Garmin Connect has no required subscription, so there is nothing to cancel to keep your data: ending the optional Connect+ plan ends its extra features, not your account. What can delete your data is a long gap in account activity. “If there is no activity on your Garmin account across all our sites and services for at least 2 years, your account will be deleted,” and wearing the watch does not count as activity. Export your data before you put the watch away.
Garmin’s pages checked: 24 October 2026. This page is general information, not legal advice.
Connect+ is optional
When Garmin launched Connect+ on 27 March 2025, it said: “All existing features and data in Garmin Connect will remain free” (Garmin Newsroom). Its owner’s manuals describe the plan as an add-on: “You can enhance the data, connections, and training available on your Garmin Connect account with a Garmin Connect+ subscription.” It brings Active Intelligence insights, LiveTrack+, Garmin Trails, live data for indoor workouts, extra training guidance, nutrition logging, a performance dashboard and badges (Garmin, Forerunner 570 manual).
Garmin’s subscription terms say a cancellation “will take effect at the end of your then-current subscription term”, after which you must stop using that subscription service. Neither the terms nor Garmin’s help pages say what happens to what you made with Connect+ features, such as nutrition logs or custom dashboard charts. If you rely on them, save what you need before the term ends.
The two-year clock
Garmin’s help centre lists what counts as activity on an account:
- Counts: logins, uploads from a device, purchases, engagement with Garmin’s marketing e-mails and community interactions.
- Does not count: “Use of a device”, and map updates that need no login.
So a watch you wear every day but no longer sync does not keep the account alive. Garmin sends several notifications to the account’s e-mail address before it deletes, and “Data cannot be restored after it is deleted.” Garmin adds that deleting an account removes the data of every Garmin site, app and service that uses it, such as Garmin Connect, Connect IQ and inReach. To keep the account, sign in at garmin.com/account; Garmin says that “logging in will show activity on the account so the auto deletion of the account will no longer occur” (Garmin Support, inactive accounts).
Garmin’s privacy policy says it keeps your personal data “as long as your Garmin account is considered to be active”, or as the law requires (Garmin Connect Privacy Policy, 9 January 2026).
Export before you stop
Garmin has three exports, and you may want all three (Garmin Support, export):
- The whole account. Go to Garmin Account Data Management, sign in, select Export Your Data, then Request Data Export. Garmin e-mails a download link: “Links typically are sent in 48 hours but can take up to 30 days.” Your activities are inside as FIT files, in the
DI_CONNECTfolder. - A day’s wellness files. On the Garmin Connect website, select your profile icon, Account Settings, Account information, pick a date and select Export. You get that day’s original FIT files, which Garmin says include “steps, sleep, stress, HRV and more”. This works one day at a time.
- Activities and reports. Each activity downloads as its original FIT file from its gear menu, and the activity list and reports export as CSV summaries.
Request the whole-account export early: with up to 30 days for the link, it is not something to leave to the last week. How to export your HRV data explains when an activity file holds beat-to-beat intervals and what to do with FIT files.
Ask for a copy
Garmin points first to its self-service portal, the Account Management Center, “to access, export, correct, or delete your data at any time” (Garmin Connect Privacy Policy). If the export leaves out data you want, ask for a copy:
- Where: in the EEA, the UK and Switzerland your data is controlled by Garmin Würzburg GmbH, and its EU Data Protection Officer is at euprivacy@garmin.com. Elsewhere, outside mainland China, it is Garmin International, Inc. at privacy@garmin.com (Garmin Connect Privacy Policy). Garmin says residents of “any U.S. state with a comprehensive privacy law” can ask for access or a portable copy, and that it may ask you to log in to confirm who you are (Garmin, Your Data Protection Rights).
- What to ask for: the data you see in the app, at the detail Garmin holds it. Garmin’s HRV Status chart shows how HRV changed through the night, and it reports “your highest HRV recorded for any 5-minute period during the night” (Garmin Technology). So name the overnight HRV readings behind HRV Status, all-day heart rate, stress, sleep stages, the dates and a format such as FIT, CSV or JSON. Wearable data rights explains why a copy should hold the data, not a summary, and where that argument stops.
- When: Garmin states no deadline of its own. Under the GDPR and the UK GDPR a company must answer within one month, extendable by two more where necessary because of the complexity or number of requests (GDPR Article 12). Under the GDPR the first copy is free (Article 15(3)); a company may refuse even a first request only exceptionally, if it proves the request was made with an abusive intention (Court of Justice, C-526/24).
A bar chart of response deadlines in calendar days, one bar per place, from 0 to 90 days. EU and EEA (GDPR): 1 month, up to 3 where necessary for complex or numerous requests. United Kingdom (UK GDPR): 1 month, up to 3 where necessary for complex or numerous requests. California (CCPA): 45 days, up to 90 when reasonably necessary, with notice. Brazil (LGPD): 15 days for the complete declaration. South Korea (PIPA): 10 days; may be postponed with a stated reason. Russia (152-FZ): 10 working days, up to 15 with a reasoned notice. Japan (APPI): “Without delay”: no number of days.
The data request letter builder has Garmin’s addresses and puts these points into a letter. Ask before an account reaches its two years of silence: a company owes only the data it still holds. If Garmin does not answer in time, wearable data rights sets out the reminder and the complaint routes where you live.