How to send a cycling route to your Garmin Edge or watch

You have a route as a GPX file, from RideLoop, a club email or a friend, and you want it on your bike computer as a course you can follow. There are three ways to do it.

Updated October 2026 · 5 minute read

1. Garmin Connect on the web (the most reliable)

1. Sign in at connect.garmin.com on a computer.
2. Open Training & Planning and choose Courses.
3. Choose Import and pick your .gpx file.
4. Pick the activity type (road cycling, gravel, mountain biking). It sets the speed Garmin uses for the virtual partner and the arrival-time estimate.
5. Give it a name you'll recognize on a small screen, like "Colts Neck 18 mi", and save the course.
6. On the course page, choose Send to Device and pick your Edge or watch.
7. Sync the device: open the Garmin Connect app on your phone with the Edge on and nearby, or let it sync over Wi-Fi.

2. The Garmin Connect phone app

If the course is already in your Garmin Connect account (you imported it on the web, or an app like RideLoop put it there), you can send it from your phone:

1. In the app, open Training & Planning (under More on some versions), then Courses.
2. Tap the course, open its menu (the three dots), and choose Send to Device.
3. Keep the Edge on and near the phone until the sync finishes.

3. A USB cable (no account needed)

1. Plug the Edge into your computer.
2. Open the device's storage and find the Garmin folder, then NewFiles inside it.
3. Copy the .gpx file into Garmin/NewFiles.
4. Unplug the Edge. It turns the file into a course the next time it starts up.

Newer Edge models connect over MTP, which macOS can't open by itself. On a Mac you need a free app such as OpenMTP to see the device's folders. On Windows it shows up in File Explorer.

Riding the course

On most Edge models: Navigation › Courses, pick the course, then Ride. On a watch, start a bike activity, open its menu, and look for Navigation › Courses. If you start away from the beginning of the loop, the Edge offers to take you to the start or to the nearest point on the course.

When the course doesn't show up

• Garmin Connect is slow to list it. A new course can take a few minutes to appear in the course list, even though it saved right away. Refresh after a minute or two before importing it again.
• The device didn't sync. Open the Garmin Connect app with the Edge on and wait for the sync to finish. "Send to Device" only queues the course; the device has to sync to get it.
• The file is a route, not a track. A GPX file can hold a track (every point along the road) or a route (a few waypoints). Garmin follows a track exactly. With a route, the Edge works out the roads between the waypoints by itself, which may not be the roads you planned. RideLoop exports tracks. More on file types.
• Too many courses. Edge units have a limit on stored courses. Delete old ones under Navigation › Courses.

Skipping all of this

RideLoop sends a loop to your Garmin Connect account the moment you build it, with the elevation filled in, so steps 1 to 5 above go away. On a paid plan it goes all the way to your Edge or watch. Every plan can also download the GPX for any other device.

Related: GPX vs FIT vs TCX for cycling routes · How to find bike-friendly roads