Guide

Ride showing up twice on Strava? Here's why — and the fix

You finish a Zwift session and Strava shows the ride twice: once from Zwift, once from your Garmin. It happens to everyone who records indoor rides on two devices. Here is what's going on and how to end up with one complete activity instead.

Why it happens

Both Zwift and Garmin Connect auto-sync to Strava. Record the same session on both, and both platforms push their own copy — two activities covering the same hour of riding. Strava sometimes flags one as a duplicate, but often both stay, doubling your weekly distance and cluttering your feed.

The quick fix (and what it costs you)

Deleting one of the two rides works, but you lose whichever half of the data it carried: delete the Zwift copy and your power, cadence, and the Watopia route are gone; delete the Garmin copy and you lose heart rate, temperature, and the device-computed metrics like Training Effect. Turning off one platform's Strava sync has the same trade-off, permanently.

The better fix: merge the two recordings

1. Export the original FIT file from both Garmin Connect and Zwift.
2. Drop both into BikeSync — Garmin in slot A, Zwift in slot B. It aligns the timelines automatically and merges heart rate, physiology, power, cadence, and route into one .fit file, entirely in your browser.
3. Upload the merged file to Strava, then delete the two partial copies. One ride, all the data.

Full walkthrough: how to merge Zwift and Garmin FIT files.

Preventing the duplicates next time

If you merge regularly, disconnect one of the two auto-syncs to Strava (in Zwift: Settings → Connections; in Garmin Connect: Settings → Connected Apps) and upload the merged file yourself. Alternatively, leave both connected and just delete the partials after uploading the merged ride — Strava counts only what remains.