Recovering “malformed” Garmin fit file?

Triathlon Forum
1

I recorded an event yesterday that I will just say is “life significant” to me, however when I attempt to upload to Garmin Connect and Strava I get errors. Strava says “the upload appears to be malformed”, Garmin just says it doesn’t recognize the file type. Looking for some help on how to recover this.

I found something online that converts .fit to .csv (text file). Based on looking at it, there doesn’t appear to be anything grossly wrong. Converted some of my other .fit files to compare and I couldn’t identify the issue.

Any suggestions? I’m guessing some issue in the header; about the first 35 lines of the fit file is a header with software version, serial number etc. The overall is just under 6000 lines of data.

A few notes. I had several low battery warnings and finally stopped and saved the activity at about 10 hrs to avoid the Garmin dying in the middle of recording (in hopes of preventing a problem like this). While the battery very low the Garmin spontaneously stopped/paused at one point and then I manually restarted the recording. I was in very steep terrain all day ascending and descending multiple times, which possibly creating difficulties in getting coordinates. I don’t know if any of these could provide a clue to where/how the file is corrupted and how to fix it.

As I said, I would very much like to recover this and we be very grateful for any suggestions.

2

Make the fit file available first thing. Can be put through software to try and repair. Attach it to a reply and let people try? I will put it through some stuff I have if you want.

3

https://www.fitfiletools.com/#/top

can experiment with removing different fields to see what the problem is
.

4

Have you experimented with FIT File Tools? https://www.fitfiletools.com/#/top

If the file failed at its initial sync to Garmin Connect, then it is extra broken. In my experience, GC would always ingest a file that Strava struggled with.

5

I had the same thing happen after a race. Tried the tools, could not get them to work. Went to the Garmin forums. There was a user there that recovers stuff regularly for folks. Worked his magic and I was good to go.

You may want to start there.

6

I was hoping to find such a hero here on ST;)
.

7

Sent you a pm. I’ll give it a try. Software developer by trade.

Ken