Polar, Garmin & Strava
Garmin Connect and Apple Health: what syncs, and what doesn’t
A Garmin watch measures a lot overnight and through the day: sleep stages, heart rate around the clock, HRV. Garmin Connect can share some of it with Apple Health, so apps on your iPhone can use your Garmin data next to everything else. It doesn’t share all of it. Here is how to switch the sharing on, what it covers, and how to get the rest into Health.
Short answer
In the Garmin Connect app, open More ▸ Settings ▸ Connected Apps (on some versions 3rd Party Apps), choose Apple Health and allow the data types in the Health permission sheet. Garmin’s sharing covers the everyday basics: workouts, steps, heart rate, resting heart rate, sleep times and energy. Sleep stages and HRV are not among them. To get those into Apple Health too, use an app that reads your Garmin Connect account and writes them, such as Keho Garmin Sync.
Turn on Garmin’s Apple Health sharing
- Open Garmin Connect on your iPhone and tap More.
- Go to Settings ▸ Connected Apps (or 3rd Party Apps) and tap Apple Health.
- In the Health sheet that opens, turn on the categories Garmin may write, then tap Allow.
- Sync your watch with Garmin Connect. New data reaches Apple Health after each sync.
To check or change the permissions later, open the Health app, tap your profile picture, then Apps and Connect. Garmin Connect writes to Apple Health; it doesn’t use Apple Health as a source for your Garmin account.
What Garmin shares, and what stays in Garmin Connect
| Data | Garmin Connect’s own sharing | With Keho Garmin Sync |
|---|---|---|
| Workouts | Yes | Yes, with route and heart rate |
| Steps, energy | Yes | From Garmin Connect |
| Sleep | Sleep times | Sleep stages |
| Heart rate | Periodic samples | All-day heart rate |
| Overnight HRV | No | Read for your readiness |
Garmin keeps its own scores, such as Body Battery and Training Readiness, in Garmin Connect. They have no place in Apple Health. What matters for apps on your iPhone is the raw measurements behind them: how you slept, how your heart rate and HRV behaved overnight, and what you trained.
Get your whole Garmin day into Apple Health
Keho Garmin Sync connects your Garmin Connect account once. It writes your activities with route and heart rate, sleep stages and all-day heart rate into Apple Health, and reads your overnight HRV for Keho’s readiness score. Every sample carries a stable identifier, so syncing again never creates duplicates, and data Garmin Connect wrote itself is never touched. It runs in the background, overnight and whenever you open Keho.
From there, Keho turns the data into a readiness verdict each morning, statistics for every sport and training plans for running, cycling and yoga that adapt to your recovery. There is no Keho account; everything is computed on your iPhone.
Avoid duplicate workouts
If a workout reaches Apple Health from two places, for example Garmin Connect and Strava, the Health app may show it twice. Pick one source per kind of data: in the Health app, open a category such as Workouts, tap Data Sources & Access and drag the source you trust most to the top. Keho also collapses the same workout from several sources when it counts your statistics, so your totals don’t double.
Common questions
Does Garmin sync sleep stages to Apple Health?
Garmin Connect’s own sharing sends sleep times rather than stages. To see Deep, Core and REM sleep from your Garmin in the Health app, use an app that writes them, such as Keho Garmin Sync. More in how to see your sleep stages on iPhone.
Can Apple Health data go into Garmin Connect?
No. Garmin’s connection writes to Apple Health; it doesn’t import from it.
Do I need Garmin Sync to use Keho with a Garmin?
No. Keho reads whatever Garmin Connect already shares with Apple Health, so statistics for every sport work with Garmin’s own sharing. Garmin Sync adds sleep stages, all-day heart rate and HRV, which make readiness more precise. See also training load explained.
Keho is an independent app and not affiliated with Garmin Ltd. Garmin and Garmin Connect are trademarks of Garmin Ltd. or its subsidiaries.