already been downloaded to the backup directory.

The library contains a simple utility program, get_activity.py for downloading a single Garmin Connect activity. Run ./get_activity.py --help for more details.

The library also contains a garminclient module that could be used by third-party projects that need to communicate over the Garmin Connect API. See the Library Import section below for more details.

Prerequisites

The instructions below for running the program (or importing the module) assumes that you have Python 2.7 or Python 3+, pip, and virtualenv (not required with Python 3) installed.

It also assumes that you have registered an account at Garmin Connect.

Getting started

Create and activate a new virtual environment to create an isolated development environment (that contains the required dependencies and nothing else).

# using Python 2
virtualenv venv.garminexport

# using Python 3
python -m venv venv.garminexport

Activate the virtual environment

. venv.garminexport/bin/activate

Install the required dependencies in this virtual environment:

pip install -r requirements.txt

Running

The backup program is run as follows (use the --help flag for a full list of available options):

./garminbackup.py --backup-dir=activities <username or email>

Once started, the program will prompt you for your account password and then log in to your Garmin Connect account to download activities to the specified backup directory on your machine. The program will only download activities that aren't already in the backup directory.

Activities can be exported in any of the formats outlined below. Note that by default, the program downloads all formats for every activity. Use the --format option to narrow the selection.

Supported export formats:

• gpx: activity GPX file (XML).

  _{GPX is an open format, mainly for storing GPS routes/tracks. It does support extensions and Garmin appears to annotate the GPS data with, for example, heart-rate and cadence, when available on your device.}

• tcx: an activity TCX file (XML). Note: a .tcx file may not always be possible to export, for example if an activity was uploaded in gpx format. In that case, Garmin won't try to synthesize a tcx file.

  _{TCX (Training Center XML) is Garmin's own XML format. It is, essentially, an extension of GPX which includes more metrics and divides the GPS track into "laps" as recorded by your device (with "lap summaries" for each metric).}

• fit: activity FIT file (binary format). Note: a .fit file may not always be possible to export, for example if an activity was entered manually rather than imported from a Garmin device.

  _{The FIT format is the "raw data type" stored in your Garmin device and should contain all metrics your device is capable of tracking (GPS, heart rate, cadence, etc). It's a binary format, so tools are needed to read its content.}

• json_summary: activity summary file (JSON).

  _{Provides summary data for an activity. Seems to lack a formal schema and should not be counted on as a stable data format (it may change at any time). Only included since it may contain additional data that could be useful for developers of analysis tools.}

• json_details: activity details file (JSON).

  _{Provides detailed activity data in a JSON format. Seems to lack a formal schema and should not be counted on as a stable data format (it may change at any time). Only included since it may contain additional data that could be useful for developers of analysis tools.}

All files are written to the same directory (activities/ by default). Each activity file is prefixed by its upload timestamp and its activity id.

Library import

To install the development version of this library in your local Python environment, run:

pip install -e git://github.com/petergardfjall/garminexport.git#egg=garminexport

If you prefer to use a requirements.txt file, add the following line to your list of dependencies:

-e git://github.com/petergardfjall/garminexport.git#egg=garminexport

and run pip with you dependency file as input:

pip install -r requirements.txt