Garmin watch: EF Live — installation and setup

EF Live is a data field for Garmin watches: during a ride, the watch transmits your position and heart rate to the event’s live map. The phone stays in your pocket with the screen off — it serves as the communication channel. Supported models: fenix 7/8, epix (Gen 2), Enduro, Forerunner 955/965, Edge 540/840/1040/1050, vivoactive 5/6, and other models with Connect IQ 3.2+.

Step 1. Install EF Live on the watch

1. Open the Garmin Connect app on your phone → Menu → Connect IQ Store.
2. Search for “EF Live” and tap “Install” — the field appears on the watch. Or open the app’s page directly:

Step 2. Link the watch to your account

1. In the ENDURO.FAMILY app: Settings → Devices → Garmin watch → “Get a link code”. The 6-digit code is valid for 10 minutes.
2. In Garmin Connect: your watch → Activities & App Management → Data Fields → EF Live → Settings — enter the code in the link field and save.
3. Done: the watch exchanges the code for a key and appears in the app’s device list. You can unlink it there at any moment — transmission stops instantly.

Step 3. Add the field to a workout screen

1. From the watch face, hold the middle left button (MENU) → Activities & Apps.
2. Pick an activity (say, “Bike” or “Motocross”) → that activity’s Settings → Data Screens.
3. Pick a screen (say, “Screen 1”) → Edit Data Fields.
4. Tap the field you want to replace and scroll the category list all the way down — the “Connect IQ Fields” section comes after all the built-in ones. Inside is EF Live.

Before every ride

1. Open Garmin Connect on the phone and check that the watch is connected. You can then minimise the app, but don’t swipe it away from the app switcher.
2. Turn off Low Power Mode on the phone: in it, the system stops background apps more often, Garmin Connect included.
3. On iPhone, check that Background App Refresh is on for Garmin Connect (Settings → Garmin Connect), and that Bluetooth is on.

Step 4. Let’s ride

1. Outdoors, start an activity and wait until the watch gets a GPS fix (the green ring at the start). Indoors GPS won’t lock — and no points will flow.
2. On the first launch the watch asks for location permission for EF Live — be sure to allow it; without it the field gets no coordinates.
3. On the EF Live screen: at the top a timer since the start (handy for tracking time to a checkpoint), heart rate; at the bottom — a counter of transmitted points and the current time. Running orange bars = recording and transmission are on.

What happens after the ride

1. Finish the activity on the watch (“Save”) — the ride appears in the “My activity” log, and a notification arrives. No need to import a file manually.
2. If the connection dropped during the ride (Garmin Connect wasn’t running, the phone was far away or had no network), the watch stores points and sends them once the connection is back. The watch can hold about half an hour: after a longer drop part of the middle of the ride may not arrive, and the ride in the log will be shorter. The full track stays on the watch — see “The track in the app is shorter than on the watch” below.
3. If the ride was at your event, the ride becomes your track at it — the organizer will see it in the route review.
4. A ride outside any event is saved too — as a personal ride. You can turn that off with the “Record personal rides” toggle in Settings → Devices → Garmin watch.
5. Recorded with both the watch and the phone? It’s still one ride: the app stitches the track from the best stretches of both devices and takes heart rate and elevation from the watch. Under the ride title you can see how many sources it was assembled from. If it came out wrong (the watch was on someone else, the file is from another ride), open the ride menu and tap “Split recording”: the chosen source becomes a separate ride, and they won’t be merged again. While recording is on, the recording screen shows a “Watch transmitting” line with the current heart rate.

Want maximum detail (a point every second, elevations)? Export the activity from Garmin Connect and upload the file — it will refine the already created ride, not create a duplicate.

If the counter shows “0 pt” and doesn’t grow:

1. Most often there’s no GPS: get under open sky, restart the activity, and wait for the green ring before starting.
2. Check the location permission: Garmin Connect → watch → Data Fields → EF Live — permissions. After an EF Live update the permission may be asked again.
3. The phone must be nearby, with Bluetooth on and Garmin Connect running. If points accumulate but aren’t sent (the counter shows “+”) — check the phone’s internet and turn off VPN.
4. “enter code in app” — the watch isn’t linked: repeat step 2 with a fresh code.

The track in the app is shorter than on the watch

This means the watch lost its connection to Garmin Connect for a long time during the ride, and some points didn’t arrive. The watch itself recorded the whole ride — add it as a file:

1. Open the activity on connect.garmin.com → the cog icon at the top right → “Export to GPX”.
2. Upload the file to ENDURO.FAMILY via import (see “Importing GPX and FIT”). The file fills in the missing parts of the existing ride — no duplicate is created.
3. To get the whole track next time, go through “Before every ride”.

Past workouts recorded before EF Live was installed can be brought over by file import — see “Importing GPX and FIT from other services”. What happens with the heart rate the watch transmits is covered in “Heart rate and zones”.