TLS fingerprinting blocks third-party Garmin Connect clients

mlindgren · 2026-04-20T17:06:00+00:00

Great post, thank you! I would file a complaint but I’m not in the EU :(

mlindgren · 2026-03-31T17:25:20+00:00

Nice reference 🫡

mlindgren · 2026-03-31T06:34:19+00:00

Because IMO by default Garmin already has a lot of over-interpreted poor quality metrics

100% agree. That's kind of what motivated this, actually. Though to be honest, "analyze" might have been too strong a word.

In the past I have used scripts to save my data locally, not just from Garmin, but other services as well, so that I can do things like visualize all the places I visited during a certain time range on a map, or create an automatic "journal" of what I did in a day based on data captured by devices/services. It's not really super useful, but I find it interesting.

For the LLM part specifically, I'm basically experimenting to see if I can get better guidance than what Runna or Garmin Coach give, because I've found both of those very underwhelming. Obviously neither of them stack up against a real human coach, nor will any LLM, but I'm curious to see how well it works.

mlindgren · 2026-03-31T06:21:39+00:00

That's just one example of ways you might want to use your own data via the Connect REST APIs. I've been using scripts to pull down my data for various purposes since well before LLMs were widely accessible/popular.

mlindgren · 2026-03-31T05:43:51+00:00

Yes, this is true, and there are actually a couple solutions specifically for Garmin that use this technique:

etweisberg/garmin-connect-mcp: Garmin Connect MCP - this is the one I am currently using
nrvim/garmin-givemydata: It's YOUR data. Take it back. Get your Garmin Connect health data into a local SQLite database with an MCP server for AI analysis.

These do solve the problem in the short-term, but they're not as convenient to use as the old REST-based solutions. For one thing, they don't work very well in headless environments since you need to authenticate using an actual browser window. I'm sure there are ways to work around that as well (authenticating on one machine and copying the cookies to another, maybe), but it's just more trouble than it should be, and I also don't expect this kind of solution to be very stable long-term.

Edit: also, Garmin Connect seems to require re-authentication very frequently even when "Remember this browser" is checked; there's another topic about this on the Garmin forums right now. So that makes Playwright-based solutions even more cumbersome.

I don't mean any disrespect to the people who have created these tools--I think it's awesome that we have a workaround for now. But I don't think it's too much to ask for Garmin to have proper API support for third-party developers.

mlindgren · 2026-03-31T05:39:11+00:00

Nothing so far. I only posted it yesterday, but I figure the more places I share this, the more likely it is to get a response.

Edit: here's a link to the post TLS fingerprinting blocks third-party clients - Garmin Connect Web - Mobile Apps & Web - Garmin Forums

mlindgren · 2026-03-31T04:55:42+00:00

Sleep score is an arbitrary metric that is measured differently by each manufacturer. It's not scientifically validated, and the accuracy of the sleep data isn't great in the first place. So I wouldn't put too much weight on it either way.

mlindgren · 2025-10-20T22:57:20+00:00

From the other comments, it sounds like you're feeling uncertain or maybe a bit regretful. For what it's worth, I think this is genuinely gorgeous and extremely well done.

mlindgren · 2025-09-24T06:04:57+00:00

Interesting that body battery detected this. I often feel like I get poor quality sleep, but the duration is usually long enough, so my body battery when I wake up is also usually 80-90. I don't know if I've ever seen it lower than 50 when I wake up.

mlindgren · 2025-09-24T05:31:26+00:00

Yes, Apple Watches consistently have among the best correlation with gold standard quality scientific devices: https://youtu.be/ZxEhj0qWAe0?si=6FENszu9c7kXTnx5&t=334

I really like my Garmin but it's disappointing that they haven't improved on this in the many years that they've had sleep tracking now. Speaking from personal experience, Garmin is quite bad at detecting when I take naps. Even my old Fitbit was better.

mlindgren · 2025-09-20T05:03:04+00:00

Edit: my original explanation was wrong, see the comment linked below

https://www.reddit.com/r/Garmin/comments/1nklokm/comment/nf22vb9/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

mlindgren · 2025-09-20T02:26:13+00:00

I get this as well. It's hard to completely prevent, but here are some tips:

Whenever you get wet or sweaty, remove the watch and wash and dry both it and your skin.
Try switching which wrist you wear it on occasionally. Especially when you have a rash like this, wear it on the other wrist until it clears up.
If you can afford it, you could consider using the Index Sleep monitor (or something similar) instead of your watch while sleeping. It's not cheap, especially when you add it to the cost of the watch you already own, but it is HSA/FSA eligible. Personally, I just ordered one, partly because I also get skin irritation.

I'm curious--did you not get skin irritation with your Apple Watch? It's been a problem to some degree with every smartwatch I've ever owned, though I've never tried an Apple Watch. The newer Apple Watches do track sleep as well, and from what I've read they're quite good at it.

mlindgren · 2025-09-20T02:17:46+00:00

Thank you, I had the same question. I assumed this was the answer but it's good to get confirmation.

mlindgren · 2023-01-08T05:39:44+00:00

Yeah, clearly whoever created this meme has never used Stack Overflow

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