You planned a route in Komoot or Strava, dropped your café, water and summit markers, and imported it into Garmin Connect. The line is there — but every waypoint you set is gone. Garmin auto-detects a couple of climbs, and that's it. No coffee cup, no water drop, no note.
It's a frustrating surprise, and it isn't your fault. Garmin handles on-route markers differently from the apps you planned in. Here's what's happening — and how to get your stops back.
Why your waypoints disappear on Garmin
On a Garmin Edge, the markers that pop up as you ride — "Food in 400 m", "Water ahead", a summit alert — are a special kind of point Garmin calls a Course Point. The plain waypoints Komoot and Strava save in a route aren't the same thing, so when you import that route, Garmin Connect keeps the line but quietly drops the markers. Your carefully placed café, water and viewpoint stops don't make the trip.
The result: import a normal Komoot or Strava route and your Edge shows the road but none of your stops — no way to tell where the coffee, the water or the climb is while you're riding.
How VeloPin fixes it
VeloPin's Garmin export prepares your route the way a Garmin Edge expects, so every waypoint arrives as a proper Course Point. Import it into Garmin Connect and your markers come through: cafés and food stops show a food icon, fountains show water, your climb tops show a summit, and the note you wrote rides along with each one.
Your notes come along too: open any course point in Garmin Connect and the note you wrote is right there — handy when you review or tweak the course before the ride. Just know the Edge itself announces each point by its name, so the name is what reaches you on the road (more on that below).
What you'll see, and what you won't
The everyday cycling stops come through cleanly — food, water, summit, caution, first aid. A few niche categories don't have their own Garmin icon, so they arrive as a plain named marker instead — still on the device, just a generic flag rather than a custom symbol. Nothing is lost.
How course points appear while you ride
As you approach a marker, the Edge beeps and shows a banner with the icon and the waypoint's name — then it disappears again after a few seconds. The course-point list shows names and distances only, tapping an icon on the map won't open it, and the note you typed stays in Garmin Connect — the Edge doesn't display it mid-ride. That's how Garmin works for every app — not a VeloPin quirk.
The practical move: put the message in the name. "Last water 30 km" as a waypoint name reaches you on the road; the same text as a note doesn't. Keep it short and front-loaded — the list cuts names after roughly 15 characters.
Step by step
- Plan or import your route in VeloPin and add your waypoints (water, food, summit, caution…) with names and notes.
- Click the Garmin export button — VeloPin prepares your route for Garmin and downloads it.
- Import it into Garmin Connect on a computer (Training & Planning → Courses → Import), then send it to your Edge.
One thing to know: import on the computer at connect.garmin.com, not by opening the file in the Garmin Connect phone app. The phone app drops the markers on a direct file import; the website keeps them — and once the route is in your account it syncs to the app and your Edge with everything intact.
The takeaway
Garmin doesn't lose your waypoints because anything's broken — it just expects them in its own form. VeloPin prepares your route that way for you, so your café, water and climb markers arrive on the Edge looking like what they are, announced by name as you reach them. One extra click, and your Garmin finally shows the route you actually planned.
Frequently asked questions
Why don't my Komoot or Strava waypoints appear on my Garmin Edge?
Garmin shows waypoints as course points using its own set of types. When you import a route from Komoot or Strava, the waypoint types often do not translate, so the markers disappear or arrive without the right icon and alert.
What are Garmin course points?
Course points are the waypoints a Garmin Edge displays along a course, each with a type such as food, water or summit that drives the icon and the turn-by-turn alert. If the type is missing or unrecognised, the Edge cannot show the marker correctly.
How do I get my waypoints onto a Garmin Edge with the right icons?
Open VeloPin, drop in your Komoot or Strava GPX, and it converts each waypoint into a Garmin course point with the matching type. Export the new file and load it onto the Edge through Garmin Connect or over USB.
Is VeloPin free to use for this?
The route planner is free and needs no account. Exporting the device-ready waypoint file is part of VeloPin Pro.