You'll need to find someone sharing the gupdate.gcd file for firmware 21.22. You can drag and drop those onto the watches storage.
Alternatively, use the desktop app to install ovwr USB?
this post was submitted on 15 Mar 2025
80 points (98.8% liked)
Privacy
35642 readers
982 users here now
A place to discuss privacy and freedom in the digital world.
Privacy has become a very important issue in modern society, with companies and governments constantly abusing their power, more and more people are waking up to the importance of digital privacy.
In this community everyone is welcome to post links and discuss topics related to privacy.
Some Rules
- Posting a link to a website containing tracking isn't great, if contents of the website are behind a paywall maybe copy them into the post
- Don't promote proprietary software
- Try to keep things on topic
- If you have a question, please try searching for previous discussions, maybe it has already been answered
- Reposts are fine, but should have at least a couple of weeks in between so that the post can reach a new audience
- Be nice :)
Related communities
much thanks to @gary_host_laptop for the logo design :)
founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
I bought a Garmin Forerunner 255 watch that I want to use only with Gadgetbridge. There is an old software version on the watch and I want to update it and I don't want to connect it with Garmin Connect or Garmin Express app?
I have looked for the possibility to do an “offline” update but have not found it. Maybe the community will help?
The latest version is 22.24 but I can't find it anywhere gupdate.gcd file. As I wrote I don't want to use the Garmin Express app.
It does not really answer OP's question, but there are alternative OSs for consumer devices. I found one: https://wiki.asteroidos.org/index.php/Category:Watches
I know the project and keep my fingers crossed for it, but they currently support very old watch models that are not sporty.
Just curious, what features work and what do you have to miss out on by foregoing Garmin connect? On their website Garmin devices are generally listed as partially supported, and I'm not sure what that entails.
The official website is not updated particularly often so I check here https://codeberg.org/Freeyourgadget/Gadgetbridge/commits/branch/master/search?q=garmin&all=
Thanks, I'll keep an eye on it and consider if I should give it a shot.
I've just spent the last week with Gadgetbridge for my Forerunner 265.
Previously I had Garmin Connect installed on a separate Android user profile with Google Play Services enabled (GrapheneOS). I would only go in there once a week or so and look at the Garmin info as it synced over.
Gadgetbridge is working pretty well - the great majority of everything I actually cared about viewing is accessible. I also have an always on BT connection for notifications and music controls which I was missing out on before.
That said, there are a few drawbacks
- Garmin presents the date better.
Gadgetbridge often uses bar charts for time-series data where Garmin uses a line chart. e.g. Stress is a series of 1px thin vertical lines with colour to indicate bands. Garmin's single line which swaps colour is far clearer.
- GPS data is not overlaid on a map
Its easy enough to open the GPX file in an external map viewer, but you can't see its alongside heart rate etc and the track won't be heatmapped for speed as in Garmin.
Personally, I'm willing to live with these compromises for the privacy, certainly for another few months trial.
As it seems easy to setup a regular export of Gadgetbridge data, I might make it a coding project to implement better visualisations in Python.
Thank you for your feedback. It has reassured me that I am heading in the right direction.
As it seems easy to setup a regular export of Gadgetbridge data, I might make it a coding project to implement better visualisations in Python.
Will you make this project available to the public?
Try. What do you have to lose?
I used to update my Fenix 3 by downloading BIN files from Garmin website and just dropping it onto the watch's filesystem.
From EPO I used https://github.com/scrapper/postrunner
Just use the regular Garmin account and Bluetooth to your phone every 2 weeks to sync for health data use storage scopes and permissions to stop unwanted data collection, use privacy settings in the app, fake account. Be done. Never use support they will dox you.
use storage scopes and permissions to stop unwanted data collection what does it do?
Permissions stop what the app can and cannot access in your phone, and storage access allows what the Garmin app can and cannot access in storage of data. Keeps your app more private with the added benefit of perhaps running leaner on your device.