How to sync Garmin with Samsung Health and Health Connect in 2026

Garmin Connect and Samsung Health are two of the most popular fitness ecosystems on Android, but they have never talked to each other directly. For years, the only workaround was a third-party app or manual data export. Since Android's Health Connect became the standard sync layer, the picture changed. Both apps now write to and read from Health Connect, which acts as the bridge. This guide shows you how to set it up correctly.

How the sync works (and what it does not cover)

Health Connect is not an app that processes your data. It is a local database on your Android device that apps can read from and write to, with your permission. Garmin Connect writes your workout, sleep, and health data to it. Samsung Health can read that data from it, and vice versa. The limitation is that only data types Health Connect supports are synced. Garmin-specific metrics like Body Battery, Stress, and Intensity Minutes are not part of the standard Health Connect data types, so they stay inside Garmin Connect only.

Step 1: confirm Health Connect is installed

On Android 14 and above, Health Connect is a system app and is already installed. On Android 13 and below, search for 'Health Connect' in the Play Store and install the official Google app. Open it once to initialize the data store.

Step 2: grant Garmin Connect write permissions

1. Open Garmin Connect on your phone.
2. Go to the main menu (three dots or hamburger icon, top left).
3. Tap 'Health Connect' or search for it under Settings.
4. Tap 'Connect' and grant all the requested permissions: steps, sleep, heart rate, workouts, body measurements.
5. Garmin Connect will begin writing data to Health Connect from this point forward. Historical data (past weeks) is typically backfilled within a few hours.

Step 3: grant Samsung Health read permissions

1. Open Samsung Health.
2. Tap your profile icon (top right) and go to Settings.
3. Tap 'Connected services' or 'Health Connect'.
4. Enable Health Connect and grant Samsung Health permission to read steps, sleep, heart rate, and activity data.
5. Open the Health Connect system app and verify Samsung Health appears under 'App permissions' with read access.

Step 4: verify the sync is working

• •Wait 5 to 15 minutes after setup before checking. Sync is not instant.
• •Open Samsung Health and navigate to Activity. You should see step counts from your Garmin device.
• •Check the Samsung Health home screen for sleep data. If you slept with your Garmin device, last night's stages should appear.
• •If data is missing, open Health Connect, go to 'Data and access', and check that Garmin Connect is listed as a data source with write permissions for each data type you expect.

Troubleshooting: common sync problems

• •Data not appearing in Samsung Health: check that both apps have battery optimization disabled. Android aggressively kills background apps; exempting them fixes most sync gaps.
• •Garmin Connect shows 'Health Connect unavailable': update both Garmin Connect and Health Connect to the latest version.
• •Steps doubled in Samsung Health: you may have both Samsung Health's built-in step counter and Garmin writing steps at the same time. Disable Samsung Health's own step tracking under Settings to use Garmin as the single source.
• •Workouts not appearing: workouts are a different data type from daily activity. Make sure Garmin Connect has permission to write 'Exercise sessions' in Health Connect.